Nov 9, 20206 min read

No Collaboration = No Success

The last couple weeks have been quite busy for me; filled with learning about a new company and new colleagues, understanding the specifics of the services and products I represent, and hearing about the processes and nuances we employ to achieve success. As I stepped away from sharing ideas related to collaboration, I was working on generating it myself. So, apologies for the wait time for our second blog in the series on COLLABORATION.

For those who want to condense the entire blog message into one single truth: if you cannot achieve collaboration among your teams, flush the idea of achieving success down the toilet.

Tough love, I know. But, if you think about any relationship you have - spouse, child, parent, best friend, whatever - if you can't find a way to talk to and work with that individual, you can't move forward.

For those of you looking for a bit of meat on the bones of collaboration and where it impacts us, keep reading.

How are you feeling

While I was away, my thoughts were still churning on the challenges surrounding collaboration and getting teams to work together towards a common goal. I started thinking how I personally feel when I'm working in a team with strong collaboration skills; and, more importantly, how I feel when collaboration eludes that team. I made a list of the emotions that are connected to both instances.

I know, some folks might say feelings schmeelings. They might think, "Who cares about how you feel, it is all about what you do that matters". And I agree, when it comes to delivering success inside an organization, your actions are everything. However, it all starts with how you feel.

How people feel and perceive the world around them directly impacts their decisions and actions.

Personally, when I am feeling valued, I gain confidence and creativity. I start putting forward more ideas and solutions. I'm more inclined to talk through those ideas with colleagues and feel that in turn, colleagues welcome the discussion. They start feeling like they are part of a big-picture solution and they become more supportive. The received support turns on my generosity and desire to give back - I become more supportive and start asking how I can bear some of the load they are carrying. At the end of the day, I feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfilled - as though what I am working towards has meaning. My colleagues likely feel the same way. We have more joy and happiness, and we are all a bit more eager to start the next day and bring our very best.

The flip side to this is when I'm part of an organization that doesn't have a collaborative culture, I start to feel disconnected from my colleagues. It starts with feeling as though I have nothing in common with them, and my ideas are out on an island. The lack of connection leads to less conversations and willingness to share my thoughts, which translates to them as though I don't like them. Further down on the spiral, I start questioning myself and my abilities, and lose confidence. This leads to pessimistic and unenthused thoughts and behaviors. I stop caring about the work I'm doing, I start looking forward to 5:00 and no longer am bringing my best. This starts to spiral, because I start to see the worst of myself, and those around me see it too. Worst outcome is they start to do the same thing - because misery loves company.

The feelings of one, invariably will cascade to others. And then you have a team of people who don't feel supported by one another and struggle to work together. Collaboration has been killed.

As I started to consider these feelings, I saw some correlations to specific impact areas. Even if you have an organization with pockets of people who find the ability to get things done together, if the overarching culture is struggling with collaboration, the manifestation is in 3 CORE AREAS. They are the 3 MOST IMPORTANT areas of our businesses. The WHO, the HOW and the WHAT.

People

People are the MOST VITAL asset of any company. Naturally, this area will be directly impacted the most by lack of collaboration. Additionally, when your organization suffers in this area, it will cascade into the rest of the business.

High Turnover

Without strong collaboration in teams and between teams, your turnover will start increasing. Let's look back at some of the emotions tied to lack of collaboration: isolation, limitation and lack of enthusiasm. When people get to this point, they leave. Unfortunately, it is typically the best and strongest talent that leaves first. The team remaining is left picking up the work not getting done, and really missing some of their former colleagues. They begin struggling to get all the work done, as they are overly burdened and work is slipping through the cracks. The impact will be a different set of emotions (frustration, disappointment in themselves and their ability to deliver, and lack of support). The end game is the same: more departures. The team and organization will begin to hemorrhage.

Recruitment

We live in a digital world where information is 100% accessible. And just like customer reviews, employees write reviews on current and former employers. They say "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". Well, it is the same for dissatisfied and de-valued employees. Following high turnover, you expect to see terrible reviews on sites like Glassdoor. This can be a killer to even get prospects to want to interview.

Not only will the organization be suffering from some bad PR, but sometimes what people don't say can hurt recruitment. An interview is a two way street - the employer is evaluating if the candidate is a good fit; and, the candidate is determining if this is where he/she wants to spend 40+ hours per week. If the person on the other side of the desk interviewing the candidate is feeling frustrated, de-valued or pessimistic; they will struggle answering the question "What do you love about working here".

Leadership

I had a boss once say to me, "I didn't hire you for the job for which you interviewed; I hired you for the next one in our organization." Good leaders are always looking for the next leaders; they are always thinking about how to grow their people and how to attract good people.

But, even with some amazing leaders among the ranks, if your organization is struggling with collaboration it will hit your leadership.

Good leaders will leave, depending on how high up the vine collaboration has died.
Back filling leadership roles in an organization struggling with turnover, you either end up with people who aren't ready or you end up with no hand-raisers.
Filling from outside the organization can be tough as well, as this can send terrible internal messages and it slows down the learning curve. It will cost more as well.

No matter what, the impact to leadership is costly and painful to solve.

Process

So, we've talked about the WHO. Which, as mentioned, without the WHO - our people - we have nothing. And when we get cracks in the armor of our People, the Process will start to crack as well.

The cracks show in either HOW or WHEN.

So here we are, losing people from our ranks. But the work load is the same - we haven't lost customers or orders (yet), and they need tending to. That work gets spread to those who are left in the company.

HOW do I get work accomplished when there are less people to help pitch in? "There's a process for that." We see things slipping and failing around us, and we start to create processes. These processes start overcomplicating things, and create even more work for the few hands left.

WHEN starts to become the word everyone is asking, because we start seeing long impact cycles.

"When will my orders show up", or "When will my sales person call me back", asks the customer.
"When will orders be placed", or "When will invoices be paid", asks the C-Suite of the company.

Product

Our final area, typically the crown jewel of any organization is is the product. This is THE thing we tout the most and spend our marketing $$ promoting. It is THE thing we do better than our competition.

Depending on what type of business you are in, your product is either QUALITY or CUSTOMER SERVICE.

If you start losing collaboration, the impact to a manufactured product is two-fold: DESIGN and QUALITY. As good people start leaving the organization, you lose brain power. Lack of collaboration also means the death of creativity and innovation - you no longer are solving for your customers problems of tomorrow. You just solving for the same problems you solved for last year. The team stops trying as hard, possible design flaws are missed (because it wasn't a problem last year), and eventually your quality is hurt.

If your business is service based, the ultimate impact is your client's needs won't be met. The team doesn't have enough time to serve all of the customers. Reports on leading indicators aren't reviewed as often, and Service Levels aren't met in the timely fashion on which you built your brand.