When I ask business people, What is collaboration?, their answer is almost invariably, “Collaboration means working together.” Although that’s true at a high level, collaboration means much more than just working together. In fact, there are a number of specific skills that when learned and applied can greatly impact how effective collaboration can be.
Here are eight essential skills for raising the effectiveness of collaboration that in turn impact the effectiveness of execution.
1. Communication Perhaps more than any other skill, communications can make or break a project. It can be the source of strong alignment and synchronization between moving parts of a complex project, or it can be the source of ambiguity, confusion, misdirection and assumptions run amuck.
Acquiring great communications skills allows people to build strong rapport with others and to be interpersonal and engaging throughout interactions. Deeper rapport and engagement lets people build deeper trust with colleagues, which in turn makes challenging their thinking and holding them accountable for commitments more effective. That’s key when involved in execution.
Additionally, collaboration can often require people to be clear and concise about why, what, how and when things need to occur. Advancing communication skills lets people use data and fact-based information to communicate risks and to challenge work streams in a clear, contextualized way during execution. Great communicators know how to get to the point effectively while building engagement at the same time. But communicating is only half of the communication skill required for effective collaboration. Active listening is the other half.
2. Listening, Observing and Perceiving Meaning Also known as “Active Listening”, these three actions requires more energy and concentration. They require that the listener rely on all of their senses to take in data. The listener needs to fully concentrate on the speaker and what is being said rather than just passively 'hearing' the or listening to the words being spoken. In this mode, you pay close attention to the speaker’s tone of voice as it changes, their body language, facial movements, expressions, cadence and pace of speech. It takes practice and delivers powerful results.
With the information gathered from listening, observing and perceiving meaning the listener not only takes in more information, but they process that information towards a deeper understanding. They are able to interpret the meaning behind the words and infer intentions. The information can be used to ask better, deeper questions in all areas of business conversations. The listener can cue in on the emotional and psychological state of the speaker, allowing them to empathize and connect more deeply regardless of whether they agree or disagree with what’s being said.
3. Advocacy is the skill of relating one’s belief and point of view in such a way as to reveal the logic behind their assumptions. It’s about helping others see what another sees and why they see it that way. It includes sharing what one observes which becomes the basis of their interpretation, then their assumptions and then their conclusions. This is the most effective way to allow another person to fully understand what and why another person believes what they are saying. And if a situation involves negative consequences in relation to what others are doing, advocacy is about identifying the consequence without attributing blame or intent.
4. Inquiry is the mirror image of advocacy. It is the skill of knowing how to ask questions in such a way as to reveal the other person’s observations, values at play, interpretation, assumptions and conclusions. With this skill others are encouraged to identify possible gaps or errors in one’s thinking should they exist. And if a situation involves difficulty with the behavior of another, inquiring about what leads them to act a certain must be sincere and with a belief that the other person may have a reasonable answer.
5. Speaking From Values is essential to getting to the point and focusing on what matters most. By learning to identify what matters most in any given moment and discussion, and to speak from that truth verses speaking from emotions, we avoid becoming defensive, sharing emotional reactions, and blaming others. Instead conversations stay focused on what matters most, the task at hand. In difficult conversations our thoughts often become angry, defensive and downright toxic as we rail internally against the perceived arrogance or insanity of the other person. In reality, those thoughts are our emotional reaction to something the other person said that steps on, offends or violates something that matters to us. Something of value. But that is an emotional reaction. It is not our values at work. It is not the “truth”. Our real truth lies in a deeper place connected to our values and to what matters most to us in that moment. That deeper truth is always honest, always respectful and never toxic.
6. Negotiation skills require understanding relationships and stakeholders’ interests. However, more than communications, it requires specific skills and techniques to help people move from surface level positions to more deeply held interests. It is at the level of these interests where common ground can be found. Additionally, collaboration requires political savvy to manage communications and interactions between actors in order to coordinate action. This in turn requires tactful compromise and the skills to bring people together to settle any disputes.
All collaboration will require consensus building and compromise. Negotiation skills are core to achieving both. Negotiation skills provide lubricant to the resolution of differences as people work together.
7. Escalation is essential to lifting roadblocks that occur between different parties during execution. The issues arise when escalation is done by one party without the involvement of the other. This creates mistrust between people and their teams and can slow down or even close down the cooperation and collaboration required for successful execution. Those involved in execution should share a common understanding and method for escalating disagreements and/or roadblocks as they occur. The answer lies in having all parties involved recognize that a disagreement or roadblock exists and agreeing together to take the issue to the next level of governance for a decision. No one feels left out of the process. No one feels that another has gone behind their back to lobby leadership for their position.
8. Clear Agreements are the lifeblood of successful execution. It’s about clarifying who is going to do what by when. But too often, agreements and commitments are made without enough rigor and follow through. Making agreements that stick and getting the follow through needed for success, is a skill to be learned. An agreement or commitment is a contract between two people wherein one is making a request and the other is accepting the request and will commit time and energy to fulfill the request.
Before accepting a request the person accepting should believe they understand the commitment fully, that they have the resources and skills to fulfill the request, and intend to apply their energy to plan and mitigate risks. If the person accepting the request does not seek this level of clarity, the person making the request can ask the other person if they have considered these points before they accept the request.
Fulfilling a request is always conditional. No one can ever guarantee the fulfillment of a request because no one is in complete control of all the variables surrounding the situation. Sometimes, stuff happens. As such, fulfilling a request is always conditional. However, honoring a request is always unconditional. Even when a request cannot be fulfilled, the person who accepted the request can honor it by alerting the person who made the request immediately upon knowing fulfillment is at risk. They can apologize, offer an explanation and inquire about any potential damage caused by not fulfilling the request as originally stated. They can then negotiate to minimize damages and offer to make any reparations. Finally, the person who accepted the original request can renegotiate the terms of fulfillment and recommit. By doing so, the acceptor always takes care of the creditor (the person who made the request).
CONCLUSION
Collaboration is more than just working together. To make it effective and a real contributor to raising productivity, it requires specific skills designed to manage the complexities of interpersonal interaction. Great communications, listening, advocacy, inquiry, speaking from one's values, negotiation and escalation comprise the core skillset needed to take collaboration to the next level.
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