I read an online article discussing a new book on collaboration, and in it the author made some comments regarding “what smokers can teach us.” Intrigued, I read on.
In talking about the "Silo Syndrome" (in which employees in different departments, hierarchical levels or functions have little to do with one another), he used smoking as an example of a method which has proven to break down communication barriers.
Just as smokers congregating in outdoor enclaves strike up work-related conversation and get to know their roles and focal concerns within the company -- forming a kind of club of common interests -- technological tools can help employees find common ground. Instant messaging, video conferencing and other communication tools bring people together in a quick, casual exchange of information and ideas.
If you are not exploring (and installing the capabilities for) IM and the other tools requiring free Internet access, then you are indulging in old-school thinking. The benefits far outweigh the risks, as many successful companies have found.
There are 10 cultural elements that are typically present when collaboration is working in an organization:
· Trust -- To exchange ideas and create something with others, we must develop trust. This is a challenge, especially in competitive organizational cultures. Sharing -- Sharing what we know improves collective creation by an order of magnitude and therefore makes everybody more valuable.
· Goals -- Taking the time to agree on goals at the beginning of a collaborative project pays off exponentially by providing the impetus for shared creation.
· Innovation -- The desire to innovate fuels collaboration. In turn, collaboration enhances innovation. After all, why collaborate just to maintain the status quo?
· Environment -- The design of both physical space and virtual environments impacts innovation and collaboration.
· Collaborative Chaos -- While all people and organizations require some order, effective collaboration requires some degree of chaos. Collaborative chaos allows the unexpected to happen and generates rich returns.
· Constructive Confrontation -- Great collaboration requires exchanging viewpoints, and sometimes that means construction confrontation -- expressing candor about ideas. Collaborators must confront each other so that they can hash out their differences and make their shared creation better.
· Communication -- Collaboration is inextricably linked with communication, both interpersonal and organizational.
· Community -- Without a sense of community, we often lack comfort and trust. Therefore, community must be present for effective collaboration to occur.
· Value -- The primary reason we collaborate is to create value -- reducing cycle or product development time, creating a new market, solving problems faster, designing a more marketable product or service, or increasing sales.
I phoned my dad to tell him I had stopped smoking. He called me a quitter."
--Steven Pearl, comedian and director