Collaboration For Better Results

A group of four people collaborating around a white board.

Doug Post | October 13, 2023

Do you have a business challenge that could use some fresh ideas? Consider collaboration. When you collaborate with others, the group is focused on the common goal of creating something better together than one could create on their own.

In Collaboration, Morten T. Hansen lays out three simple steps to achieve effective teamwork:

  • Evaluate your opportunity to collaborate with others. Will you get better results by working with others on a project?
  • Look for potential barriers. What might derail the collaboration?
  • Tailor your plan with these barriers in mind. Have a good scope to direct the work. Include people who know how and want to work together and are not competing against each other.

Working together can help us see things from a new and different perspective. Be sure to choose a diverse group of thinkers as you pull your team together, considering people with varied roles and backgrounds. These team members will bring different assumptions and will challenge your current thinking and perspective.

As your group begins to work together, getting in sync is crucial. Take the time to thoroughly understand the problem at hand before you hop into problem solving. You may need to do what Pamela Meyer in The Agility Shift calls “going slow to go fast.” The better your group understands the problem, the more quickly they will come up with viable solutions. Taking the time to go slow on the front end will help you achieve better results.

As you consider your needs and any current business challenges, where might joining efforts take you further and bring better results? Good leaders are not afraid to crowd-source new ideas or depend on the expertise of others. Let us know if you’d like to collaborate on your next electrical project or a topic like operational technology, cybersecurity, or smart manufacturing!