What is collaboration? It is always important to define collaboration for understanding its purpose and intent. I define collaboration as “two or more people working together to creating a richer and combined solution.”
What are the benefits of collaboration?
The benefits of collaboration include:
Buy in, input from others
Working together makes you all aim towards the same goal
Provides viewpoints of others
Provides a better solution
No 2 people have the same skill and background
We all bring our own experiences
Collaboration is a Value-Add to your company as it challenges people to think, promotes analysis and problem-solving from different perspectives (we all know the saying “2 heads are better than one”). When done right, collaboration delivers powerful results.
So why do so many efforts to increase collaboration fail? There are 2 things that you need to ask before you set up a team:
It has to be done at the right time (timing is everything),
It is important to be prepared with your goals/objectives for requesting meaningful clarification and what to ask of your team.
Collaboration is important in the workplace as it can achieve an increase in job satisfaction by creating strong employee ties, feeling good about working as a team and the added satisfaction of generating solutions together.
Written by:
Marcia O'Connor
Owner at AMFM Consulting Group Inc.
