When you think about the word ‘collaboration’, what kind of emotion does it evoke?
For many people, collaboration means working together. It means sharing and partnership and the positives are easy to see. For those people, the idea of sharing the load and bringing different perspectives and skills together on a new project or piece of work can feel quite energising.
But for others, the idea of working with other people can feel inefficient, invasive and time consuming. Rather than being a wonderful shared experience, they see only hurdles, delays and hard work.
Different teams have different styles and ways of working. Within a team there may have a shared language and a depth of knowledge and history, and trust in each other. There are likely to be different skills sets and experiences that a team has become familiar with.
When different teams come together, each team will bring something different to the table. However, these differences may not naturally fit easily together if left to their own devices.
Collaborating well takes time and consideration, and has to be for the right reasons. Without a little thought, collaboration can, and does, go wrong. It’s why so many people feel that it is easier to get on with doing things alone, or within their own team and prefer to not rely on a different team.
Without a plan to overcome the challenges of collaboration, frictions may emerge. Teams may be co-existing rather than truly collaborating.
Collaboration as a negative rather than a positive
This was some of the back drop for an Away Day we facilitated for a public sector organisation in Bristol.
The plan was to work on restructuring and reimagining of the vision and strategy for the organisation. Teams across several departments needed to work out how they could collaborate together into the future, to drive efficiency in the organisation.
Some people perceived being told they had to collaborate as a cost cutting exercise. In other words, not something to be excited or optimistic about. There was a certain amount of defensiveness in the group. There was a lot of “well they don’t understand the way we work” and “we don’t do that kind of thing”. Understandably, there was a feeling of frustration and desire to protect the different department identities which weaved its way into many of the initial conversations on the day.
To preserve a sense of neutrality, we held the Away Day at a neutral location.
With some careful re-framing, questioning and planned exercises, the day and the conversations progressed. People began to see the opportunities, and the commonalities between them. They started to understand that many of the perceived differences were not really as huge as they had imagined.
We started with questions that focused on the strengths within the teams that they could each bring to any collaborations,. We also ensured there was space to acknowledge the fact that there was already some collaborative work successfully taking place. People were asked to consider what opportunities collaborative working could bring about and what their similarities were.
To avoid silos, we mixed teams across the different departments. One of the insights that emerged was realising how similar their approaches were once they were no longer focused on their differences.
We then moved on to thinking about a particular area of work (in the health and wellbeing space) that was organisation wide with the aim of generating ideas from the whole group as to the kinds of collaborative opportunities there might be in this area. Finally, mixed groups of people took some of these ideas forwards to flesh out some concrete actions as to how these collaborations might work.
By the end of the day the group had a whole range of ideas for pieces of work they could collaborate on. They had spent quality time getting to know more about each other and the different departments. They had a new appreciation of the different ways of working and focuses for each team.
The key to this successful Away Day
The key to this successful Away Day (and longer term benefits) was giving people from different departments the time and space to talk and listen to each other. With a focus on what they shared rather than what was different, they were able to understand more about what each department did in a way that they hadn’t done before.
They began to see how they had different but complementary skills and experiences to bring to the table. They appreciated how they could develop and advance the organisation’s work in the area of health and wellbeing, which would in turn have a greater overall impact.
Seeing what might be possible through collaborating shifted the focus away from the day to day details of what each team did alone, to the bigger picture of what they could do together.
To gain this kind of shift in approach to collaboration, it is necessary to create the space and opportunity for people to start understanding each other.
How did we help our client overcome the collaboration challenges in this Away Day?
One key aspect that helped in this, was the decision to hold the Away Day off site. While it does add an extra layer of logistics, the benefits of a neutral space really are worth it. People feel more equal when they aren’t navigating a space that is ‘owned’ by one group.
Another vital aspect of the successful Away Day was the considered approach to tackling the issues only after spending a good amount of time learning about each other and reframing the situation. This is one area that our facilitation expertise proves invaluable. We took time to understand the potential blocks before the Away Day. We created a plan to disarm even the most cynical of people. In doing so, we were able to turn one single day into a complete refresh of the way the teams worked together.
The ripple effects of that one day will likely be felt for many projects to come. While there will be plenty more challenges to overcome, collaboration won’t be one of them!
To bring our expertise to your next Away Day or to help you overcome collaboration challenges, get in touch.
