“True collaboration begins inside the individual – not the organization”
Collaboration is a key element in corporate culture and for achieveing extraordinary performance in teams and leader groups. We have used this technique in a variety of ways that help company’s become more successful:
- As a structure for aligning leader groups
- As a module within larger leadership training programs
- Company-wide collaboration training
Feel free to ask us for references!
About the technique:
Few things can sabotage the business faster than poor collaborative skills, and nobody accomplishes much alone these days. It doesn’t work with manipulation – it only works through strong collaborative relationships.
In the late 1980s a pilot project, funded by the Hewlett Foundation and the State of California, aimed at teaching collaborative skills in adversarial employment environments, was able to produce dramatic and sustainable results that can easily be made applicable in any other organization.
California’s Public Employment Relations Board documented an average 67% reduction in conflict in 94 different organizations over three years. Independent research conducted by the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California, Berkeley documented a 69% reduction in adversarial relationships, and a 52% increase in high trust among participants.
The five essential skills that were found to be essential in building strong collaborative relationships also helped individuals from nine countries become almost 50% more effective at reducing their defensiveness and getting their interests met in conflict.
The five skills are:
1. Collaborative Intention: Stay non-defensive and commit to mutual success in relationships.
2. Truthfulness: Create a climate of honesty and openness that allows people to feel safe enough to discuss difficult issues.
3. Self-Accountability: Take responsibility for the consequences of your actions.
4. Self-Awareness and Awareness of Others: Know yourself and others well enough to explore difficult interpersonal issues.
5. Problem- Solving and Negotiating: Negotiate your way through inevitable conflict.
Using a variety of teaching strategies such as brief lectures, interactive exercises, guided imagery, selfassessment checklists, small group planning sessions, large group debriefing sessions, and individualized action planning, the participants will see how subtle differences in their fundamental approach to problem solving either supports or sabotages their collaborative efforts. Participants will be able to identify their own top three defensive behaviors blocking their effectiveness in collaborative relationships. This becomes an early warning system for participants.
Participants will then learn several strategies for reducing their defensive behaviors. Participants will also learn the negotiation process that was most responsible for the dramatic success of this pilot project, by going through a planning process using one of their own current negotiations or conflicts.