The collaboration conundrum. Why does it have to be so hard?

We facilitate workshops and planning days for large and small groups from the public and private sectors. We’ve done many of them over the last few years, and it’s one of my favourite parts of this job because I get to work with different interesting groups of people and get an insight into whatever fascinating field of work they are focused on.

But…if I had a dollar for every time I heard ‘we need to collaborate more’ followed by ideas like… ‘invite everyone to all the meetings’ or ‘present at each other’s meetings’ or ‘knowledge sharing sessions’….well, I’d probably be able to retire!

It’s not that those ideas are bad. But there’s a reason they come up every single time, and yet, 12 months later, we are back again, scratching our heads, wondering why nothing has changed. Usually, it’s the combination of the following three things:

1. None of those ideas got implemented because life got in the way.
2. A couple of ideas were tried but didn’t actually make a big difference to how people collaborate, so they were dropped pretty quickly.
3. It’s really hard to change the status quo, especially if it takes some upfront effort.

Why is it so damn hard to collaborate?

We are social beings. We’ve evolved through relying on each other and working together. Most people know it needs to happen. Most people agree it’s important. And frankly, most teams do it to some extent. But, still, every group we’ve ever worked with identifies this as one of their biggest challenges.

Why is collaboration so important?

First, why is collaboration so important? I recently read a story in Behavioural Scientist that was not only a cracking read but such an amazing example of the power of diverse expertise and ideas and the need to bust out of your silo and collaborate with others to achieve incredible things. Now, not many of us are trying to figure out how to vaccinate in a Taliban-led country, but sometimes the complexity of what we are trying to do might feel like it.

My energy policy buddies, for example – work in many different departments, agencies, distributors, retailers and advocacy groups. They are all doing their best to support the energy transition but are overwhelmed by all of the players involved. So, it creates lots of duplicated effort, a mismatch of initiatives and a murky, ineffective overall narrative, which ultimately confuses the Australian public.

Effective, well planned and genuine collaboration can help make sure we are drawing together many different perspectives and expertise to shape an outcome that is also more likely to be supported. Easier said than done though, right?

What is to be done?

Well, it is my observation that we are overthinking collaboration. Often, the basic conditions aren’t right, so it doesn’t matter how many brown bag knowledge sharing lunches you have. Start at the foundations and work up. You probably won’t need to go too far, and it won’t need huge amounts of time and effort – just some thoughtful focus.

First, I want you to ask yourself:

• What do we do that would benefit from more collaboration and what is better done as individuals?

The very wise Fiona Robertson, author of the excellent ‘Rules of Belonging’ points out that not all collaboration is valuable. And that too much can be just as damaging as not enough, because it can leave people in a paralysed state, unable move from collaborating to decision and action. So identify some tangible tasks so that you can really focus the effort.  

Then ask yourself:

• Where do we already collaborate well and how can we learn from that?

This is because most teams already collaborate in some way. We might not call it that, but most of us are working with others, sharing ideas, brainstorming, gathering insights and sense checking. How do you already do those activities? When do they feel like they come naturally, and why? It’s easier to build on what we are already doing than create something completely different!

Once you are clear on what collaboration really means for your team and when it going to be worth the effort, then you can get into the nitty-gritty of setting the foundations for a culture that has the right conditions to make collaboration part of ‘how we do things around here’ and, more importantly, something that genuinely adds value to the team’s outcomes.

We’ve got you

We’ve developed a ‘collaboration audit’ worksheet based on behavioural science principles to help you assess the key conditions needed to make collaboration a core part of your team’s business-as-usual. We recommend working through it together as a team. When generating ideas for action, challenge each other to ensure the ideas are both practical and achievable. Keep it simple and focused.

We are always happy to come back every 12 months to have repeated conversations about collaboration with you and your team. But honestly, what we’d love even more is to come back and hear about all the incredible ways you’ve kicked goals together—and how you plan to build on that success!