Collaboration Best Practices

FountainBlue’s September 13 When She Speaks event, on the topic of ‘Collaboration Best Practices’. Below are notes from the conversation.

We were fortunate to have such a diverse, inspiring and experienced panel of leaders speaking on a range of collaboration concepts. They represented a range of educational backgrounds, corporate experience, and cultural and entrepreneurial backgrounds, but they had much in common.

• They each leveraged collaboration to bring out the best in themselves and in others. 
• They are each experts at drawing on the experience and backgrounds and perspectives of others, while focusing on common issues and problems.
• They are each passionate about learning and growing, and committed to spreading their learnings to others.

Below are some thoughts they shared about the benefits of collaboration:

• Collaborating with others leads to greater results for all.
• Collaborating with others who are different than you brings great value still.
• Business issues ranging from problem-solving to decision-making, from brainstorming to conflict resolution can be resolved through collaboration.

Each panelist emphasized that leaders who can best facilitate collaboration will consistently bring better results. Below is some advice on how to better encourage collaboration.

• Understand the background and motivations of others, so that you can better work towards a common goal.
• Identify criteria and factors of importance for a project’s success.
• Ensure that the data you use is valid and true. That data’s integrity is critical to the success of any project.
• Larger networks are not necessarily better, but more diverse networks generally can be better. So encourage diversity of thought in your team, for your projects, in your life.
• Be inclusive of others. Help others feel comfortable contributing.
• Focus on the needs of the customer. Ask your internal staff, your partners and your customers how you can best serve their needs.
• Clear, transparent, true communication is critical for all effective collaborations. 
• All successful collaborations rely on mutual trust.

Here are some final thoughts around collaboration.

• Be humble. Be open. Be a lifelong learner who believes you can learn from anyone, from every experience.
• Have a good attitude. Your Attitude and Your Aptitude will define your Altitude.
• Empathy is the new superpower. Be empathetic to those around you. Understanding everyone’s point of view, and having compassion for their pain-points and challenges will help you better understand yourself and your project.

Resources:

• HBR – On Collaboration https://www.amazon.com/Collaboration-featured-Intelligence-Leadership-Boyatzis-ebook/dp/B00ATLM04Y

• https://connectedcommons.com/ 

  Research highlights include the published reports, “Invisible Network Drivers of Women’s Success”, “Networks for Agility”, “Accelerating Transitions: Initiate, Engage, and Refine Networks for Success in New Roles”, “The Invisible Network Strategies of Successful People: Counterintuitive Ways to Innovate, Execute and Thrive at Work”, “Collaborative Overload”, etc.

  https://connectedcommons.com/research-highlights/ 

• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari 

See bios and invitation at https://www.tikkl.com/fountainblue/c/collaboration

Please join me in thanking our panelists and our gracious hosts at Western Digital for FountainBlue’s September 13 When She Speaks event, on the topic of ‘Collaboration Best Practices’:

• Facilitator Linda Holroyd, CEO, FountainBlue 
• Panelist Marilyn Becker, Director, People Analytics, Western Digital
• Panelist Win Chang, Cloud Customer Experience Director, Oracle
• Panelist Karthi Gopalan, Product Line Director, Mobile Power BU, Maxim
• Panelist Shalini Kasliwal, Founder and CEO, JoinEight
• Panelist Shveta Miglani, Head of Global Learning and Development, Micron

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