Next Generation Collaborations

FountainBlue’s July 9 When She Speaks women in leadership program was on the topic of ‘Next Generation Collaborations’. Please join me in thanking our hosts at Intel and our esteemed panelists. 

Our panelists all extolled the virtues of collaboration, having learned from a very young age that collaboration benefits everyone. They each spoke eloquently about the business results of collaboration, from improved innovation to improved quality, from improved customer satisfaction to more efficient delivery times.

Each panelists has deep experience building relationships to ensure ongoing collaboration and growth for all parties. Building deeper and broader networks also helps with the collaboration agenda, especially as projects and technologies become increasingly more complex.

The give and take of collaborative relationships within and outside the company will continue to be integral to a company’s expansion and growth as we enter the next normal. Predictions for that next normal include:

• The world will become increasingly more connected and we will all become more interconnected.
• There will be faster time-to-market requirements coupled with more complex, more personalized deliverables.
• Quality standards will continue to rise while the pressure for cost reduction also increases.

Therefore to remain competitive:

• Collaborate to innovate.
• Include divergent thinking and ideas.
• Build collaborations across the ecosystem.
• Collaboration to define new niche markets.
• Manage and lead so that more voices are heard so that the stage is shared.
• Build a culture of trust where teams work together to meet common objectives.
• Listen deeply to understand current and project customer and market needs.
• Have a clear end goal and rough path with milestones, but be flexible on how you can collaborate with others to deliver.

The bottom line is that collaboration makes everything better than the sum of the parts, so make a point of making every relationship better with each interaction.

Resources:

• 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni 
• Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companiesby Paul Zak
• Don Phin, Training, HR Hero

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