Teamwork and collaboration aren’t exactly new to humans. Long before anyone in the workplace thought to formalize teams and teamwork, humans learned how to hunt in groups to ensure the survival of early tribes.

Collaboration isn’t unique to humans, either; even the massive sequoias of the California redwood forests survive by collaboration in their root systems.

The word “collaboration” has become somewhat muddled and possibly overused in the modern workforce. Since the remote work pivot of the early 2020s, “collaboration” is often used to describe software allowing people to meet or share work across geographies. But even before the era of video meetings and Google Docs, teams were using methodologies like Agile and Kanban to collaborate on technology projects. Clearly, collaboration means more than just a software or technology platform.

We can all agree that collaboration can bring huge benefits to teams and work environments in the right circumstances. However, collaboration isn’t right in every circumstance, and learning how and when to use it is important for organizations that want to stay ahead of the competition.

The Stewart Leadership Focused Collaboration Model was developed to help leaders and organizations assess projects and situations for collaboration opportunities. This model was influenced by Morten T. Hansen’s excellent book Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results (Harvard University Press, 2009).

Step One: Identify Opportunities

As we said, not every circumstance, project, or opportunity calls for collaboration. To assess which opportunities are right for a collaborative approach, look at four variables:

• Newness: If a situation is brand new or unprecedented, or if a required solution is something the company has never uncovered before, multiple viewpoints and skill sets can be helpful.
• Impact: If the issue or situation has the potential to significantly impact the organization—large cost savings, significant revenue increase, or a big shift in market share—creating a team to work on the issue is the smart approach.
• Speed: Remember, under normal circumstances, collaboration tends to take longer than working alone. If a solution requires a quick turnaround, collaboration may not be the best option. (Exception: Collaboration can work if a team can work within a clearly defined sprint and meet a tight deadline with a very targeted goal.)
• Effort: When a situation or solution requires multiple skill sets or a large amount of effort, it makes sense to create a team that can distribute the workload, align, and follow up on all the necessary work.

Only when all these variables are assessed together can it be established whether work is a good candidate for collaboration. For example, if the impact is high but the effort required is low, and the situation isn’t particularly new, it may make sense to assign the work to an experienced individual contributor.

Step Two: Manage Barriers

Once opportunities have been identified as good candidates for collaboration, move those opportunities to step two and assess any potential obstacles or barriers to completion.

• Access: For collaboration to work well, everyone on the team needs smooth and easy access to information, systems, and people. With remote work and dispersed teams becoming more and more common, teams also need to be comfortable working asynchronously and sharing information in the cloud. It’s also important to make sure that no one on the team is resistant to sharing information. If any barriers can be mitigated or managed, collaboration can move forward.
• Ability: Collaboration requires not just the skills and knowledge of multiple people but also a willingness to communicate openly, respect different ideas and opinions, and operate with a growth mindset. If the culture is too competitive or full of conflict, other work may need to be accomplished before collaborative projects can move forward.
• Incentives: Rewards and incentives can be a powerful way to align the team and motivate them to successful collaboration. However, it’s important to ensure the entire team has some potential reward—not just each individual contributor. Methods such as peer review can help identify and reward team members who are encouraging the success of everyone on the team.

Just because a potential collaboration has barriers to completion doesn’t mean that it should be abandoned or turned into a project for an individual contributor. Rather, identifying barriers and making the team aware of these obstacles can help them and their leaders manage the barriers and mitigate their impact to the project.

Step Three: Create Solutions

Finally, before charging ahead with a team project, consider whether collaboration is the best way to achieve the best results by looking at people, timing, and goals.

• People: Identify the people you would like to participate in your collaboration. Do they have the right skill set? Is there enough diversity of ideas and skills? Clarify roles, designate a leader, and create oversight for reporting. Finally, if the same gifted collaborators keep showing up on teams over and over, look for new people to participate. Not only will this approach help develop others across the organization, it will also give those familiar collaborators a well-earned rest so they can avoid burnout.
• Timing: Collaboration often results in many meetings, which can drag out a project and delay completion. Establish a clear timeline with checkpoints, clear boundaries, and deliverables.
• Goals: Ensure that team members’ individual goals align with the overall project goals. In other words, don’t force team members to choose between pursuing individual goals or performance metrics at the expense of collaboration, and don’t make the collaborative goals so all-consuming that team members sacrifice their personal performance goals.

Collaboration is only one approach to getting results for the business. It’s true that collaboration can result in higher quality decisions and better buy-in, but only when desired results are clear from the outset. If any of the above variables simply can’t be resolved to fit into a collaboration, an individual or consultative approach may work better.

If you’re struggling to determine whether a project is appropriate for collaboration, download our Focused Collaboration Model worksheet. This worksheet will lead you through the above variables to clarify your thinking and help you find the right collaborative projects for your team.

SELF CHECK:

1. Do we rely on a collaborative approach too much? Not enough? Why?
2. Is there one thing we can do to make collaboration smoother in our organization?
3. How can we encourage leaders and teams to better assess collaborative projects?