Building strong collaborative relationships is a challenge shared by many organizations. Whether your organization is global or spread across different locations in the same country the need is essential. Collaboration, much like any skill takes time to learn and develop. It is not by any means impossible, with willingness and openness it is achievable!
Today many employees work for organizations across different locations, time zones, or continents. Projects may involve several departments that need to work together and are at multiple locations. Technology and innovation help teams communicate, work together to produce projects efficiently within timelines, and even introduce a bit of fun, which builds camaraderie, and breaks down barriers.
What happens when there is a lack of collaboration across teams?
Ling Wong, writing for Workzone.com illustrates an example from Harvard Business Review of why collaboration is imperative across multi-site organizations.
Imagine you are a global manufacturer; you get a request from one of your major customers. They want you to customize a product. The product needs to go through multiple departments that are in different locations before it can hit the market. Each department works independently, on their own time-frame, making changes without conferring with each other. This leads to a slower less efficient process resulting in a loss of profit for the customer and your company.
In the end…
In an ideal scenario, each department works together, ensuring each modification made follows needed adjustments throughout the process.
The opposite happened in our example with each department making changes without consideration of how it would affect other departments, which lead to a continual cycle of changes. As a result, our company was not able to finalize an integrated design or provide the client with a fixed quote or delivery schedule.
This situation could happen to any multi-site organization if their department teams fail to collaborate.
1) Video Communication: Technology that enriches conversation
While it is undeniable that instant chat software has its advantages, it is not always the best tool for communication. Yes, emoticons have their limits too!
You may find that making a video call saves time and aggravation, especially when there is a disagreement or misunderstanding. What are the advantages of a video call?
Nicholas Malahosky writing for Targetprocess.com says a video call allows you to see a colleague’s emotions and facial expressions. These tools meet the needs of both large and small teams.
Another advantage of video calls is they enable team members to share ideas face-to-face despite being located in different states or continents.
In an article in Forbes.com, they cite research that supports the effectiveness of video conferencing. Writing for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cohen, Horowitz, and Wolf address a variety of studies evaluating the ability to memorize objects, numerals, and other information, showing that the visual recognition is more powerful than audio recognition.
In Forbes, a July 2017 study (sponsored by Zoom, a video conferencing provider) surveyed 300 business executives. They discovered that 62% of executives agreed that video conferencing is superior to audio conferencing in enhancing communication and 50% said that it also improves understanding.
2) Ensure departments interact when it comes to processes
Ling Wong, writing for Workzone.com illustrates by using the following example:
Picture a creative team taking two months to develop an eye-catching design. Although the marketing team likes the attractiveness of the design, it does not fit with the “strategic direction of the brand.” Because there was little to no communication between the creative team and the marketing team there was no successful design after two months of work.
Imagine a supply chain manager not consulting with the hospital department about the equipment needed and purchases unnecessary equipment and supplies, resources the department already had in their stock. Lack of communication resulted in the purchase of duplicate supplies.
Yes, miscommunication or not communicating at all can be expensive, and interfere with budget and project timelines. There are ways to avoid these issues, and some may be easier than you think.
Ling Wong says that this is where project managers come into play. Wong recommends fostering communication by scheduling inter-department reviews, formal team check-ins, as well as encouraging informal catch-up sessions. A team leader communicates outcomes and action items that result from team meetings. The project manager oversees the communication from all team leaders. The important point is ensuring every team member involved in a project is on the same page.
A consistent stream of good communication can stop blame and finger pointing further down the line.
3) Embracing diversity in demographics and skillsets
The principle behind collaboration across multiple departments is to extract on their diverse perspectives and skill-sets. The objective of any business should be to encourage open-mindedness in sharing ideas with others with different educational and cultural backgrounds. Research shows that those organizations with more diverse ethnic and gender makeup generate a higher than average financial performance.
John Banovetz, Ph.D., CTO for 3M Research and Development adds that a team with a more assorted skill set will be more likely to create disruptive innovation, introducing new technology, or solution that does not exist yet in a given industry or marketplace.
Banovetz argues that the mistaken assumption is you need to be a genius to develop novel solutions. Yes, you do need a high degree of ability, but innovative discovery requires a willingness to work as a team that shares a passion for finding solutions to problems.
Martha Bird writing for Trainingindustry.com argues that the task of those in the HR department is to build teams based on three elements: creativity, engagement, and profit. Consensus is not fundamental to teamwork. In many respects, it can be detrimental. Take the example of developing a product where there is total consensus on its objectives. In the end, the product only meets the needs of a limited audience reducing its desired effect. A broader audience needs a diverse range of perspectives.
Bird says that diversity has three advantages:
- Reflexivity – promotes team members to reflect and open themselves to new ways of thinking.
- Empathy – group dynamic enables others to share thoughts and feelings deepening sentiment.
- Curiosity – sparks creativity and members in the group to find out more about others backgrounds, reactivating their imagination.
Collaboration transforms companies into front-runners of success
Cross-organization collaboration is a powerful tool that is effective in any industry.
Today, businesses of every type have offices across the country and numerous continents. Research proves that not only does video conference ease face-to-face communication, it also enhances it. This technology ensures that collaboration is possible despite the vast distances between teams working in different offices in separate locations and time zones. Businesses in the US can now collaborate with team members working out of offices in Europe or anywhere in the world.
Building a mutual understanding between teams of different inter-department processes is an essential part of building a collaborative culture. Collaboration ensures the development of integrated solutions that meet project objectives within timelines.
There is a mistaken assumption that when all people sitting in the boardroom nod their heads in agreement that this leads to success. In reality, too much consensus is the nemesis of innovative thinking. The message is to let creativity and disruptive innovation flow from the different perspectives across your entire organization.
We at Shepherd Engineering Search promote collaboration throughout our offices across the country, and across several continents. We want to find out more about the strategies that you have implemented in your organization. Feel free to drop us a note below.