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Collaboration can be tricky. It’s one thing for people to work together, but doing it harmoniously is not always an easy feat.
Successful leaders know which team members work well together and what makes employees tick — and they use this information to form symbiotic, productive teams. After all, an integral part of a leader’s job is to make sure the team works like an orchestra, with everyone’s individual contributions blending together to form a cohesive (and in the case of this analogy, harmonic) unit.
To help achieve this result, some leaders are incentivizing collaboration. Here’s how.
A Team-Level Ecosystem
Deb Mashek, principal of Myco Consulting and Reworked contributor, believes collaborative behavior begins when individual work is entrenched. For that reason, and to better understand a team’s dynamics, she uses an ecosystem model that makes it possible to see the bigger picture.
The model includes individual employees, the relationships between them, the systems and tools that support shared work, and the culture of their organization. All four of these relate to and change the way collaboration takes place.
Although it may be possible to encourage collaborative work by controlling every sector of the ecosystem, it may not be feasible due to the volume of work, the nature of the project or the way employees interact with each other (i.e., hybrid, completely remote or fully in-person).
“To intervene on all those fronts all at once is possible, but doing so requires significant effort by everyone from the new hire to the CEO,” she said. “That sort of whole-ecosystem intervention isn't realistic for a lot of organizations.”
Given these limitations, Mashek suggests team leaders work smaller, not harder. By focusing on elements that are under your control, you can narrow your focus instead of trying to tackle the entire ecosystem at once. This, Mashek believes, will ultimately foster better communication and collaboration.
Related Article: What You Need to Know About High-Stakes Collaboration
Lead by Example
What gets rewarded gets repeated. Leaders can preach about collaboration being a core company value, but if individual performance is incentivized, there will be way more "me and I" rather than "we and us," Mashek said. Values and incentives must be aligned.
“Some people think collaboration should be a warm fuzzy group hug, somehow void of self interest. I 100% disagree,” she said. “Every single person involved in a collaboration must be able to answer the question, ‘What's in it for me?’”
When we, as individuals, are unclear about how we stand to benefit from investing in collaborative work, it makes it nearly impossible to sustain constructive engagement over long periods of time. “This is especially true when we encounter the inevitable roadblocks and challenges of complex work,” she said.
She recommends leaders take three actions:
- Hire collaborative people onto your team. Speak to individual team members about your desire to center collaboration and why you think it’s important (for both yourself and your employees), and explain how working together will benefit the team, collectively.
- Provide professional development opportunities focused on collaboration. Make sure to delegate time for reflection. This way, you and your team can see what works and what doesn’t. It’s also helpful to get to know your employees (and have them get to know each other) as actual people instead of boxes in the workflow.
- Decide as a team which tools you'll be using to support collaborative work. Have conversations that clarify and define expectations to illuminate team goals and make them navigable. Putting systems and practices in place allows employees to speak their mind, listen and learn from others. This establishes a micro-culture within your team, thus incentivizing collaboration.
Related Article: A Collaborative Culture is Within Reach: Here’s How
Work Smarter, Not Harder
David Coleman, collaboration expert and consultant, recommends working smarter, not harder. When it comes to forming and leading teams, initial impressions and leadership style heavily influence how people work together.
In hybrid organizations, Coleman says teams tend to work better if they meet in person first because it’s often more difficult to make a connection virtually. An initial, face-to-face connection reminds employees that they’re working with humans, not faces behind a screen. Organizing a team-wide outing (like having a meal together) helps people better remember the faces, names and personalities of their colleagues.
More than anything, this fosters trust and reliability. It’s difficult to feel responsible for your role in a group if you don't understand the people you’ll be working with, he said.
Most teams share the same, general goal — get the project done well and on time. But not all team members are motivated by the same thing. Learning what inspires certain employees plays a part in their productivity, according to Coleman.
Related Article: Courage Coach: How to Build Human Connections at Scale
Not All Collaboration Is the Same
Although smaller projects may be driven by a shared, desired outcome, Coleman’s point remains true for larger or cross-department collaborations.
To bolster camaraderie across a larger group, he recommends gamification techniques. Not only do they serve as an icebreaker, team-building games boost morale, trust and understanding among team members, according to eLearning Industry. The social dynamics of any team will ultimately affect the project’s outcome.
That being said, Mashek notes that teamwork isn’t always the solution to getting work done. Knowing the type of work that can benefit from collaboration is important. But when it is used, it has to be done right.
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“Collaboration is not the right tool for every type of work. But, when collaboration is called for, it's critical to design so that collaboration is truly possible, easy, normative and rewarding,” she said.
