A few weeks ago I published a blog about conflict in the workplace and included some research that detailed the financial cost of this conflict. It claimed that the cost of resolving conflict to the US economy was $359 billion (£274 billion).

Given the negative impact that conflict has on results, staff morale, productivity and service levels, I believe that it’s imperative that leaders champion and encourage greater collaboration and co-operation in their organisations. Many employers list team-work as a key skill in job adverts but in reality numerous organisations are very poor at collaboration.

I was therefore interested to read research by global management consultancy, Hay Group in 2015 based on data from more than 500,000 UK employees. It stated that greater collaboration is one of the key challenges facing global firms over the next five years. The other four challenges are agility, transparency, innovation and productivity.

Business environments are changing rapidly and it doesn’t appear that many companies have the right strategies in place to meet the challenges. Many teams seem to have a silo mentality and tend to compete rather than co-operate with each other. This has a huge negative impact on productivity.

Some of the other key points highlighted in the research were:-

  • Organisations rated highest for engaging and enabling their staff achieve four and half times the revenue growth of the lowest scoring counterparts
  • They also see a 54% improvement on staff retention
  • More than half the people researched said their teams aren’t adequately supported by counterparts elsewhere in the business.
  • More than a third said co-operating and sharing ideas and resources is not readily encouraged.
  • Outdated processes seem to hamper performance, with almost half saying they don’t feel their organisation is innovating in the way work is done.
  • 44% felt transparency was an issue with them not having a clear idea of possible career paths available to them.
  • 59% expressed concern about the speed of decision making in their firms.
  • 40% of respondents felt they weren’t encouraged to be innovative.
  • Only 37% said they are given enough time for training
  • 43% stated that they don’t believe their company communicates openly and honestly about change.

In my book, Be First Class, I dedicated a chapter to a team that have to be very collaborative – The Red Arrows Aerobatic display team. Some of the lessons that I gleaned from watched a documentary about the team, which I cover in greater detail in the book are:-

  • Trust – foundation to great team work and critical when you are building a high performing collaborative team.
  • Clear purpose and plan – a clear understanding of team purpose and objectives is vital and the part each member can play in executing the plans.
  • Constructive feedback and commitment to continuous improvement – even the best performers need to be committed to learning new things, practising and honing their skills.
  • Recruitment and selection – an investment in considering how people will fit in and gel with each other will reap rewards. Clear standards and behaviours expected need to be outlined.
  • Honest and open communication – opinions are offered in the spirit that the team is looking to be the best it can be. Views expressed aren’t too personal and stated with good intent.
  • Focused competitive team players – team members who have a will to be the best but are also team players who fit in and encourage this in others and have great levels of trust.

This week why not take a few moments out to reflect and think about the teams and groups that you are involved with professionally and/or personally. What can they do differently to become more effective? What action can you take to be more collaborative?

This week’s quotation:

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” Helen Keller.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk