Collaboration is a workplace buzzword that conjures images of high-fiving teams, smiling faces, happily theming coloured post-its at a whiteboard. It’s often painted in an idyllic light—everyone working harmoniously to achieve common goals. But real collaboration? Yes there might be post-its, but it’s rarely that neat.
True collaboration can be messy, challenging, and often uncomfortable. It doesn’t always mean reaching a consensus, agreeing on everything, or compromising to keep everyone happy. The most effective collaboration acknowledges and even harnesses tension, feeds on the diversity of thought, and revels in the conflict of navigating complex challenges.
If you’re a leader trying to foster genuine collaboration in your workplace, it’s time to set aside the shiny ideals and delve into the realities of what it takes to make it work. The first rule of collaboration club, we don’t talk about collaboration club. Nah, just kidding, you should be talking about it.
Let’s start with what collaboration isn’t…
It’s Not Always Consensus
Collaboration doesn’t mean everyone agrees all the time. If you’re agreeing all the time, you’re not pushing thinking very far and you’re not being sincere. Consensus might feel like a good path forward because it feels safe, but its also diluting your bold ideas and stifling your innovation. The pursuit of consensus can lead to “groupthink,” where dissenting voices are silenced in favor of harmony, resulting in weaker solutions. And, it slows things down.
Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of groupthink: A psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. Houghton Mifflin.
It’s Not Always Agreement
Collaboration needs differing perspectives. If you look around and everyone is nodding along and agreeing all the time, you’re not tapping into the team’s full potential; you’re just encouraging lip service. And you can bet your bottom dollar there is a lot that isn’t being said behind those smiles. Disagreement isn’t a roadblock; it’s a way to explore new angles and uncover better solutions. More often than not, the earlier in the process you bring out the diverse thoughts, the better the end design will be, in my experience.
It’s Not Always Compromise
Collaboration isn’t about finding a middle ground just to keep everyone happy, either. Great collaboration often means prioritising ruthlessly and making tough decisions. Compromise can sometimes lead to mediocrity if you are watering down strong ideas to appease every stakeholder.
What Effective Collaboration Does Look Like
Effective collaboration embraces complexity, conflict, and creativity. It’s about making space where people feel safe to:
- Share bold ideas.
- Challenge assumptions.
- Take risks.
When done well, collaboration creates better outcomes than any individual could achieve alone. But it does require a culture of trust, openness, and resilience.
Signs Your Workplace Culture has the right stuff
- Healthy Debate: Team members engage in constructive disagreements without fear of repercussions.
- Psychological Safety: People feel like they can share their opinions, admit to mistakes, and challenge the status quo.
- Diverse Perspectives: Your team includes a range of experiences, backgrounds, and viewpoints, fuelling richer discussions and therefore more creative solutions.
- Focus on Outcomes: The emphasis is on achieving the best results, even when it means navigating difficult conversations or exploring unconventional paths to get there.
- Clear Roles and Expectations: Everyone understands their role in the collaborative process, avoiding confusion and misalignment.
What Leaders Can Do to Encourage Effective Collaboration
As a leader, you’re the linchpin in shaping a culture of meaningful collaboration. It starts with how you show up and the behaviours you accept. So you need to:
Set the Tone for Openness
It starts with you. Admit when you don’t have all the answers and seek input from your team, be vulnerable.
Encourage Constructive Conflict
Frame it as a way to refine ideas and achieve better outcomes. You need to facilitate and steer discussions so conflicts remain productive and the group stay focused on the task.
Champion Diverse Teams
Intentionally build teams with a mix of perspectives, skills, and experiences. Diversity helps find and address blind spots.
Focus on Outcomes, Not Comfort
Prioritise the best solutions over the easiest ones. This might mean navigating discomfort and challenging decisions, but the results will be worth it.
Clarify Goals and Roles
Make sure everyone knows the purpose of the collaboration, the desired outcome, and their role in achieving it. Clarity reduces friction and keeps teams aligned.
How Visual Tools Can Enhance Collaboration
Visual tools work like having a-whole-nother language at your disposal to enhance collaboration. They make abstract ideas tangible and create shared understanding.
- A visual summary can distil hours of discussion into a single image that’s easy to reference and share.
- Drawing on a whiteboard together invites everyone to contribute, levelling the playing field.
- A shared visual artifact that captures key ideas, themes, and tensions, ensues everyone feels heard and understood.
- Visual storytelling evokes emotions, making collaborative efforts more engaging and memorable. When teams see their ideas represented visually, they feel more ownership and commitment to the outcomes.
Effective collaboration isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, and that’s okay, because the magic often happens in the messiness—the debates, the differing opinions, and the tough decisions.
As a leader, your role isn’t to smooth things out, it’s to create an environment where collaboration can unfurl in all its messy glory.
So, the next time you’re tempted to avoid tension in the name of collaboration, remember: the brightest ideas sometimes emerge from the stormiest discussions. And if you’re ready to explore how visual storytelling can take your team’s collaboration to the next level, let’s talk. Together, we can turn the mess into meaning.
