Dive Brief:
- Many people believe collaboration is a "top down" process, but according to an expert who helps organizations successfully build teams, it's a "fatal assumption."
- While the concept of senior management setting the tone and the rest will follow may be partially true, the reality is employees are what matter most when it comes to collaboration, the expert notes.
- In short, collaboration starts from the bottom up, with people from across the workforce as the primary drivers.
Dive Insight:
The article explains that senior leaders must have a business need driving the need for collaboration, such as innovation to beat the competition, quicker responsiveness to customer requests, and higher quality products. And they also must enthusiastically and frequently communicate this desire to their people. But that's just setting the stage.
For world-class teamwork and collaboration to be realized, team members, not management, need to be self-accountable if management expects them to really collaborate and maximize their potential.
Leaders can follow some basics in creating collaboration, mainly taking the time to allow people the space to uncover and commit to collaboration. Today's smartest leaders understand that collaboration will not come from an imperative, rather only from the "hearts and minds" of people across the workforce, the article says.
