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Collaborating with Someone You Don’t Really Know
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Collaboration can be a double-edged sword
Organizations today are increasingly collaborative across interdependent teams. But collaboration can have two sides: It can lead to improved outcomes and intrinsic motivation, or it can significantly slow down decision-making and result in ongoing engagement that takes up most employees' time.
First discussing specific questions with your new colleague will enable you to work together more effectively and ensure a positive working relationship.
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Defining the objectives and the roadmap of a collaboration
Ask: What are our goals and process for this project?
Articulate each person's definition of success and vision of the path ahead. The goal is to ensure that both move in the same direction and don't work at cross purposes.
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Collaboration: Clarify responsibilities up-front
Ask: Who will do what, and by when?
Knowing who is responsible for what will help balance the workload, avoid duplicate work, and preempt territorial behaviour. Establishing accountability for progress on various deliverables can create greater clarity and increase the likelihood that goals will be met.
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Individual working styles and strengths within a collaboration
Ask: What are our individual preferred working styles and strengths?
Not understanding the differences in style can cause irritation or conflict. Understanding each other's strengths can help determine the division of labour.
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Giving feedback in a collaboration
Ask: When and how will we give each other feedback on our working relationship?
Establishing a process for feedback can build the relationship.
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Support and collaboration
Ask: What do we need from each other to do our best work?
It is important to discuss this question if you have never met before. Understanding how you can support each other to do your best work is only possible is you are clear about your needs. If you feel like you tolerate something from your colleague, it is often an unspoken request you have yet to make.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Remote Workshops
Collaborative workshops in a conference room where bright minds work shoulder-to-shoulder is an effective way to foster innovative ideas and forging intangible connections.
Remote worksho...
Clarity of the Workshop’s Value
Workshops are ‘co-creation’ time with people who have varied disciplines, backgrounds, and perspectives.
To make these people show up, we need to make the invitations intriguing and something that provides value to the participant. It helps to send the invitations in advance, with follow-ups.
Conferencing Tools
Video Conferencing is a must-have for a remote workshop, while chat tools are not effective. In case there is any audio or video problem, phone in and take everyone into a conference call with your phone.
Collaborative tools: The whiteboards, sharpies, and post-it-notes can be replicated virtually with software like Invision Freehand for example.
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The essential skill of listening
Listening is essential if you want to have a meaningful exchange with another person.
When you listen in a way that the other person feels heard, they are more likely to re...
Nonverbal attending
Nonverbal attending means giving someone your full attention without speaking.
- Keep your body open to the other person. Try to be relaxed, and lean forward a bit if you're sitting.
- Maintain eye contact without looking like you are staring.
- Use simple gestures such as head nods or occasionally say "Mm-hmmm" to communicate encouragement.
- See how long you can listen without interrupting.
How to signal you are truly listening to someone
Reflecting means repeating or rephrasing key content or meaning from the other person.
Instead of saying, "I hear you," summarise and paraphrase the content confirming that you heard them and that you accurately understood them. If you didn't quite understand what they were saying, it allows them to correct you.
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Creativity and remote work
- In the discussion about remote work, most of conversation goes around finding ways to make emote workforce more productive and efficient. Yet while productivity matters, creativity often gets left out of that conversation.
- As remote work will be the new normal for many of us, the discussion cannot be about which is the better place to do creative work. We have to get better at being creative remotely. It’s no longer a nice-to-have.
Brainwriting over brainstorming
Remote work allows us go beyond the standard approach to brainstorming by using brainwriting.
- This brainwriting approach prevents the loudest person, first to speak, or most experienced person from dominating the conversation.
- Exchanging written ideas also allows the introvert to shine and it's easier on to team members whose first language may not be English.
- There is less social pressure to follow one person’s idea, so everyone contributes equally.