Resisting Collaboration is Futile

 

Since I’ve been spending so much of my energy blogging about communications so far this month, I thought I’d pick up March’s twin theme, collaboration, and see how much damage I could do to it – and didn’t have far to look for ammunition. According to Webster’s online, the two “simple” definitions of collaboration are:

· to work with another person or group in order to achieve or do something

·  to give help to an enemy who has invaded your country during a war.[i]

I’m fairly sure that when ProjectManagement.com offered up “collaboration” as part of March’s theme, they had in mind the former definition, but you have to admit the latter version is highly intriguing, particularly in those instances where any of my readers find themselves in a situation analogous to having their “country” “invaded,” e.g., having the project team or organization you work for taken over by another owning entity or organization. The political and managerial dynamics of such a takeover are myriad indeed, but there are a few insights that might help the unfortunate PM survive.

First off, what kind of takeover are we talking about here? In those instances where your project has suddenly become so hot as to be perceived as unworthy of belonging to a workaday sort such as yourself, and there’s a push to “give” it to a higher-ranked individual, there’s virtually nothing you can do short of quitting and attempting to take your client with you, which is, except in rare circumstances, impossible. If your particular technical approach to the project is both (a) unique, and (b) effective, the displaced PM can attempt to disengage, and let the project flail about until such a time as the superiors are inclined to come back and ask about the uniquely effective technical approach. The problem with this tactic is that, by the time the new strategy has shown itself to be sub-optimal, it’s usually too late.

Then there are those instances where your project isn’t so high-profile as to attract unwanted attention, but its owning organization has been taken over by another group, one whose technical approach to project management is singularly inconsistent with the original. Technically, “hostile takeovers” are usually undertaken with the intent to buy out a majority of the target organization’s stock to gain control, and then liquidate the target in order to remove a competitor. But even in those instances where the acquiring organization has no intention of eliminating the target – they simply want the target’s project portfolio – the takeover can take on the appearance of being very hostile, indeed. What’s a PM to do?

First, learn the acquiring organization’s rules. No, not the ones they publish under the auspices of a mission statement or other such self-flattering mythology. You need to know how they function, specifically how close they are to being a true meritocracy. Understand this: if the enemy invaders (strikethrough) acquiring organization is riddled with cronyism (see last week’s blog) or displays other evidence of managerial pathologies, then your prospects are dim, indeed. But there’s one attribute that will always be appreciated, particularly in dysfunctional organizations: loyalty. If you can convince the acquiring organization’s managers that your devotion has been completely and seamlessly transferred to them, your chances of survival will go up considerably. The downside of this approach lies in the fact that, at some point, you will be expected to accept as normal any organizational pathologies that the new owners have accumulated.  Even if you can tamp down your own professional aversion to them, the members of your project team will quickly come to the realization that you have exchanged your values for the opportunity to blend in with the new management team – not the best of reputations to acquire.

Very much like “communication,” “collaboration” has taken on a kind of sought-after-for-its-own-sake aura, as if the actual objective of the collaborating project team(s) is somehow outside the realm of evaluation. Just keep in mind: the Borg from Star Trek were (are? Will be?) great at collaboration. Doing great things? Not so much.

[i] Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/collaboration  at 20:29  MDT on 19 March 2016.