George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Collaboration is easily defined and spoken to, but is often elusive in practice. How do you as a project manager elicit collaboration from your team? Saving Changes...
In addition to the psychological aspects of teaming and collaboration, I also try to remove the administrative obstacles. In a very process heavy environment, there can be resistance to working to anything but official documentation. That often comes from bad experiences where someone was working to preliminary data, and nobody told them it changed later, wasting lots of effort.
Group A writes a specification and sends it to B. B rejects the document with comments. A revises the document and sends it back to B... That turns into a very cumbersome linear process of coordination through rigid procedures. If you can break people out of that process of formal documentation first, followed by agreement sometime later, and switch that to let's agree first before we formally document it, then they have more latitude to how they can effectively collaborate, and reduce a lot of waste.
There can be a lot of fear over loosening up the process itself, and the PM can help there by understanding the true critical path of the data requirements, how far along we can be flexible, and when we need formal commitments. Saving Changes...
Antonio LouroDirector Africa| Insight InternationalLuanda, Luanda, Angola
Collaborative attitude leads to Constructive Controversy and vice-versa Some of the fundamental principles of such approach / attitude are: 1 - Critical of ideas not people! 2 - Remember that the team are all in together sink or swim! Focus on the best decision not on wining 3 - Listen to everyone ideas even if don't agree 4 - RESTATE WHAT SOMEONE HAS SAID IF IT IS NOT CLEAR! - Ladder of inference!!! 5 - Try to understand both sides of the issue! 6 - Act towards others the same way you would like them to act towards you! Good clear communcitaion, respect and openness Saving Changes...
Zara PalevaniDirector, Center of Excellence| Cardinal Path (Dentsu)Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
1- clearly define why the team is formed and what it is supposed to achieve
2- set up regular meetings with your team members to learn about their career goals and talent and help them see how their success aligns with the project objectives, take a further step by showing them the bigger picture, how the project fits in the company and how they help the success of the company and their clients
3- you can also use the above info to connect team members who share similar goals and create relationship building opportunities for them
4- earn your team's trust by giving credit to them when credit is due
5- another powerful technique is to facilitate story telling sessions, knowing where each person comes from and their story increases a sense of empathy among the project team members
6- this may seem obvious but the role of an effective task management system is critical as well
7- last but not least create a culture of sharing, feedback, ideas, concerns Saving Changes...
Make sure your team is happily engaged at work. Invest the necessary time into growing them. Align each employee’s daily tasks with your key business objectives. Set clear goals to be achieved, with frequent feedback.
Gamification is a great tool for that, it also helps to track and visualise team performance, using KPI's. You can also motivate them offering tangible rewards, creating peer-to-peer recognition, etc.
