collaboration techniques for small business
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CollabITSmall Business Collaboration in IT
Providing invaluable assistance for business on how to survive in the
current economic environment through collaboration and support
Russell YardleyAlgonquin [email protected]
The Lone Wolf
Soon learned to hunt in packs
The group out performs the individual
result more protean for everyone
We all grow taller and stronger
Co-ordination Co-operation Collaboration
Co-ordination
•Driven by directive
•Focus on short term goals
•Teamwork helps but not essential
•Value created by individual action
•Little additional value
•Trust not essential to success
Co-operation
•Driven by an immediate need
•Can succeed even if commitmentuneven
•Value is incremental & uneven
•Only one party may benefit
•Lower level of trust than forcollaboration
Collaboration
• Driven by mutual self interest
•Requires high level of commitment on both sides
•Creates new value
•Value can be shared by both parties
•Often requires specialisation
•Requires high levels of trust
Increasing levels of trustSource: Economist Intelligence Unit
Source: The Origins of Wealth Eric D. Beinhocker
When do you collaborate?From Shawn Callahan Anecdote
• Simple• Chaotic
• Complicated• Complex
Collaboration Co-operation
Co-ordination
Collaboration: What is it?
• It’s about creating capacity and capability in small groups of SMEs by combining their specialisations to achieve exceptional results
• It’s about each share of the rewards from these results being more valuable than those from solo endeavours
• The complex collaborative enterprise works because each SME is honed to do what it does best and is driven to meet its obligations to the group
• It is in each member’s interest to ensure that their fellow members are capable and do perform at the highest possible level
• It becomes self evident that all members should share resources and opportunities to maximise the enterprises rewards
• Create a CollabIT group that has a shared goal• Increase revenue by sharing customers building on trusted customer
and member relationships
• Better utilising resources (employees)
• Reducing expenses by sharing common expenses (accounting/legal etc)
• Use this goal to direct and motivate action
• Create real boundaries (who’s in who’s out)
• Develop methodologies to achieve goals• Processes to assure repeatable high quality
• Processes to minimise transaction costs
• Hard to reverse commitments demand shared ownership of assets to align interests of participants to help collaboration to endure over long periods
• Provide a vehicle for collective learning (capturing lessons learned, heuristics, adaption and innovation)
Collaboration: What to do?
Collaboration: How to keep it going?
• Build groups that are complimentary not competitive• Different but overlapping expertise and capabilities
• Mutually supporting goals
• Similar cultures
• Combine specialisations maximise customer value which will create the most wealth for all
• Recognise that complex relationships can only be built on trust as they are too difficult to render to a legal agreement
• So it is all dependent on building trust
Collaboration: Creating the culture
Performance
A performance culture stimulates its members to do their best, go that extra mile, take initiative and constantly improve everything that is done within the organisation. It accepts mistakes by turning them into learning opportunities. It measures outcomes to improve execution.
An honest culture ensures members understand reality. Important things are clear and understood. Members are honest with each other and themselves.
A merit based culture rewards people based upon the value of their contribution.
Collaboration: Creating the culture
Co-operation
A mutually trusting culture trusts other member's motivation and trusts in their skills to get the job done.
A reciprocating culture encourages its members to "do unto others what you would like other to do for you".
A culture with a shared purpose has members who put the organisation's interests ahead of their own and behave as if everyone is in this together.
Collaboration: Creating the culture
Innovation
A non-hierarchical culture provides permission for everyone to challenge ideas and provide ideas for the organisation's good. Value and argument are all that counts never titles or positions.
An open culture welcomes new ideas regardless from where they came.
An evidenced based culture ensures that the facts are established first and argument is based on hard evidence not opinion.
A challenging culture ensures that there is a sense of competitive urgency - always.
