Collaboration Across Functions Best Practice From Harvard Business Review

By Thomas Canby posted 07-22-2015 07:36

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Don't Mistake Cooperation for Collaboration

Managers have to collaborate across functions. Yet despite being friendly and willing to share information, they often fail to do it. Priorities aren't aligned, so miscommunications slow down projects. This happens because managers mistake their cooperativeness for being collaborative. To start truly collaborating, identify the goal, then map out the end-to-end work that’s needed. What will your team be responsible for? What will you need from other teams? Sketch out the sequencing of activities. When people know what’s needed, in what form, and by when, they can then tell you whether it’s possible—and then you can have a real dialogue about what can be done. Instead of going from one department to the next and trying to cobble together an agreement, get all the managers in a room together to work through the plans, make adjustments, and find ways to share resources and align incentives.

Adapted from “There’s a Difference Between Cooperation and Collaboration,” by Ron Ashkenas.

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