Collaboration Instead of Coordination

Are you ever asked to coordinate a project with a committee or another team? As you work together you may find valuable time spend sitting in nauseating meetings where people drone on about the small details, instead of getting after the big issues. Colonel Candid is here to focus you on collaboration over coordination.


Because words matter, we need to understand the difference between coordination and collaboration. An example, when you get an email, read it, and pass it along – you’ve coordinated something. Now when you get a phone call or video conference and you work on this project with someone, you start to collaborate. To reach the immersion level of collaboration, you’ve got to have skin in the game. It’s the point when you don’t just nod your head in concurrence when others are talking, you’re collaborating when you speak out and pounding on the table in agreement.


Setting the conditions for great collaboration on a project begins with the players involved. When you create the environment for great collaboration you begin by having the right people in the room equipped with the best products, data, and willingness to engage. Success requires forethought in creating a place conductive for sharing.


Look at your room. Is it set up to have one-person up front with rows of tables? Then you’ve failed. Instead, work to create a circle. Because if you’re creating a space to look at everyone in their eyes, verses the back of their heads, you’re on your way. Before that meeting, plan to plan. Create an agenda with goals and left and right limits to move the discussion along. Ensure you have someone capturing the great ideas and sparks of genius. That scribe is critical in ensuring the outputs are quality.  Lastly, don’t forget you’re dealing with humans – have water and coffee, at a minimum. For great collaboration, go all in and feed your gathering of greatness.


When the day arrives and you’re ready to go. Create an opportunity to establish a common concept of ideas. Everyone comes to your collaborative environment with a different idea or view from their seat. Leveling the bubbles starts the day with a shared understanding of the issue or idea. Move toward engaged contribution by each stakeholder. This occurs when you act as an orchestrator, not a solo singer. If you’re the leader and you hear your voice more than others, you probably need to check yourself before the whole gathering shuts down. When fewer people check their phones and instead look into the eyes of their teammates, ask engaging questions of each other, you are cooking with gas and collaborating.


As you’ve set the goal for a project or idea, you must come back with a deliverable. Your collaborative work needs a goal, endstate, or results. What a great opportunity you have before you now. You’ve gathered a great group and this highly charged session occurred. Now keep it humming. Your notetaker should be on fire writing the results and your job is to keep the collaborative efforts stoked. Seek feedback and encourage a method to maintain consistent sharing of new ideas or results. Keep the members engaged and work to maintain buy in. Great collaboration doesn’t end, instead it creates second and third order waves of ideas. Keep this fire going. You’ll see true collaboration when the idea of project you’ve begun moves in rapid or different directions. Keep collaborating, seek feedback, and find your greatness.