• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

International Speaker, Author, Leadership Coach

  • Home
  • Programs
    • Speeches/Seminars
    • Some of Carols Clients
  • About
    • Bio
    • Media Guest
  • Publishing
    • Books
    • Online Classes
    • Articles
  • Contact

February 1, 2015 By Eve

Has Your Collaboration Strategy Fallen Into The Say-Do Gap?

Last year, I spoke on “The Power of Collaborative Leadership” to business audiences in The United Arab Emirates, Scotland, England, The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and four states of the U.S. Audience members represented industries including engineering, manufacturing, retailing, construction, shipping, technology, energy, utilities, printing, pharmaceuticals and consulting – plus a range of government agencies.

After my programs, I asked audiences to fill out questionnaires that would give me a sense of their enthusiasm for and commitment to the idea of better collaboration as essential for corporate performance. I found plenty of enthusiasm and no end of commitment – but it soon became clear that however sincerely people WANTED more collaboration, they weren’t very sure how to GET it. The “Say-Do” gap had opened before them.

My first question asked for participants to rate on a scale of 1-to-10, the importance of greater collaboration to their organizations. 87 percent gave ratings of 8-10, 13 per cent said 7-10, and only two of the 286 who participated gave ratings 6-10 or lower. Accompanying comments were equally upbeat:

Collaboration is one of our corporate values.”

Our focus is Working Together to Make it Happen.”

We have a One Teammotto.”

Those responses told me that my audiences had already faced up to the complex, ever-shifting ocean of change that characterizes today’s corporate world, and that they had now largely agreed that the untapped potential of collective brainpower across the organization was an essential ingredient for greater success in the future. So far so good . . .

But then, in response to my next question about implementation, uncertainty and skepticism began to surface:

Collaboration is the current buzz word,” one manager wrote, “but I’m not convinced our leaders really believe in it.”

Top management is fully aware of the importance of collaboration, but change in that direction never seems to happen.”

Leadership keeps saying it wants, needs, and values collaboration. But what are they actually doing about it?”

They talk up collaboration, but I’m not seeing it being modeled by any of our leaders.”

The basic components of a successful collaborative culture, I always tell my audiences, are:

  1. Transparent communication across the entire organization
  2. The development of cross-functional teams
  3. Collaboration strategies that involve customers
  4. Recognizing and rewarding collaborative successes
  5. Designing collaborative work spaces
  6. Creating training programs aimed at helping leaders implement collaboration.

When asked to rate and then comment on how these six components actually affected collaboration strategy in their own organizations, answers were even more discouraging:

1. Transparent Communication, the first component, received a rating of only 6.5-out-of-10; and also attracted some noticeably unhappy comment:

A lot of news seems to ‘improve’ before it reaches employees.”

There is obvious modification as bad news heads up the management chain. This is done to ‘lessen the blow’.”

The lower down the organization, the better the communication. But then they have less to tell.”

I feels like we’re only told what the company wants us to hear.”

And finally, this telling comment:

I’m flooded with ‘important’ internal emails every day – so many I don’t bother to read any of them. I don’t have time. And there are too many ‘vital’ meetings that accomplish nothing.”

2. Cross-functional teams received the highest rating among the six components – 80 percent – yet several respondents said that cross-functional teams were only used at the senior management level, and wished that they were operational at lower levels to implement processes. And only eleven people reported that cross-functional teams were their organization’s accepted way of working in order to improve effectiveness.

3. Less than 60% reported actively collaborating with customers. Those companies that did utilize feedback surveys, focus groups, and customer forums directed them primarily at external, not internal, customers. And several comments said that while their organizations tried to build their business plans around customer needs, the results were often then less positive. As one middle manager put it:

Once a year we like to punish ourselves by being told how we’re not doing such a good job with all the feedback. Obviously we’re not learning the right lessons from what customers are telling us.”

4. Only about 25 % of the organizations represented had any formal mechanisms in place for rewarding – or even recognizing – successful efforts at increasing collaboration. Which means a whopping 75% did absolutely nothing to reward activity that they claimed was central to their corporate success!

We give a Star Award for the best team chosen by employees worldwide,”

one team manager commented,

but we need much more of this recognition at local and regional levels.”

Very occasionally, good collaborative work will be mentioned in an internet blog. But that’s all positive comment we ever see – pathetic when you think collaboration is supposed to be a key corporate value in this organization.”

One of the more thoughtful responses was:

Collaboration should be looked on as a reward unto itself. Even if the contribution is not formally recognized, it is still true that the most collaborative teams are more successful.”

5. Only 50% of the companies were using workplace design in support of collaboration – strategies which included shared workspaces, communal break-out areas, dining rooms, coffee stations and open-plan offices – all aimed at making it easier for employees at all levels to share thoughts, ideas, discoveries and sudden insights, whether brilliant or ridiculous.

Which meant that half the people I heard from said their companies were doing nothing to create more collaborative physical environments. A typical comment from this group: “Our set up is more conducive to reinforcing silos.”

6. The lowest score in the questionnaire, just 18%, was the answer to the question: Does your organization offer training programs that teach the skills required of collaborative team members or collaborative team leaders? For 82% of respondents, the answer was a resounding “no.” It was up to individuals to find this training on their own:

They’ve made it clear that collaboration is important, but haven’t provided the tools or training to support it.”

Collaboration is in our leadership standards, but there is nothing offered to show us how to become collaborative leaders.”

I finally understood from all of this that most of the people in my seminars (and perhaps many of you reading this blog today) shared a common dilemma: Their organization’s collaboration strategies had fallen into that Say-Do gap and leadership couldn’t see how to climb back out again.

But that dilemma may be overcome by using a strategy that probably runs contrary to all the corporate philosophy you’ve ever learned: Think Small!

Regardless of the overall corporate culture, each manager, team leader, supervisor or department head can foster collaboration within the boundaries of his/her own team by creating mini-cultures that make the group feel safe, valued, important and needed. Even if the organization remains in the gap, there can be pockets of productive collaboration operating with in it. And as their successes become known, those behaviors will spread to other teams until one day, with perseverance, the gap will simply disappear, and the new collaborative culture will indeed come to be recognized as a reward unto itself. And to the whole company!

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is an international speaker, a leadership blogger for Forbes, and the author of “The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help – or Hurt – How You Lead” and “The Truth About Lies in the Workplace.” Carol is baed in Berkeley, California. She can be reached by email: Carol@CarolKinseyGoman.com, by phone: 510-526-1727, or through her website: www.CarolKinseyGoman.com.

Carol blogs about her observations and advice on change, leadership,
body language in the workplace, and anything else that catches her
attention. Visit Body Talk

Filed Under: Articles

Primary Sidebar

Articles

Body Language for Collaborative Leaders (1/16/2023)
Body Language for Negotiators (5/16/2022)
Trust. Leadership, and the Power of Stories (4/14/2022)
7 Mistakes That Derail Organizational Change (3/23/2022)
5 Unorthodox Truths about Goal Setting (2/28/2022)
Body Language Habits that Make You Stand Out (2/8/2022)
The Power Of Personal Connection (7/11/2021)
Thriving on Post-Pandemic Change (5/6/2021)
5 Mistakes People Make Reading Your Body Language (2/5/2021)
How Santa Claus Knows if You’ve Been Naughty or Nice: Deception Detection (12/19/2020)
The Five C’s of Leadership Presence (11/21/2020)
Hacks For Women To Stand Out On Zoom (7/24/2020)
Body Language for Leadership Presence on Zoom (5/16/2020)
We Need Physical Distance, Not Social Distance (4/5/2020)
How Leadership Presence Is Different For Women (5/28/2019)
8 Ways Leaders Build Collaboration (4/12/2019)
Virtual Presence for Leaders (2/5/2019)
Does Your Body Language Help – or Hurt – Your Leadership Effectiveness? (12/28/2018)
The Body Language of Collaborative Leaders (8/1/2018)
3 Ways Women Can Escape The Imposter Syndrome Trap (7/23/2018)
Reading Body Language at Work: Five Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make (4/21/2018)
10 Tips to Supercharge Your Success (1/10/2018)
10 Body Language Myths That Limit Success (11/20/2017)
Customer Centricity Takes Collaboration (8/12/2017)
10 Change Leadership Tips Backed By Science (7/8/2017)
3 Crucial Skills For Leading Without Authority (5/23/2017)
7 Tips for Inspiring Collaboration (4/6/2017)
How Female Leaders Can Claim Power Through Body Language (3/9/2017)
How Leaders Project Charisma (2/3/2017)
How To Spot A Liar At Work (1/5/2017)
How Santa Claus Knows If You’ve Been Naughty Or Nice (12/16/2016)
Ten Questions To Power Up Your “Leadership Presence” (7/19/2016)
Why You Don’t Believe Me When I Say “I’m Listening” (7/5/2016)
Tips to Increase Leadership Presence (2/1/2016)
Why First Impressions Stick (5/1/2015)
Has Your Collaboration Strategy Fallen Into The Say-Do Gap? (2/1/2015)
10 Powerful and Simple Body Language Tips for 2015 (1/1/2015)
Is Your Body Language Sabotaging Collaboration? (10/1/2014)
Body Language for Videoconferences (6/1/2014)
5 Ways To Project Confidence (5/8/2014)
Do You Work For A Bully? (4/8/2014)
8 Tips For Collaborative Leadership (3/8/2014)
Why You Should Reach Out and Touch Someone (2/11/2014)
10 Simple and Powerful Body Language Tips for 2014 (1/1/2014)

Copyright© 2023 carolkinseygoman.com · Privacy Policy · Website by evelurie.com

  • Linkedin
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Book Now