Monday we introduced the idea that having a team or an individual’s cooperation is not enough. While cooperation keeps the peace it does not support growth, for the individual, or the business. Rather than settling for cooperation we should all be striving for more, for collaboration.
One way to support the shift to staff collaboration is to allow individuals and teams to contribute in a meaningful way.
Contribution is a fundamental need of all humans.
People want to contribute – they want to feel they matter – so let them. Collaboration is a conduit for enhancing strengths, bridging personal weakness and generating solutions. People grow from participation and connection to others.
Here are two ways you can support staff collaboration.
- Let them set the agenda and run the meeting
- Change your language to “we”. Speak about business in terms of we, not I or my. For example instead of saying “I need this on my desk by tonight” say “ We need this one and have a deadline of 5pm today. Can you get it done?”
Our challenge for you . . . start using WE language today!
Tomorrow we will continue the discussion by looking at organization, job descriptions and evaluations and how these support collaboration.