Are Cooperation & Collaboration The Same?

Let's Stop Confusing Cooperation and Teamwork with Collaboration

Curated from the blog: Jess Lynn Stoner +Jesse Lyn Stoner

Often the words collaboration, coordination, and cooperation are used to describe effective teamwork. But they are not the same, and when we use these words interchangeably, we dilute their meaning and diminish the potential for creating powerful, collaborative environments.

Collaboration has been a big word in the news lately, most recently due to Marissa Mayer’s explanation of her decision to bring Yahoo employees back to the office: “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side.”

Mayer’s belief that we work together better when we have real relationships, and that it is easier to build relationships when you have face-to-face contact is not unfounded. Coordination and cooperation is essential for effective and efficient work accomplishment, and some research supports the notion that some face-to-face time makes a big difference.

Mayer’s decision might create better teamwork – cooperation, communication and coordination – but it won’t create collaboration unless she is intentional about creating a collaborative culture.

Definitions.

Collaboration is working together to create something new in support of a shared vision. The key points are that is is not an individual effort, something new is created, and that the glue is the shared vision.

Coordination is sharing information and resources so that each party can accomplish their part in support of a mutual objective. It is about teamwork in implementation. Not creating something new.

Cooperation is important in networks where individuals exchange relevant information and resources in support of each other’s goals, rather than a shared goal. Something new may be achieved as a result, but it arises from the individual, not from a collective team effort.

All three of these are important. All three are aspects of teamwork. But they are not the same!

We can find examples of effective teamwork in all types of environments – sports, military, and even historically in politics (e.g. Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet). All high performance teams have common characteristics. But depending on their purpose and intent, they might rely more on coordination or cooperation than on collaboration.

When is Collaboration Important?

In a network environment, where there is not interdependence, collaboration is not essential to the creative process. Through cooperative sharing of information and resources, creativity emerges through individuals and is hopefully recognized and supported.

However in an interdependent organization, collaboration is the bedrock of creative solutions and innovation. If Yahoo is to reinvent itself, collaboration will be essential.

Collaboration Will Not Occur By Decree.

Can collaboration occur at a distance? Absolutely, IF (and this is a big IF) leaders are intentional about building collaborative environments, model collaborative leadership practices, and create opportunities to bring people together for occasional face-to-face conversations.

Collaborative leadership is based on respect, trust and the wise use of power. Leaders must be willing to let go of control. Collaboration does not naturally occur in traditional top-down, control-oriented hierarchical environments.

People need the freedom to exercise their own judgment. There has to be room for experimentation, failure and learning from mistakes. And there needs to be an opportunity for people to think together, valuing each other’s perspective and contributions, in order for creative new ideas to emerge.

Source link: http://seapointcenter.com/cooperation-teamwork-and-collaboration/
Lynn's latest book is Full Steam Ahead - click here to learn more

Here's a great resource to easily implement better team collaboration, productivity and outcomes: The 1% Edge - Power Strategies To Increase Your Management Effectiveness | on Kindle - The Workbook

Leading By The Incompetent - Should I Leave?

 (Image courtesy of Flickr user JD Hancock)

I ran across this article that I wanted to post. Warning..the language is a bit harsh.  But it really makes the point and emphasizes the point I want to make:

Career Advice: Leaving is a Career Management Strategy

Source: (MoneyWatch)  COMMENTARY You hear it all the time: "He's completely clueless." "What in the world were they thinking?" "That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard." And when you hear it coming out of your own mouth, that means you're having an "idiot boss" moment and are probably heading for the margaritas, the LinkedIn (LNKD) jobs page, or both.

It's rough when your boss is an idiot. Even worse is when the CEO is an idiot. And sometimes the idiocy propagates throughout the entire management team like a contagious superbug.

A friend of mine is jumping ship from a once-great company that's now run by morons. The company used to have a market cap of $50 billion. Now it's worth about one tenth of 1 percent of that. When my friend actually pondered if he should quit the Popsicle stand for a better position at an awesome, growing company, I thought, "OMG, the idiocy's gotten to him too!"

I have those idiot boss moments all the time. No, I don't really have a boss these days, but now it's even worse because I'm always hearing and writing about executives and boards of companies that make the same dumb mistakes over and over. And some of them are pretty hard to believe.

10 reasons why smart people do dumb things
3 types of bosses that should be fired
7 tips to manage your boss -- and yourself

Over the past year alone, executives of tech giant HP (HPQ) and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) couldn't have done a better job of driving their companies off a cliff if they'd cut the break lines and floored the accelerator pedals themselves.

RIM's co-CEOs recently stepped down, replacing themselves with a guy who plans to keep things more or less status quo. Investors, who lost about $70 billion over the past three years or so, weren't too happy about that. Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Yeah, it's not too bright, either.

Yahoo's (YHOO) corporate color is purple. Company founders Jerry Yang and David Filo thought that was the color of creativity and innovation. After five years of mega screw-ups and gross mismanagement, I'm beginning to wonder if somebody dropped a batch of magic mushrooms into the purple paint at company headquarters. I don't think shareholders would be one bit surprised to learn that Smiley here, from Yahoo's corporate values page, is actually running the show.

Enough with the fun and games; let's get serious about what you should do when you have those idiot boss moments. Here's a hint: it's not necessarily all bad; you have more choices than you think.

Are you sure it's not you? In the case of my friend's company, as well as Yahoo, RIM and HP, there is definitely something screwy going on with the leaders of those companies. But that's not always the case. Sometimes we lash out at our bosses because we're frustrated with ourselves, jealous that someone else got the promotion, or angry that we're not doing better than we are. Sometimes we're looking for a fall guy or someone to demonize because it's too painful to look in the mirror. Not that I'm a shrink or anything, but it's often the case, nevertheless.

Cut them some slack. To be fair, most employees aren't aware of everything that goes on behind closed doors and exactly why decisions they may think are stupid are actually made. And even if they are dumb, bosses are human too, which means they're allowed to make mistakes. Nevertheless, it's frustrating when those mistakes give you a massive headache or a shrinking bank account. In that case, you still have three more choices.

Say something to someone. Not that I'm saying you should, but before you drink yourself into oblivion, drive yourself nuts, or throw in the towel and move to a deserted island, you might consider actually saying something to your boss or someone in the chain of command. Who knows? They might actually appreciate the feedback. Maybe you know something they haven't thought of. Or maybe they'll label you a troublemaker and fire you on the spot. I'd think long and hard about it, but in any case, it's an option.

Head for the bar. Or better still, the gym. When you're stressed out, burned out, or just plain mad at the world for sticking you with a bunch of idiots for managers, it always helps to remind yourself that life is more than your job. So, whatever works for you to push the reset button and get some perspective, do that -- you'll feel better. And keep doing it over and over until you can't take it anymore. Then you're down to the last option.

Head for the hills. The reason why you should never let any of this stuff really get to you, ruin your day, or ruin your life, is because you live in a free country. And while it's a really tough job market, you can always quit and do your own thing or, in time, find another job. Sometimes even committing in your head to get the heck out as soon as you can and beginning the search process is enough to make you feel better. Really.

Those are my five ideas for what to do about an idiot boss. If you've got a better idea, I'm sure we'd love to hear it. Image courtesy of Flickr user JD Hancock.

Reward Value, Not Face Time

Featured Category: Leading, Managing

Source: Reprinted from HBR.org.: February 21, 2012 by Tony Schwartz

"My manager expects me to be at my desk from 9 to 5," a highly successful salesperson lamented during a break at a session I was delivering at a progressive company in Silicon Valley. "I love my job," she went on, "but I have an hour and fifteen minute commute each way, and it's just wearing me down."
"Could you do your work from home?" I asked. "Absolutely," she told me.

How crazy is that? Her boss shouldn't just be allowing her to work from home, he ought to be encouraging it.

Most employers still tell their employees when to come to work, when to leave, and how they're expected to work when they're there. Why not measure employees by the value they create, rather than by the number of hours they sit at a desk?

Too many companies continue to operate by the premise that their employees can't be fully trusted, and so treat them as children, who must be continuously monitored.

The solution is to hire people you're prepared to trust, and then treat them as adults, capable of making responsible adult choices. Do that, and it's a good bet they will. Indeed, considerable evidence suggests that the more confidence managers have in their people, the better they perform.

At the same time, companies who give employees more autonomy have every right to expect accountability. That begins with clearly and explicitly defining what success looks like in any given job, and making that, rather than face time, the measuring stick.

I learned this very quickly in my own company. My first instinct was to have everyone at the office at the same time, because it seemed the most efficient way to work together, and it was convenient for me.

As it turned out, one executive had three young children, and lived more than an hour from the office. Spending that much time commuting wouldn't have served her or us well. Another employee told me she was much more productive working from home. What I know now is that she gets a ton of work accomplished there.

A third employee's commute takes twice as long if he leaves during rush hour, so now he comes in early and leaves early, when he's not working from home. I myself like to write at home in the early morning, and come into the office later.

There are times, it turns out, when it's important to have our whole team together, so we do try to schedule at least one day a week when that can happen.

What we've created is a variation on something called the "Results Only Work Environment," which was first launched among corporate employees at Best Buy. "The simplest definition of a ROWE," founders Cali Ressler and Jodi Thompson have written, "is that each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done."

Plainly, there are jobs where face-time is critical, such as a factory worker, or a salesperson in a retail store. Even at that, technology has made it possible to do many such jobs from anywhere. Most Jet Blue customer service agents, for example, work from home.

Giving people more freedom isn't just about when and where they work, it's also about how they work. Letting go of the "how" was something I found more challenging as a leader, because I invariably had strong opinions about the best way to do almost anything.

Over time, I discovered that the more autonomy I gave people, the more confident and expert they became in their domains, the more ownership they took of their results and the happier they were at work. I do weigh in today, and I try to be the voice of the big picture, but I almost never insist on my point of view.

If you define clear deliverables, and give people full responsibility for achieving them, my experience is they'll over deliver far more often than they fall short. They'll also feel more comfortable seeking help when they need it. As Hew Evans, a Sony HR director in Asia, puts it: "If your manager knows what you're doing all the time, you're not doing you're job, and he's not doing his."

In our work with organizations, we do an exercise in which we ask employees to define their workdays in a way that would allow them to feel most productive and satisfied. Then we ask managers to meet with each of their employees and talk about how to best meet each team member's unique preferences, while also taking account of the team's overall needs.

The job of a leader or a manager, I've concluded, isn't to tell people how to get their jobs done, or when and where they do their best work. Rather, it's to free, fuel and inspire them to bring the best of themselves to work every day.
Reprinted from HBR.org.

Man Fired - Wife Has Cancer

#SHRM & #HR - Have you guys seen this article? - I invite your comments from an HR perspective...

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/06/16/wife-gets-cancer-husband-gets-fired/#aol-comments