Collaborate to beat the odds

Today makes the start of the FIFA Football World Cup in Russia, so this insight post explores the topic of team collaboration, one of the next decade’s essential skills, from the perspective of the world’s most popular sporting activity.

The essence of team collaboration is what enabled Leicester City to move from 5000/1 outsiders to Premier League champions in 2016 and how the Cameroon national team gained the admiration of the world at the Italia 90 tournament.

It’s why these teams can outperform those outfits that have an expensively assembled collection of players, like some human game of Top Trumps, but little team spirit or collaborative understanding between the individual components.

So how should good managers in business or in sport, create the right conditions for collaboration to thrive?

The first step for us as leaders is to ask ourselves some important questions about how well our teams are currently performing, whether we’re providing the right environment and sending the right messages to enable our teams to collaborate successfully.

To return to our sporting theme, managers that handle team motivation behind closed doors, in the dressing room and on the training ground invariably generate a stronger bond with their players than those that choose to air their views through press conferences or the back pages of the newspapers.

As a learning organisation, Melius focusses on developing the skills that enable change to occur. For the development of effective collaboration, we all need to develop a specific set of skills that enable us to work with others in a more effective manner.

1.       Communicate openly and honestly

2.       Be real

3.       Persuasion

4.       Compromise

5.       Tolerance

6.       Put the team first

7.       Be dependable

And just as importantly leaders and team members need to actively flush out miscommunications, misunderstandings and personal dynamics that impede collaboration. Understanding of team dynamics and people’s preferred work styles can play an important part in this process.

The benefits of collaboration in any organisation are numerous. If the members of your team have the right skills sets, the results from their collaborative efforts will reach new heights – maybe your team could be the next 5000/1 champions or the unknown entity that take the world by storm.

At Melius, our talent management team can help business leaders to boost results by improving team working across the organisation from the boardroom to the shop floor. Get in touch with Melius to find out more about how this approach could benefit your organisation.