The Spirit of Collaboration
I define collaboration as a group of people working together to reach a common goal or outcome. The group may have varied skills, abilities, education levels and even interests but they have a clear vision of what the outcome is and are committed to achieving it.
The collaborative team must have good communication skills, understand the goal, be prepared to commit time and energy, be willing to support and help others and recognize and value the other team member's differences.
Hi Wendi,
Well done. This certainly defines almost every aspect of operations in the Career College sector.
Corporate and campus-based teams must work together in the ways you have described to create success on a regular basis.
Trust is also a key element that is often overlooked or assumed to be an entitlement. All team members must earn the respect of their peers and gain the trust of the entire group to ensure the collaboration will be successful.
Collaboration is when a group of people work together to achieve a establish goal. If a team member in the group need help to complete his task another team member will help him for the benefit of the whole group. To create and maintain an collborative environment in a group I believe is really important to emphazice the benefit and rewards that the whole team is going to receive. Also it's importante to motivate the people focusing in the WHOLE not in the individual.
Hi Digna,
You are correct. Collaboration is critical in the career college business. Every team member must first understand the overall team goal, as you have stated. Then, to maximize success there must be a mutual feeling of repect and trust among the individual team members. Good job!
I would define collaboration as the process of working with a group of individuals towards a common goal.
I believe that open communication, solid organizational skills, and dependability are essential in creating and maintaining a collaborative team environment.
John,
Great points. In our business you have to encourage collaboration within each department while creating a strong link between every key perfomance area in the school--admissions, education, career services, compliance and fiscal responsibility.
All the skills you have mentioned are critical but clear and concise communication is the key.
Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals — for example, an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus. Most collaboration requires leadership, although the form of leadership can be social within a decentralized and egalitarian group. In particular, teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources. Collaboration is also present in opposing goals exhibiting the notion of adversarial collaboration, though this is not a common case for using the term.
Hi TJ,
Great detailed, textbook style response. Do these concepts apply to a recent campus-based project you were involved in?
Did you or the team leader engage the team and use some of these ideas to deliver a positve outcome or did the team struggle to understand the spirit of successful collaboration?
My personal definition of Collaboration is when a diverse group is working functionally together. Functionality would consist of a shared environment of ideals, concerns and work. It would be an environment of honesty, openness, support and progression.
Hi Leslie,
Great points. I would also add "trust" to your honesty, openness, support and progression. I have found the most productive team environments are those where people with different, high-level skill sets trust one and other. This trust allows them to focus on their individual roles, bringing the team to higher levels and maximizing efficiency.
Best,
Greg Nathanson
The Spirit of Collaboration is a lot easier to develop when there is a common theme or thread that binds members of a team. I have the luxury of having a binding force that is part of my team I am the Education Manager for The Harley-Davidson program at UTI and Harley-Davidson is something that bonds all of my instructors together it is a lifestyle and helps when we are working for a common goal and that goal is to help create the best technicians we can for the Harley-Davidson Dealer Network. I have found that being from this industry helps with the Spirit of Collaboration.
Jon,
Great points. Everyone should aim to create a common-themed culture filled with the passion of the Harley-Davidson folks. I have seen this bond and sense of pride, first-hand, while touring campuses around the country.
I am going to use your comments in the future when I discuss the importance of culture in training sessions.
Thanks,
Greg
I see this as the working together, of two or more people, with expectations of aiming their thoughts and processes toward a common goal.
Some characteristics I believe are essential are:
Good listener / communicator
Punctual
Collegiality
Trustworthy
Intelligent
Humble
Cllaboration is being open in communication and coopertive with each team member. Team members should be open minded to the other team members opinions and be able to make dicessions based on achieving the teams goals.
My personal definition of collaboration is taking a group of ideas, opinions, information, etc. and turning it into one common idea. I feel that theses characteristics are essential for a collaborative team to be effective…..Trust, wisdom, fun, flexibility, honesty, passion, and integrity.
Hi Michael,
Great comments. You have touched upon all the key elements that create success. It is critical that you collect team members with unique strengths and different points of view. As the leader, you then guide, direct and inspire all members to collaborate and deliver on the task at hand and/or the ultimate long term goal.
I concur with John; collaboration, in it's simplest form, is the process of a group of individuals working towards a common goal. In addition, I think it is a group of individuals learning and problem solving together.
Honesty, organizational skills, and a can do attitude are pertinent when trying to build a successful collaboration.
My personal definition of collaboration is when all team members are committed to working together to reach both personal and professional goals.
I firmly believe that to achieve a collaborative environment, the leader must create an environment which is based on mutual respect and trust. The leader must model that he or she respects differences in cultural and work styles and that each member brings to the organization key strengths that are necessary for success. At the same time, he or she must also model that each team member has the responsibility in helping others to reach higher levels of learning and performance.
I define collaboration as the joint effort of two or more individuals towards a clearly difine goal. The effort of each member increase the value of the total team, one's strength becomes the strength of the team.
To maintain a collaborative team environment there are various elements needed such as: honesty in every action, a clear understanding of the goals, to avoid confusion, effective communication and placing the team interest first.
Hi Ricardo,
Great comments. The only detail I might add, which would be included under your "effective communication," is clear and concise performance measurement compared to a pre-determined goal, available on a daily basis for front line team members and reviewed by all on a weekly basis.
Best,
Greg
