Collaboration wasn't meant to be beige

Here’s a question for you. How do you stop people from ‘watering down’ their own value in a collaborative endeavour?

It’s one of the great paradoxes of collaboration: the very act of working together on something means many folks end up ‘playing along’ with something that just isn’t up to scratch.

Perhaps they don’t want to rock the boat. Perhaps it doesn't feel safe enough to speak up or challenge the direction of a conversation. Or maybe they’re just being such a Good Team Player that they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. 

Whatever the cause, the result (and the experience!) can be... underwhelming.

So, how do you avoid this happening?

Here are 3 quick and easy-to-implement ideas to try right away:

1. Kick off any collaboration by asking everyone the question: “If you were doing this alone, how would you want to go about  it?” This allows you to hear what people are bringing to the table in terms of past experience, preferences and strengths - as well as the bits where they’re saying, “I have no idea!” 
2. Hardwire critique into the process - which reduces your dependency on people’s willingness to speak up. For example, instead of asking, “Does anyone have any objections to this?”, instead say, “Let’s give ourselves 10 minutes to stress test this idea.” In other words, make dissent an expectation, not an invitation. 
3. Rate satisfaction levels with the idea's progress: You could use a simple 5 points scale, where ‘5’ is “love it” and ‘1 is “I can’t agree to this”. If someone gives less than a 4, you can ask them, “What would you need before you can give a 4 or a 5?”. This can be done pretty conversationally (no Survey Monkey needed) or, if you're in a group setting, could be done by everyone holding up a hand showing their score using their fingers. The key is asking people to quantify their level of comfort, not to hide in the ambiguity of silence.   

Of course, no one of these is a silver bullet, and all rely on a foundation of trust, safety and genuine willingness to work.

But by implementing simple practices such as these, nudge by nudge you can make it the ‘norm’ for everyone to bring their full value to the table. 

Until next time,
Simon