Chapter Extension 1 Improving Your Collaboration Skills Study

Chapter Extension 1 Improving Your Collaboration Skills

Study Questions Q 1: Q 2: Q 3: Q 4: Why learn collaboration skills? What is collaboration? What is an effective team? What skills are important for effective collaboration? Q 5: What characterizes productive conflict? Q 6: How can you improve your collaboration skills? Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -2

Q 1: Why Learn Collaboration Skills? • Collaboration is a key business skill in the twenty-first century • Distributed collaborative teams are becoming increasingly common • Collaboration skills will help project teams become more productive, do better work, and waste less time. Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -3

Q 2: What Is Collaboration? • Collaboration occurs when two or more people work together to achieve a common goal, result, or work product • Requires: communicating, sharing information, sharing knowledge, combining skills, sharing time • Cooperation is not collaboration Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -4

Importance of Feedback and Iteration Step 1 – One person produces something Step 2 – Others review and comment Step 3 – If changes needed, make changes Step 4 – If changes made, go to Step 2; otherwise stop Ø Collaboration takes several weeks, not a few hours or days Ø It takes time to create a collaborative team Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -5

Critical Collaboration Drivers • Communication – Two key elements: 1. Communication skills and group member abilities 2. Availability of effective communication systems • Content management – – Who made what changes, when, why Rights to create, edit, delete, and read-only content privileges may vary • Workflow control – – Specifies ordering of tasks, processes for handling rejected changes and dealing with exceptions Often not needed for one-time, ad hoc groups working on short-term project Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -6

Q 3: What Is an Effective Team? Hackman’s three characteristics of team effectiveness: 1. Accomplish goals and objectives that satisfy sponsors and clients 2. Over time, working together is easier and more effective 3. Members learn and feel fulfilled Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -7

Accomplishing Goals and Objectives • Business world goals and objectives seldom clearly defined, no definite answer • Team must create common understanding of goals and objectives Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -8

Improve the Ability for the Team to Work Together • Learn each others’ strengths and how to best use them • Learn weaknesses, hot buttons and how to avoid or manage them • Learn to give and receive critical feedback • Come to respect and trust each other Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -9

Learning and Fulfillment • Team should foster personal learning and positive feelings from working with group • Provide sense of belonging • Facilitate developing new friendships Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -10

Q 4: What Skills Are Important for Effective Collaboration? Team member behavior influenced by: – – – Natural skills and abilities Childhood formative environment Past team experiences Attitude (and skill) of team leader Nature of the work and its relationship to member interests and abilities Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -11

What Qualities, Attitudes, and Skills Help Make a Good Collaborator? Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -12

Q 5: What Characterizes Productive Conflict? • Identify differences in perspective and decide if those differences are consequential • Understand that rational people have different perspectives based on: – Understanding task differently – Having different experience – Having different knowledge • Use empathetic thinking – strive to hear, learn, and adapt, when appropriate • Avoid personal attacks • Agree on a common set of criteria for evaluating and choosing alternatives Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -13

Q 6: How Can You Improve Your Collaboration Skills? • Show up. . . get involved • Assess yourself • Try new behaviors. . . and watch what happens • Keep Hackman’s three characteristics of team effectiveness in mind • Engage in productive conflict • Ask for feedback and listen to it • Keep at it Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -14

Active Review Q 1: Q 2: Q 3: Q 4: Why learn collaboration skills? What is collaboration? What is an effective team? What skills are important for effective collaboration? Q 5: What characterizes productive conflict? Q 6: How can you improve your collaboration skills? Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall CE 1 -15

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