Clarity is the first step of powerful collaboration. Here is a five-step process I came across earlier this week that makes a lot of sense (By Rachel Kellogg):

1. Get your team on the same page.Everyone in your department needs to be able to agree on at least one competitive advantage. Ask the group to tell you what they think the competitive advantage of the company is to find out how many different perspectives you have to work with. Then you can narrow it down and communicate the best ones to the group.

2. Examine all of your deliverables.You can start by thinking about every process that happens in each department of the company. What are your company’s deliverables besides the product? How you deliver the product is often more important than the product itself. What does the company do to get results? How outstanding is your response time – or anything else that you don’t charge for?

3. Make competitive advantage positioning statements.These statements are measurable, objective, not stated by the competition and not clichéd. It’s best when you can be specific with statements like, “Ninety-five percent of our calls are answered in less than a minute.” Saying you offer great customer service or have a great reputation is expected – and are things your competitors would also claim.

4. Conduct market research.Ask existing customers what is most important in their buying decisions. Why did they pick you? Would they recommend you to their friends, and why? Fewer than 10 percent of middle-market companies conduct research, so 90 percent are just guessing what their customers want.

5. Integrate and communicate your competitive advantage. Consider putting policies and procedures in place to make sure what you’ve determined to be important continues to be a priority. If you’re going to say your advantage is that your response time is better than the rest, you’ll want to make sure it really is. And don’t forget to spread the news to everyone, not just your managers. Your sales team and customer service reps need to be able to tell clients why they should do business with you and not the other guy – or gal.

Best,

C/

www.ghostceo.com

We don’t always appreciate what we have, whether at home or at work. That angst that fights against complacency is actually a good thing – the sense that the grass is always greener on the other side is what makes us jump into new opportunities. That said, making a team work together with real synergy is not an everyday feat. Learn to spot the successes in your collaborations, so you can replicate that synergy elsewhere.

Does your team actually seem to enjoy working with each other? Happy people are productive people. If you find yourself actually looking forward to seeing the people at your office every day – well, that’s no small thing.

Then there’s the skill set. With an optimal balance where everyone is assigned tasks and workload according to their talents rather than which person has the smallest stack of projects on their desk, you’ll get real productivity.

Next, look at how your group talks to each other. If discussions are fluid, with plenty of back and forth, engaging ideas, and everybody listening to what other team members are saying, you’ve got something special. Far too many groups are dominated by someone with a forceful personality rather than expertise in all areas that the team has to work in. Freedom of speech and thought are not just good for civil society – they make businesses work better.

If you do recognize your team is functioning very well, analyze what it is about this group that works well. Often, it is based on good habits rather than some innate ability to work well with others. Try to transfer these habits to your other collaborative activities and watch your successes add up.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca