Our Survival Depends on Collaboration

It’s true, right? Together we can do what we can’t do on our own.
 
It’s true on every level – from being paramount to our survival
 
• To having a working toilet – call a plumber!
• To printing a sign – I don’t have the material nor equipment nor creative design skills myself.
• To running a household – the more hands the better
• Or in business – the executive components to run an organization effectively; each department focusing on their expertise.
 
This brings us to the conclusion that individuals focusing on their field and strengths help make the organization strong – and as these competencies and subject matter experts work together it can produce a great outcome for all.
 
This of course is an obvious theory but in practice we tend to lack the understanding of this truth regarding collaboration.
 
Organizations typically prioritize other components that create collaboration barriers rather than advancing working together and understanding that will in turn enhance these other components – i.e. productivity, revenue, positive regard for teammates, synergy, teamwork and communication.
 
Communication for survival
 
As a therapist, but also as a human, I’ve seen and studied that isolation does not produce a favorable result. And yet, isolation is reflected in the way of making plans and in prioritizing the dissemination of information and plans rather than devising processes together.
 
One thing that most relationships/organizations/businesses have continued weakness in and need for is communication.
 
It’s the key to marriage, right?
 
To project management.
To solving problems.
To identifying the problem.
To making sure we are not over or under feeding our pets!
 
Opening lines of communication definitely enhances it. Multiple ways to communicate help promote communication and reveals the priority placed on it but with numerous forms of communication we can still not communicate or not communicate well.
 
This ideal must be present, prioritized and acted on or it will continue to fall short of what it could be and the result will be a guaranteed decrease in productivity and effectiveness or both.
 
Developing our individual and corporate ways of communication will be critical for our survival and for our businesses, for our marriages and for every area of our lives.
 
If we do not make it a priority to communicate well and often then we are hindering ourselves and those we work with and in organizations, we continue to cap the success that can come only with active and continual communication.

Related Articles