Unleashing your business potential through collaboration
Unleashing your business potential means adopting a collaborative mindset. A collaborative nature is essential to build any sustainable business.
BIG BAD CAPITALISM?
Often capitalism gets a bad rap – businesspeople are portrayed as self-centred, egotistical, and almost slavishly focused on profit and self-gain. But, if you stop to think about it, this is not what makes capitalism work. Sure, some companies run by sociopaths may succeed in the short term by being entirely selfish but for the most part businesses thrive through cooperation. If you think about the interconnectedness of our modern economic system it could not be any other way.
Just pause to think about all the other companies your business relies on everyday: Your accountants, your power company, your IT providers, your hardware suppliers, your software vendors, the utilities, and on and on and on. And then all those companies will be nested in a similar web of reliance. It’s really complex and running it all, allocating the resources where they are needed, is the capitalist market system.
We like to think of all these interconnected businesses as cogs in the mighty machine called
civilisation. It is often said that exploitation is the main feature of the capitalist system. This is false in our opinion. Our modern economy is actually the single most cooperative and collaborative
system ever devised. It is this cooperative nature that is the defining feature of the system with “exploitation” being a flaw or bug rather than a defining feature. Cooperation is what makes businesses succeed not exploitation. It is by working together that we build long term success.
A SPANNER IN THE WORKS – PLCS AND SHORT TERMISM
A lot of the bad rap that capitalism gets is because of a flaw in one segment of the system, namely large publicly owned companies (PLCs). There is a well-established problem where the people that run these companies are not the same as those who own them. This means that the long-term health of the company is often trumped by the short term demands of investors or the short-term reward of those who are running them. They become slaves to the quarterly results and bonuses.
Although not intentionally so, this system for large public companies seems set up to not only encourage short-termism but to necessitate it. Company directors that do take a longer-term approach will often be quickly replaced by shareholders keen for a quick return. The system itself often replaces anyone who does attend to the long terms needs of the business. All of this obviously disincentives long term collaboration.
This problem is exaggerated by the fact the top execs can often exit a company that is failing due to the short-term approach, before it goes wrong. Once they see the writing on the wall they then move onto the next corporate gig. This will be way before the public are even aware there is any writing to see. The fallout from the short-term, noncollaborative approach is left for some other sap to have on their CV. Many execs with “great” CV’s have incredibly lucrative careers doing just this.
THE PRIVATE BUSINESS EFFECT
Most privately owned companies are owned by the people that run them. The personal, financial rewards for the directors of most SMEs are very much tied to the long-term health of the business. As such, the problems of short termism outlined above are not so present. This means that a long-term collaborative approach makes not only makes good business sense but is also aligned with the personal goals of the people running the business. Now, this is not to say short termism and non-collaborative practices don’t go on in private businesses, there are certainly many example of that, but at least the system itself is not generating perverse incentives towards short-termism. This alignment of objectives would seem to give SMEs a competitive advantage. Indeed, this is born out in the business literature.
THE SELF-MANAGEMENT ADVANTAGE
A genuinely collaborative nature is especially important in businesses that adopt modern self-managing teams. Self management seems to be the way forward. In a rapidly changing world it seems to be the most appropriate way to cope. As such, the collaborative working required for such management will confer a competitive advantage.
If we try to eliminate hierarchies as much as possible, so teams need to sort out how they want to run things without “running it past the boss” then the need for a collaborative mindset is vital. In such SME companies virtual teams will form around different projects and initiatives, and these may include people from across the business, there will often be no official team leader. This is a very flexible and agile way of working that unleashes creativity but, without the traditional hierarchy, command and control system, we need everyone to be genuinely collaborative.
A BONUS ADVANTAGE!
This attitude and way of working internally within a business also helps forge strong external relationships with both suppliers and customers. Not only does this self-managing style lead to better and quicker decisions it is also more naturally inclusive of other stakeholders like customer and suppliers. Indeed, virtual teams for various projects may well include people outside the business from customers and/or suppliers. This then leads to a closer, mores stable, and sustainable business. Collaboration always wins over selfishness in the long run.
HOW TO FOSTER COLLABORATION?
1. VIRTUAL TEAMS
Encourage people to self-organise into virtual teams. This way of working enables people to practise collaborative working. Virtual teams form around specific projects or functions (e.g. product development) and may draw upon different people, from across the company, who may have different day to day line managers. These cross functional teams naturally foster collaborative working but the real magic happens if they are allowed to self organise and self manage without a “boss” or team leader in charge. Woking in this way really allows everyone to practise the art of collaboration and become masters at it.
2. DEVELOP SELF AWARENESS
Encourage people to be self-aware and think about their team strengths and weaknesses. Personal development programmes or plans (PDPs) should be more than just about skills training. If part of PDPs deal with developing self-awareness and understanding of how different people interpret the world in very different ways, then this helps people be collaborative. Understandiing one’s self and others is a key component of any relationship.
3. TEACH CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Help people develop conflict management techniques to facilitate better team working. When conflict does occur (which it will!) equip people with the self-development tools to handle them in a productive way. Conflict and debate are a vital part of the creative process if handled well. It’s not about removing conflict. It’s about having good conflict rather than toxic conflict (drama). This is a skill that can be taught.
This article is one in our series on unleashing business potential through people power. We hope you found it useful, please feel free to share it or better still let us know what you think.
If you want to know more about how to unleash potential through people power then check out our other articles in the series.
And, if you want to know more about how our third-party logistics service can help you unleash your
business potential by taking away all the hassle of logistics then please do give us a call.
UNLEASH YOUR BUSINESS POTENTIAL SERIES
1. CURIOSITY
2. COLLABORATION
3. CREATIVITY
4. CARING / COMPASSION
5. CALMNESS
6. ACCOUNTABILITY