When you hear the words group project, what runs through your mind? Are you excited at the chance to share collective knowledge with your peer group? Or perhaps frustrated at the idea of shouldering all the work while others slack off and then get credit for all your work? Personally I know a little bit of both these things go through my head. After reading about internal collaboration in the work place, I wonder how many people think about workplace collaboration as a large scale ongoing group project.
The idea of sharing one's ideas and not receiving personal credit for them goes against most of what we're taught in United States schools. We are put into competition with one another from the beginning of our eduction. Top students are rewarded, when doing group work peer evaluations are done so as to not give everyone the same grade, and collaboration on school projects is called cheating. So when are we supposed to learn the skills needed to implement successful workplace collaboration?
The first step any company needs to take before starting a collaboration project is to take a hard look at their corporate culture. Are employees in constant competition or do they often work in teams? Do you encourage sharing of resources or keep files secure in only one location? While pretty much any business can morph into a more open workplace it is going to be much harder for companies with highly competitive cultures.
Once a company has decided to go forward in their collaboration venture they need to get their employees on board. No matter how open your company may be, if the majority of employees were schooled in the US they are probably going to have trouble learning how to share. All employees should understand that without everyone working together the business would not be as successful. No one should feel forced to add to an internal wiki, but instead should want to share their resources with team members. Consider trust building exercises or company retreats to help build a more community based culture.
Internal collaboration most likely isn't going to just work flawlessly overnight. Employees need to be gracefully ushered into a community that shares all their ideas, taking credit as a group rather than individually. Through internal collaboration companies can have the wisdom of the hive mind, which is much stronger than that of the individual. Each employee brings to the table their unique set of skills and knowledge to the whole making it more dynamic.
