I think it’s universally accepted that collaboration and cooperation are critical to the success of project based work. That being said, how should organizations define cooperation success and how do they achieve it? In an article written by Sue Dyer for Projects@Work, she suggests three levels of cooperation:
- Cooperation
- Collaboration
- Co-Creation
"These three levels of cooperation are available to all teams," writes Dyer. Let’s talk about her five suggestions for pushing cooperation to the next level.
Tip #1: Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities
Successful cooperation depends on clearly defining what you are trying to accomplish. It’s easy to make assignments and hold each other accountable for whether or not specific tasks are completed, but cooperation can only happen if everyone understands the vision of what they are doing "together."
Tip #2: Commit to Being Fair
The foundation of trust in any kind of strategic partnership or cooperative effort is a commitment to being fair. Successful project management cooperation requires that team members have confidence that they will be treated fairly. When that atmosphere exists, cooperation and synergy really begins.
Tip #3: Get Off Your Butts
Objectives might not always be easy. If all you ever hear is, "yes, but," you’re team is defeated before you’ve even begun. This can make the team adversarial—the opposite of cooperative. Take time to find out why there is push-back and work together to find a solution. Cooperation implies working together to overcome obstacles. Saying, "Just make it happen," doesn’t just make it happen.
Tip #4: Create Accountability
Dyer recommends some kind of a scorecard for offering anonymous feedback, so team members can see where they stand with each other and on the objectives. I prefer making expectations clear in the beginning (see Tip #1), and regularly evaluating progress against the objectives. Of course, sometimes situations change which will require objectives to be adjusted. Regular and productive communication and collaboration will make this a seamless process.
Tip #5: Plan For Disagreements
Regardless of your particular work management plan, nothing ever seems to go exactly as planned—and people don’t always get along. Creating a conflict resolution plan before conflicts exist makes dealing with issues among team members easier to resolve.
Creating an atmosphere of cooperation, collaboration, and co-creation doesn’t just happen. It takes some elbow grease. I’d love to hear about successes you’ve experienced in this regard.
