How Organizations can 'Move from a Culture of Conflict to a Culture of Collaboration'...

A project review meeting was going on in a company... 

Conflict

The project leader asked the team why the project was not going at the speed as intended...The participants in the meeting were giving different reasons for the slowing down of the project. One participant said that the other department did not supply information at a critical time. Another participant blamed the production department for not supplying the raw material on time. Another participant said the team members were not supporting each other in completing the work on time. Finally, the leader asked the participants what each department would do to complete the project.

Reading the brief above, what do you think is the issue with the team described above as to why the project is getting delayed...?

It is very obvious from the brief that there is no collaboration in the team. There seems to be a  lot of unresolved conflict among the members. 

What is Organizational Culture?

An organization's culture is built on the values and beliefs that the organization nurtures and promotes. To that extent, an organization's culture is a reflection of its values and beliefs.

On a behavioral level, organizational culture refers to the way the organization goes about achieving its goals on a day-to-day basis. It means the way employees work and interact with each other, i.e. the organizational behavior. 

However, in my perception, the quickest way to assess and understand the culture of an organization is to see how the individuals and teams in the organization respond to stressful situations.  

A Culture of Conflict or a Culture of Collaboration...?

An organization is made up of individuals and individuals have different ideologies and values.

Diversity or Conflict?

In such a scenario, there is bound to be differences of opinion between people.  This is called diversity. And diversity is a  blessing when you use it to achieve organizational objectives.  

On the other hand, the general population tends to take diversity as an offense to their personality. Some think 'anybody different from themselves is an enemy to them'. Sometimes, people hate others who are different from themselves.  

When people in an organization perceive diversity negatively, conflict is easily generated among the employees; and employees pit themselves against each other. It generates a climate of competition (i.e. employees competing with each other for power and position) rather than a climate of collaboration (i.e. employees working as a team).  Ego clashes become the norm in such climate and as a result, organizational productivity suffers.

That is how the culture of an organization vitiates. 

On the other hand, organizations can nurture a culture of collaboration where employees understand the goals of the organization and move towards achieving them as a team. Organizations can do this by promoting values and behaviors that promote collaboration. 

Six Collaborative Behaviors for Building a Collaborative Culture

Collaborative Climate

In my work with organizations, I have zeroed in on six values and behaviors that promote a culture of collaboration in organizations. I have observed that promoting and nurturing these six collaborative behaviors can help an organization make the transition from a conflicting culture to a collaborative culture:

1. Taking Ownership at Work

Ownership at the personal level is the first value that organizations need to nurture. It lays the foundation for the next level i.e. working together. Without ownership at a personal level, no organization can succeed in developing a collaborative culture which is a prerequisite for organizational success. A culture of ownership is one where employees feel that it is their organization and take initiative to solve problems and find new innovations without being told or prompted.

2. Open and Empathetic Communication

Communication is the lifeblood of any organization. But, if the people in an organization want to work together seamlessly, communication has to be open and empathetic. Open communication happens when the people in the organization talk issues openly and the top management shares information with all the levels of employees. This builds trust among employees. To inculcate open communication as a value, hiding information for personal gain should be discouraged and any kind of manipulation should be punished by the management.  

In the same way, one needs to develop empathy for the person who is communicating. Empathy creates emotional bonding among employees and relationships improve as a result. These two qualities of communication help organizations build teams that perform at their best.  

 

3. Mutual Appreciation and Recognition 

People like to be appreciated and recognized for their good work. Appreciation is like food for the emotional health of a person. Appreciating and recognizing each other at work is a behavior that motivates the employees of an organization to give their best performance every time. However, in most organizations, appreciation is perceived negatively and is discouraged. Often, people take good work for granted and no appreciation is given to people who make extra efforts. Managements often think that appreciation makes people slack and that 'employees don't listen to you if you give them appreciation.' But, this is a mistake that managements should correct.

4. Sharing the Credit of Success and the Responsibility of Failure Equally

This is one value that catapults an organization's culture. If one member of a team or a department shares the credit of success with the whole team, camaraderie flourishes, and everyone wants to be in such a team. If that member happens to be the team leader or the head of the department, the shared happiness is so much more. The same thing applies to failure as well. Teams that have members who share the responsibility of failure do much better than teams that have members who don't share the responsibility. However, this is not an easy value to inculcate for managements because the natural human tendency is towards taking credit for success and disowning the responsibility of failure. However, with persistent efforts, organizations can inculcate this value into their organizations. 

5. Collaborative Problem-solving 

In the current scenario of business, organizations face issues daily. Hence, problem-solving becomes a daily activity for most organizations. In such a scenario, it is good that problem-solving is done collectively. Collaborative problem-solving has three merits to it: One, 'ten thinking heads can generate a better solution to a problem than one head thinking'; Two, all the members are involved in collective problem-solving and as a result, trust and bonding are built. Three, there is a chance to use the large pool of talent that is available to the organization. 

However, in most organizations, problem-solving is done individually as it is assumed that problem-solving is the duty of the team leader or the department head. There are many reasons why problem-solving is done individually, lack of time being one reason.    

6. Positive Confrontation

Taken positively, confrontation can become a great tool for growth, both personally and organizationally. For, in confrontation, one gets the opportunity to get constructive feedback from others which, in turn, provides an opportunity to improve one's performance. However, in many organizations, confrontation becomes almost non-existent as obedience to management is upheld as a value. Such being the scenario, organizations need to foster positive confrontation as a value because true innovation is possible with confrontation; and not with submissiveness.  

Miracles Happen with Collaboration... 

Miracles

When organizations nurture and sustain a collaborative culture, they start seeing miracles in their organizations. For, in collaboration alone can we build great organizations that perform up to their highest potential and achieve unprecedented success...So,

LETS' BUILD COLLABORATIVE CULTURES! 

You can contact the author to learn more about organizational culture and how organizations can build a collaborative culture. The author is an Organizational Culture Coach, Psychotherapist, L&D Expert, and Behavioral Trainer.