COLLABORATION Simple, brilliant A Playbook of Ideas · A Playbook of Ideas Useful ideas from...

COLLABORATIONA Playbook of Ideas

Useful ideas from Crea7ve Huddle

20+ IDEAS FOR FOSTERING BETTER COLLABORATIONCollaboration and teamwork is really important. Over the past 20 years, the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has grown by over 50%.

But a great team is not just a group of great individuals: how a team works together is more important than who’s on the team. Great teams work really hard at collaboration.

One of the best ways to improve collaboration is by holding a team building workshop. This can be a really effective process to get team members aligned behind a clear purpose, with defined goals and roles. It can help teams participate equally,

bringing each member’s individual strengths to the forefront to help the group perform.As a facilitator, it’s my job to help teams do this with in a workshop as effectively as possible. I design and run workshops to help teams generate ideas, solve problems, explore opportunities and make decisions - together.But more about me later. For now, here are 20+ ideas for fostering better collaboration in your team. I hope you find them useful - do let me know if any have an impact on you and your team.James AllenFounder, Creative Huddle

Simple, brilliant ideas to help your team work better together - quickly!

Copyright Crea-ve Huddle Ltd. 2018

feedback@crea*vehuddle.co.uk

“Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people” – Steve Jobs

mailto:[email protected]


Google’s Project Aristotle research evaluated decades of academic research and studied hundreds of teams at Google to identify the dynamics of effective teams. Here’s what they found:

While each team is different, there are a number of common factors that go together to deliver a high level of performance. Number one is Psychological Safety: a safe, trusting environment where team members feel comfortable and confident enough to take risks and show vulnerability without feeling insecure or embarrassed. Next comes Dependability: you need to be able to count on your colleagues to get things done on time and to a high standard. At the same time, Autonomy is important: people in high-performing teams generally have the authority and

discretion to do their best work without being micromanaged. Hand in hand with this goes Equality: each person’s ideas build on those of others, and it doesn’t matter who contributed what. Everybody takes equal ownership of success and failure. Structure & Clarity are both important to keep everyone on the same page and pulling in the right direction, therefore clear goals and roles are essential. Great teams are clear on everyone’s strengths, weaknesses and special skills, and recognise and celebrate the diverse personalities within the group. A great way to

achieve this is through focusing on brilliant Communication: proactive and clear communication helps team members work together effectively by eliminating misunderstandings, information gaps and duplicated effort. Finally, and perhaps most important, comes Meaning & Impact: team members benefit greatly from a clear sense that they are working on something personally meaningful, that matters and creates change. Key to keeping a team motivated in this area is a sense of momentum, a feeling of clear progress made on important projects.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT TEAM?




“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” - Aristotle



NETWORKS, TEAMS & THE FUTURE OF COLLABORATIONDeloitte’s Human Capital research predicts that the most successful companies will be those that can “move faster, adapt more quickly, learn more rapidly, and embrace dynamic career demands.” These companies will be built around networks of high performing teams that are formed and disbanded quickly as projects are established and prioritised.These team networks will look more like ecosystems than traditional organisational hierarchies and as a result, instead of asking “For whom do you work?” we’ll be asking “With whom do you work?” People will likely be part of 2 or 3 separate teams at the same time.Deloitte says: “as organisations make this transition, they find that smaller teams are a natural way for humans to work. Research shows that we spend two orders of magnitude more time with people near our desk than with those more than 50 meters away. Whatever a hierarchical organisation chart says, real, day-to-day work gets done in networks.”The key to this new network of teams is that team members can begin collaborating quickly.

If one of your team development goals is to increase creative thinking and innovative ways of working, you’ll be encouraged to hear that innovation is very much a team exercise – the myth of the lone creative genius is just that, a myth.As Greg Satell writes in the Harvard Business Review: “Truly breakthrough innovations are not a single event, nor are they achieved by one person, or even within a single organisation. Rather, they are when ideas combine to solve important problems.”Satell recommends four ways to focus on innovation from a team development point of view:Hire for mission: look specifically for people interested in the problems you need to solve.

Promote psychological safety: a safe, trusting environment where team members feel comfortable enough to take risks and show vulnerability without feeling insecure or embarrassed.Create diversity: studies have shown that diverse teams are smarter, more creative, and examine facts more thoroughly.Value teamwork: A great team is not just a group of great individuals: how a team works together is actually more important than who’s on the team.Innovation is a key part of this: high performing teams bring together diverse individuals to collaborate on common issues, helping each other see problems from different perspectives.

CREATIVITY: A TEAM SPORT

“Top companies are built around systems that encourage teams and individuals to meet each other,

share information transparently, and move from team to team depending on the issue to be addressed.”

- DeloiCe






Amy Edmondson, author of Teaming, recognises that modern business requires teams to get used to working together quickly. She says: “A team is an established, fixed group of people cooperating in pursuit of a common goal. But what if a team disbands almost as quickly as it was assembled? What if you're a member of a temporary project team formed to solve a unique production problem? Or part of a group of managers with individual and shared responsibilities?”Here are her tips for jump-starting collaboration:Speak up: establish honest, direct conversation between team-mates. Get people comfortable with asking questions, acknowledging errors, raising issues and offering ideas.Listen intently: get everyone to commit to understanding their colleagues’ knowledge, expertise and ideas. Integrate different points of view: get the team clear on the range of opinions and ideas present in the group, and look for consensus on a collective way forward.Experiment iteratively: in today’s fast-moving, uncertain business environment, people tend to overanalyse - or alternatively, take big risks without properly considering the outcome. It’s better to take an iterative step-by-step approach, learning as you go.Take time to reflect: no matter how busy you are, its important to regularly take time to look back on your processes and outcomes to learn and improve.

HOW TO GET A TEAM WORKING TOGETHER - FAST

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” - Amy Poehler

WE NEVER THINK ALONEPhilip Fernbach and Steven Sloman are the authors of The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone. They offer a useful reminder of the importance of collaboration in helping us understand and pursue complex goals:“What really sets human beings apart is not our individual mental capacity. The secret to our success is our ability to jointly pursue complex goals by dividing cognitive labor. All of our world-altering innovations were made possible by this ability. Each of us knows only a little bit, but together we can achieve remarkable feats. Knowledge isn’t in my head or in your head. It’s shared.”And as they conclude: “A better understanding of how little is actually inside our own heads would serve us well.”






Useful ideas from Crea7ve Huddle feedback@crea*vehuddle.co.uk


HELPFUL TIPSAs the saying goes, "No man is an island.” We all need a little help now and again. But sometimes it seems as though everyone is too busy with their own projects to spare any time to help out on yours. So how do you ask for help?Well, the first thing is to ask. It seems obvious, but unless you ask you have no chance of securing help. People may not be as crazy busy as they look.The majority of people certainly won’t turn you down flat. By and large, people are inclined to help where they can. And if they can’t help, they might suggest someone who can.If you’re feeling on top of things, consider taking a moment to help out someone else. Perhaps they’re struggling with a task, or are feeling overwhelmed. A helping hand from you could be extremely welcome!It doesn’t have to be a big commitment, or take too long. For example tell them you have half an hour before your next appointment, is there anything you can do?You could offer to be a sounding board, or offer a different perspective. Or maybe you could suggest a useful approach, or know someone who can help further.It’s worth it - for both of you. They’ll feel grateful for the help, and you’ll feel good for offering it.

Design Thinking company IDEO promotes a “Culture of Helping” to foster innovation. As IDEO’s CEO Tim Brown says: “I believe that the more complex the problem, the more help you need. And that’s the kind of stuff we’re getting asked to tackle, so we need to figure out how to have a culture where help is much, much more embedded.”Lead by example: to embed this helping culture, IDEO leaders walk the talk by giving - and seeking - help themselves. Then, crucially, they should respect the helper by actually using the help.Incentivise: IDEO leaders recognise and reward help when they see its positive

impact. This illustrates to others that helping is an expected and rewarded behaviour. They include “help those outside your own team” as part of job descriptions or within assignments.Show people how: IDEO uses meetings and training sessions to teach people how to seek, find, give, and receive help effectively.It works: researchers found that the experience of successful helping boosted morale and job satisfaction. They conclude: “useful help at work lifts emotions; improves perceptions of coworkers, managers, and the organisation; and boosts intrinsic motivation to dig into the job.”

CREATE A CULTURE OF HELPING OTHERS

“We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.”

- W.H. Auden



If you want to get on better with someone, try imagining yourself in their shoes. It's all about using empathy to try and understand their situation, and consider how they feel about it.You can use a simple technique called Empathy Mapping to guide you. Run through the following:• What is your subject thinking?• What are they seeing?• What kinds of things are they

saying to the people they care about?

• What are they doing – either physical actions or projects?

• How are they feeling – what are their emotions at the moment?

• What are they hearing from colleagues, clients, friends?

It can be hard at first, especially if you don’t know someone very well, but give it a try. If there are areas you’re particularly in the dark over, that’s a good signal to try and find out more.Start by just asking them simple questions like: "What are you doing at the moment?” or "How are you feeling about that?” If you can get to know someone better, and see things from their perspective, you can develop a better relationship.Alternatively, here's a simple approach for encouraging teamwork. Come up with 10-20 words associated with collaboration, like helpful, fairness, sharing, encouraging. Then spend 10-20 minutes with your team, creating sentences including one or more of these words. Researchers found this simple exercise encourages group cooperation and teamwork.

USE EMPATHY TO FOSTER BETTER COLLABORATION

“In a high-IQ job pool, soft skills like discipline, drive and empathy mark those who emerge as outstanding.” - Daniel Goleman




HOW TO SAY NO TO COLLEAGUESIt can be difficult to say no when we are used to answering pleas for help, but sometimes it is necessary - say no politely, clearly and directly.Explain you are busy or can’t spare the time, you don’t have to go into detail. Don’t delay, and have a reply to hand for times you know you will be busy, or for people you find it particularly hard to say no to.Like: “I’d love to help but this week is a hectic one for me.” or “I can’t this time, sorry.” Keep it short and sweet. Resist offering to help later or asking them to extend their deadline, which just keeps it on your to do list and delays theirs. It is flattering to be asked for help, take it as a boost but know your limits.





Feel like you’re always in a meeting? Recent research shows that the average office worker spends 16 hours in meetings each week. A lot of the time is wasted too. Over a career, the average office worker sits through 9,000 hours of needless meetings - a year and ten days.One of the key reasons is that meetings have become a stalling tactic to avoid tough decisions. Individuals are terrified of making decisions, so they call meetings instead. Those meetings turn into more, and the cycle is often never ending.Author Al Pittampalli argues that a modern meeting should exist for one reason: to support a decision that has already been made.

When you have a decision to make, you must make the decision first, before you can call a meeting. By all means consult others individually through one-on-one conversations, but until you make your decision, a meeting can’t be called. The bias is towards action. If people agree with the decision, the meeting will be for agreeing on next steps. Before the meeting, communicate the reasoning behind your decision. Within the meeting, encourage a robust, honest debate. Thanks to your bias towards action, you’ve sped up the process significantly.

DECIDE BEFORE YOU MEET

“Always go into meetings or negotiations with a positive attitude. Tell yourself you're going to make

this the best deal for all parties.” - Natalie Massenet

For your next meeting, try doing something new. Have your meeting in a coffee shop, a park, while out walking. It could change the results, just by adding a different slant to proceedings.Fresh air, exercise, a change of scene - these are things we all crave when we need a break. That chance to refresh our minds enables connections to be made, and for ideas to surface. You and your colleagues may well follow this lead of altered boundaries, enabling you to speak and think in a different direction.

MOVING MEETINGS

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING THANKFUL

We’re often so busy that we don’t find the time to show appreciation to our teammates, for the hard work they’ve done and sacrifices they’ve made.Take just a few moments to tell a colleague that you’re grateful for something they’ve done, or compliment them on how well they executed a certain task recently.



Phone fines: During meetings at Keller-Williams Realty, anyone whose phone rings must make a donation to the company’s charity. This idea reduces interruptions in meetings, and when it happens, it supports the corporate nonprofit. Win win! Good or new: Japanese company Ozvision has a morning meeting called ‘good or new’. Every morning people share either something new (from work, the media, or their private lives), or something good, work-related or not. Standup meetings: Agile teams champion the daily standup – also called the daily scrum. The team meets daily for a status update, standing to keep the meeting short. They meet where the work happens, not in a meeting room.

Time for beers: The staff at tripping.com sets a stopwatch for 30 minutes at the start of each meeting. If the meeting goes on for longer, the person who called the meeting puts $5 in the team beer jar.Why in five: Start your meeting by asking each person to define in five words or less the problem to be solved. If the answers are inconsistent or too long, you’re probably not focused on the same problem. Work towards clearly articulating the goal. Active colouring: On Thursdays, baby food maker Plum Organics gives everyone colouring books and holds a creative-thinking meeting where staff colour, talk, and decompress. Research suggests colouring helps promote active listening.

Roombot: At digital agency O3 World, the boardroom is hooked up to Roombot, an app they created. It reads everyone’s Google Calendar and warns when it’s time to finish. It also dims the lights towards the end of the meeting. The DRI: At Apple, every project component or task has a DRI – a Directly Responsible Individual whose name goes next to all the agenda items they are responsible for. This way there’s rarely any confusion about who should be getting what done. No Meetings: Productivity software maker Asana has a no-meetings-on-Wednesday rule, so team members get at least one schedule-free day: a block of time to focus on heads-down work, without having to fit it in between meetings.

When it comes to bad meetings, some of the biggest culprits:

Naysayers: Many people find it easy to say “no” to everything. Saying no keeps them on familiar territory, safe from the unknown. However these naysayers block progress and stop important new ideas.Groupthink: Groupthink has been defined by Keith Sawyer, author of Group Genius, as “a state of lazy, shared consensus where no one wants to rock the boat”, wary of anything that challenges their assumptions. Coasters: Often some people aren’t fully invested in the purpose and outcome of a meeting. If you’re in a meeting, give the topic your full attention and respect, and demand it of your colleagues too.

Self-censorship: Often people will keep ideas and opinions to themselves for fear of being judged or disagreed with by other team members. Build an atmosphere where people feel safe to speak up. Arguments: Some topics are controversial, and participants may find it hard to keep their emotions in check. This can lead to conflict, which can sometimes turn nasty. Deal with this carefully and considerately. Distractions: While you don’t need to go so far as to ban laptops and smartphones from meetings, you should ask that participants use them responsibly, respecting the focus and flow of the meeting.

Dominant voices: Much to the frustration of others, some people dominate meetings, hogging the floor or making all the decisions. They often use meetings for self-validation and ego-massaging. Rabbit holes: Meetings can quickly go off the rails when conversations veer off-topic and into pet projects and issues off the agenda. It’s best to park these issues for later and get back on track. Hippos: Many meetings are dominated by the “highest paid person’s opinion”, with other attendees too scared to question their wisdom. This scenario can be dangerous for a team’s health and objectivity.

MEETING BLOCKERS




Some of our favourite examples of ways to liven up meetings: MEETING ROCKERS



CUT DOWN ON INTERRUPTIONSWhen people are interrupted, it typically takes over 23 minutes for them to return to their work.Added to that, most people will then work on two intervening tasks before going back to their original project. So - you can imagine how damaging interruptions are.It’s well worth trying to limit the number of interruptions in your team - although it may feel useful to be able to grab a colleague and ask them a quick question, try to only interrupt people when necessary.

Develop empathy & curiosity: think from a customer’s perspective to understand them deeply. Step in: don’t wait for others to tell you what to do – think quickly and use your judgement to provide what’s required at the point of need. Use the autonomy given by your leader.Take control: use emergent leadership to take charge when the time is right to do so.Be action-oriented: if you can do something today, do it today. Parkinson’s law means “work expands so as to fill the time available” – take on extra tasks, you’ll find time to complete them.Identify problems: use “hindsight in advance” to plan ahead for problems before they occur.

Strive for better: raise your standards to raise your performance. Here it’s interesting to look at continuous improvement and marginal gains.Be honest: ask yourself honestly – could you have done better in a certain situation? Be honest with your colleagues too – could they expect more from you?Be resilient: often others won’t be as committed as you to high performance – maintain your momentum and influence them to be better too.Remember why: think about the values of your team, organisation and stakeholders – and about your own personal values too. Self-efficacy and self-esteem count here.

TAKING THE INITIATIVE

“Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.” - Victor Hugo



Encourage initiative in your team members:


If you’re feeling stressed, just being around others can help. Specifically, others with good vibes - people who exude positivity and optimism, or who are energetic and funny.It’s backed up by research: a Harvard study found that if a direct social connection of yours is happy, your chances of being happy too increase by 15 percent. This even works if your friend’s friend is happy! They get the 15 percent increase, plus, you get ten percent! So, if you’re feeling stressed or down, actively seek out those good-vibe connections, and see what rubs off on you.

GOOD VIBES HELP




Creative Huddles help people think and work better, together.

Hello, I’m James Allen. I’ve facilitated hundreds of brainstorms, meetings, focus groups, strategy workshops, team building events and conferences for a wide range of clients, from corporate household names to creative agencies, charities and startups.My bespoke workshops get people collaborating effectively to harness their collective strengths. I’m passionate about helping people think and work together to bring out the best results.I called my company Creative Huddle because that’s my vision of a really successful facilitated session: high energy events that help people collaborate effectively by generating ideas, solving problems, sharing opinions and making decisions. People seem to like the name – a Creative Huddle implies togetherness, trust and of course creativity. I work mostly in and around London, but regularly travel all over the UK and internationally for client work. Contact me with any questions about this Playbook or if you’d like me to design and facilitate a workshop for [email protected]

BESPOKE WORKSHOP DESIGN & FACILITATION

REFERENCESWhat Makes a Great Team: source material from https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/ Creativity a Team Sport: source material from https://hbr.org/2016/04/its-time-to-bury-the-idea-of-the-lone-genius-innovator Networks, Teams & the Future of Collaboration: source material from https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/human-capital-trends/2017/organization-of-the-future.html How to Get a Team Working Together - Fast: source material from https://youtu.be/pV15JvPwOOE and https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/the-importance-of-teaming Create a Culture of Helping Others: source material from https://hbr.org/2014/01/ideos-culture-of-helping We Never Think Alone: source material from The Knowledge Illusion by Philip Fernbach and Steven SlomanDecide Before You Meet: source material from Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al PittampaliMeeting Rockers: source material from https://www.fastcompany.com/3048815/how-12-companies-make-meetings-memorable-effective-and-short, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-run-your-meetings-like-apple-google-danny-sim, https://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/31505/in-praise-of-stand-up-meetings Good Vibes Help: source material from Wellbeing by Tom RathCut Down on Interruptions: source material from How to Have a Good Day by Caroline Webb


“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.” – Charles Mingus

https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/


https://hbr.org/2016/04/its-time-to-bury-the-idea-of-the-lone-genius-innovator



https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/human-capital-trends/2017/organization-of-the-future.html



https://youtu.be/pV15JvPwOOE

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/the-importance-of-teaming

https://hbr.org/2014/01/ideos-culture-of-helping

https://www.fastcompany.com/3048815/how-12-companies-make-meetings-memorable-effective-and-short



https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-run-your-meetings-like-apple-google-danny-sim


https://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/31505/in-praise-of-stand-up-meetings












https://youtu.be/pV15JvPwOOE

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/the-importance-of-teaming

https://hbr.org/2014/01/ideos-culture-of-helping












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