Collaboration is the fifth principle in Michael Webb’s book on applying lean thinking to marketing and sales. Collaboration is necessary in order for the other principles to be put into practice – adding value to the customer, managing on data and facts, analyzing cause and effect, and minimizing waste.
Process improvement methods are based on the idea that the elements in a business are interconnected. To improve the results in one area, you have to make changes in other areas as well. Collaboration is how people work together to make these changes.
If I want to improve the close rate of my sales person, I have to provide better leads. And if I want to generate better leads, I need to provide a more compelling experience on my website. And if I … well, you get the idea.
But while collaboration is something that we agree is a good thing in principle, we often resist it in fact.
Why?
Because power is distributed unevenly in organizations. Because individuals and groups are in competition with each other. Because we aren’t given enough reason to trust each other.
What are some methods that organizations have found to be successful in improving collaboration?
- Management has to lead the charge. The higher in the organization the better. If senior management talks about and models collaborative approaches to work and process improvement, then others will follow.
- Change the process before asking people to improve their performance. Simply flogging people to do more faster without changing how they do their work will not succeed.
- Give people more information to make decisions and to take action to implement their decisions. Show the linkage between events. This information also provides feedback to people and to management to see the results of the changes.
- Start where people are receptive to a change. Find people or groups who are willing to be early adopters. Focus on places where it’s easiest to implement or where people have the most to gain.
And finally, managers must let individuals and groups take credit for the improvements. Remember the words of that ancient management consultant, Lao Tzu:
A leader is best when people barely know that you exist, not so good when people obey and acclaim you, worst when they despise you. Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when the work is done, the aims fulfilled, they will all say, “We did this ourselves.”
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