This is the second in a series of posts from various guest contributors focusing on what it means to collaborate with other health marketing communications pros. This post was developed by guest author David Harlow. He will contribute to this blog on a regular basis.
This series will run over the next few weeks. If you would like to submit a post on this topic to Walking the Path, please contact us.
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You’ve all been there. The unwilling participant in an ill-fitting collaboration you’re sure is doomed to failure and not worth your time. Yet some of the most productive partnerships are those that bridge gaps of training, experience and/or perspective, that make the best use of the dynamic interplay among members of a diverse team, that free team members from their own particular forms of tunnel vision. What determines the success of a collaborative effort?
Over the years, I’ve worked with teams in a wide variety of settings. Sometimes it falls to me to be the big-picture guy, sometimes the detail guy. A colleague once said to me a moment before we walked into a client board meeting: “I’ll do the color commentary, and you do the play-by-play.” We had worked that way together, on and off, for the previous year or so, but had never articulated the approach. Our training and professional experience were vastly different, yet we were able to work well together as a team. Nothing more needed to be said. The meeting went off without a hitch.
So how can you plan for success in collaborative, cross-functional teams? I’m sure there’s a graph, a chart, a diagram, that can explain the elements needed for success.
However, in my experience, positive results are based on a handful of critical ingredients, mixed together in varying proportions:
- Clarity on the desired characteristics of the final product of the collaboration
- Agreement that all necessary disciplines are represented on the team
- Mutual trust and respect among team members
- Confidence that the team itself, or its sponsor, has the authority to implement its final work product
With these elements in place, the team will be able to set its priorities, determine its own inner workings and build towards success.
Please share your collaborative challenges and successes with us.
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