Building Collaboration in Government: Objectives
Government managers rarely have the authority or budget to make people do things. The most effective government officials get things done through collaboration. They live or die on relationships. In today’s complex world skill at creating successful collaborative relationships can either make or break an executive’s career.
When IBM studied its top leaders they found a common denominator called “collaborative influence.” It is the ability to get things done by getting people to collaborate with each other, and IBM considers it absolutely critical in a highly complex world. When Bell Labs studied its “star performers” to determine what made the difference between “stars” and other merely good employees, they also discovered their “stars” had the same ability to build strong collaborative networks with a wide variety of people.
In the 1990s the Hewlett Foundations teamed up with the State of California to teach collaborative skills in very adversarial government organizations. Adversarial relationships were reduced, trust was increased and communications improved. In 94 different government organizations participating in the project, conflict was reduced by an average rate of 67% over a three and one-half year period, dramatically increasing the effectiveness of the organizations. Another six-year study found that participants from nine different countries were 45% more effective at getting their interests met in conflict.
We learned from that innovative project that there are five essential skills to increase your collaborative influence and create more collaborative organizations. A small increase in proficiency in these five skills makes a measurable improvement in performance because collaborative skills leverage the effectiveness of all relationships.
The five essential skills are:
- Collaborative Intention: Maintaining a non-defensive presence and making a conscious personal commitment to seeking mutual gains in your relationships.
- Truthfulness: Committing to both speak and listen to the truth, and creating an atmosphere where it feels safe enough to raise difficult issues.
- Self-Accountability: Taking responsibility for the full range of choices you make, either through action or inaction, and taking responsibility for both the intended and unintended or unforeseen consequences of those choices.
- Self-Awareness and Awareness of Others: Committing to know yourself and others deeply enough to explore difficult interpersonal issues.
- Solving Problems and Negotiating: Skillfully negotiating your way through the conflict that is inevitable in long-term relationships.
In this very experiential workshop Judge James Tamm, one of the designers and faculty members in the Hewlett/California project, will guide participants through the five skills. Participants will dramatically increase their collaborative skills and their ability to create more collaborative environments.