Lessons from Mars

To create intentional collaboration you begin with creating crystal clarity about why collaboration matters.

Getting teamwork right means paying attention to three key areas, what we call The Three Imperatives of High Performance Collaboration.

Consultants will tell you that there are teams, and there are groups and that the two are different. Don't worry about whether your group is a "real team" or not. Instead, focus on what requires collaboration and what doesn't.

Collaboration can be though of as having several levels or degrees. There are five in particular that are worth understanding to help your team understand how it wants to spend its time.

People who work with teams will often talk about dysfunction and how to help groups with it. The trust is that more team dysfucntion is actually based on individual behavior.

Stop your efforts at building so-called team spirit. What builds real team esprit de corps, what fosters team identity and releases collaborative energy is learning together.

Tuckman's Four Stages are based on research that is no longer relevant especially in the workplace. For instance, the assumption of linear development is useless. Nothing in business these days moves in straight lines.

Trust is one element of effective teamwork but building trust isn't where effective teamwork begins. Despite this, teams and team facilitators continue to treat trust as a necessary precursor to team effectiveness.

When you understand the need for differing degrees of collaboration, you'll also figure out that you need less collaboration than you think you do.

We tend to talk about collaboration as if it were one thing. It isn't. Different kinds of teams and groups collaborate to different degrees. Understanding this is essential to effective teamwork.