Collaborations and Partnerships — Part 1

Ever since the popularity of Batman rose, many people have been inclined more towards working alone in silos. They don’t want to work with other people or in teams. They feel its better to work alone rather than collaborating with others. Nothing against Batman, but this attitude of believing that individual effort is greater than collective effort has seriously hampered their overall productivity and impact. This mindset of preferring to work alone has various reasons associated with it such as, (i) Difficulty in having consensus on a common and shared goal; (ii) Not being able to clearly identify roles and responsibilities; (iii) Not defining the deliverables as well as expectations from the collaboration; (iv) Not being able to peacefully negotiate on sharing of the outcomes.

But seriously, think for a moment, forget the reel life and look at the real-life incidents, how many people are their who accomplished large and humongous goals all by themselves? How many people are there who have actually demonstrated that collaborations are not required? Your answer would be ZERO! And I think this is enough to make us realize the importance of collaborations and partnerships. And we have so many phrases and illustrations that we use in our daily lives to learn this from. We see how a single stick is so fragile that it gets broken almost effortlessly but the same task becomes almost impossible when it’s a bundle of sticks.

Importance of Collaboration

· Brainstorming and Problem Solving — Greater number of minds lead to a greater number of ideas and thus, more possibilities. It also helps in solving complex problems as multiple talents are getting pooled at one place.

· Promotes Self-Analysis — Collaboration challenges people to think, articulate and receive clarity about their competencies. It serves as a mirror that gives them a glimpse of their strengths and weaknesses.

· Improved efficiency — Collaboration helps in completing projects and reaching deadlines faster and more efficiently. It simultaneously provides with ample opportunities of growth and development.

· Wider Perspective — Collaboration also helps us in getting new perspectives and thus, helps us in looking at the bigger picture.

Now that we have started realising the importance of working together, we must also understand the meaning of collaboration and how it is different from coordination. Coordination simply means professional synchronisation between a group who are working in an effective and unified manner towards an end goal. Collaboration on the other hand, is more than just working together. It requires sharing of goals as well as the resources that are required to achieve those goals.