Managing collaborative initiatives

From HMCwiki

Keys to successfully managing collaboration initiatives:

1 Create
2 Connect
3 Cultivate
4 Capitalize

Create

There has to be a reason to collaborate. One-way transfer of information is NOT collaboration. Collaboration involves a give & take and an outcome or goal. Most often, it involves improving a process or an outcome. List the questions that are being asked as part of the collaboration effort. Good collaboration questions start with:

I wonder how to ...
I'd like to try ...
I'm interested in learning about ...
Does anyone do ...

In contrast, questions that won't lead to effective collaboration start with:

How many ...
Do you do procedure X?
Do you have position Y?

These questions reflect more structure comparisons rather than a process comparison.

Successful collaboration requires the initiator to develop a worthy goal. Simply asking others if they have a specific position or organize their work in a certain way isn't collaboration. Collaboration requires understanding your current state and where your opportunities for streamlining, eliminating waste, improving outcomes, and implementation lie. In essence, collaborate to ACT, not query.

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Connect

You must connect with people who are willing collaborators and whose joint efforts will be beneficial to all the members of the group. Instead of "What's in it for me?", the collaboration mindset is one of "What I can I provide to help someone else get better?" By giving and sharing your own experiences, the entire group becomes richer. Then it's easy to glean insights from others -- once the specific action-oriented information you want is well-defined and clear.

How do you find other collaborators? Ah, here's a tricky part! You have to find people with the appropriate collaboration mindset who are interested in topics similar to yours. Sometimes those collaborators work in the same industry as you; sometimes not. Sometimes they are hospital managers like you; sometimes they are front line staff or people from other departments.

In order to gather the most ideas, keep an open mind about learning partners. Think about all the places available to learn; don't limit learning to someone "just like me". (PS - If they are "just like you", your exposure to new ideas is VERY limited.)

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Cultivate

Collaboration involves relationships. Without some kind of ongoing relationship, the collaboration will not be successful. How do you cultivate relationships to build a collaborative group? They need:

Direction, Purpose and Shared Goals
A Collaborative Mindset
Methods to Connect
- Projects
- Opportunities to talk, e-mail, exchange information

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Capitalize

Follow-up and reconnect (and have a reason to reconnect)to capitalize on your collaboration and turn a one-time interaction to ongoing, sustainable relationship. It takes someone at least 6 phone calls or interactions with you before they begin to think of you and/or your group as a potential collaborator. Following up, reconnecting for a specific (and useful reason) and continuing collaboration efforts are all good ways to build relationships.