It's no secret that many collaborative efforts fail to achieve their goals.
When two or more people are trying to work together – whether it’s a duo, a committee, a business unit, or entire organizations – and are ineffective, there is almost always a conspicuous absence of explicit expectations and working agreements.
By investing the time it takes to put clear expectations and agreements in place, and hammering them out until substantial unanimity is achieved, success is much more likely.
To this end, here are some tools for collaborators to make expectations and working agreements as explicit as possible.
Enjoy!
Questions to Clarify Expectations in a Collaborative Effort
- What will it take for each of us to feel we have achieved an absolutely outstanding end result?
- What does each of us expect as a time frame to achieve that end result?
- What will the outcome look like, and what is a measurement of its success we can all agree on?
- What relevant concerns or fears do each of us have, that must be addressed for the end result to be considered an unmitigated success?
- Who may be involved, and who may not be involved in the effort?
- How shall we each define our roles, and come to agreement on them? Do we have a defined leadership structure? If so, what is it?
- How will each of us hold ourselves – and each other – accountable for our part?
- What are each of us hoping to check off as key milestones along the way (i.e., a milestone, as I use it here, is a checkpoint that, if missed, will threaten the timeline or the quality of the intended result of the collaborative effort)?
Questions to Clarify Working Agreements in a Collaborative Effort
A working agreement, as intended here, is a set of guidelines that two or more people set up between them to define how they will work together most effectively. The collaborators should brainstorm them as early as possible and share them in written form with each other. Finally, they should set up a check in on a regular basis to assess the relevance and adherence to these understandings.
Here are examples from various engagements:
- When we need skills that are not on the team, we will get it immediately, and NOT spend significant team time discussing or evaluating the merits of outside expertise.
- All team members will stay current with key industry trends and the relevant literature.
- Team members are expected to questions or challenge each other directly, and not to hold back on suggestions or opinions that may influence the success of the initiative.
- We will meet monthly for 90 minutes – these meetings will be schedule three months in advance, and are mandatory for all members of the team, as they are considered crucial to success. If a team member misses more than one meeting, the team may replace that person.
- Bill will track milestones, and will report to everyone via email every Friday afternoon on progress versus milestones.
- We will not interrupt each other.
- Each person is responsible for asking for help when they are lost, stuck on an issue or problem, or concerned about their ability to be successful. We watch each other’s backs.
The above are simply examples -- define your own!
