Why collaborate?

We have seen many and repeated failures, sometimes with the cost of billions. These affect organizations and their capital projects and operations. When a company starts making mistakes, tries to force its agenda on others, or is in conflict with its own stakeholders, the consequences are significant. People revolt and profit margins are destroyed. Projects get delayed in regulatory and community review for extended lengths of time. Employees simply don’t give their best because they do not trust the systems they work in, especially when they have little influence in the processes or programs in which they are involved.

The cost to organizations can be both internal and external disengagement, rejection by regulatory bodies and governments, rejection by impacted communities, and damage to the environment. Add to that a wide range negative human impacts including everything from the oppression, conflict, suicide, marital breakdown, and career paralysis to the loss of intelligence and vision of the brightest people in your business, simply because they mentally check out when they come to work.

All this means lost productivity, lost opportunities to grow and prosper, and distracted leaders and workers who no longer feel able to do good work. Leaders and organizations, however, can gain a strategic advantage by avoiding all of this energy and revenue-zapping negativity simply by working together to build a culture of collaboration. Collaboration is not an event, it’s a culture. It’s the way we work together. I am a lifelong student of how to get the right people in the right place with the right information in the right mindset to figure out how to conquer challenges and solve conflicts together.

Collaboration is a new field of study and success. Collaboration must evolve. Let’s learn together and make our world, communities, and families better. In this series:

1. The Foundation for Collaboration
2. The Collaborative Guest Podcasts
3. The 10 Essential Steps of Collaboration
4. Unlocking the Possible with Collaboration

Other books by David B. Savage include Break Through to Yes: Unlocking the Possible Within a Culture of Collaboration.