Collaboration in Crisis first key to overcome the huge problems waiting for you maybe for your organization or for your company. Crises and disasters that occur at an unexpected time for example Big EarthQuake in Turkey Feb 06, 2023 demonstrate the importance of effective cooperation for long-term business success.
However, research shows that people avoid risk with anxiety in times of crisis. As a result, they are less inclined to explore different points of view. They turn to actions and solutions that have worked in the past. Researchers call this “threat rigidity.” The desire for control can also breed an understanding of struggle alone.
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How to Collaboration in Crisis
In a time of crisis, when resources (financial, job opportunities, even physical resources) are running low, people often focus on protecting themselves. Thus, cooperation in an institution can collapse during a crisis. Our research into the 2008 financial crisis shows that collaboration sustainably led to better business performance. In this article, we talk about seven steps leaders can take to encourage collaboration.
Below I offer some advice on how leaders can encourage collaboration.
Use your strongful Sides
It is observed that this firsthand at Gilly, a senior manager at one of the four largest accounting firms with whom we recently consulted. Gilly was consciously increasing their confidence in each other’s competencies by emphasizing team members’ expertise, telling them how their knowledge helped the team achieve their goals, and sharing the team’s success stories. If you have a teamwork orientation like Gilly, be careful not to overdo it by joining a large number of teams. Be selective and focus on high-priority projects.
If you tend to work independently, you can use this tendency to improve teamwork by helping to speed up execution. Sameer, the finance director at a software company we work with, is nicknamed the “toolwork” because he’s often the one who tells him when it’s better to work as a group and when it’s more effective to work independently.
The choice to go it alone can be a healthy antithesis that keeps the team focused on the task. Because sometimes people waste time trying to reach consensus, or the discussion can get to an unproductive point.
Encourage Kind questions and constructive criticism.
When Heidi, one of the authors of this paper, was working at McKinsey, it was called the “imperative to oppose”: People questioned each other’s assumptions and proposed new ideas, not only accepted, but expected. So no one was afraid to look stupid in front of teammates with different functional backgrounds than their own, asking them to explain their thoughts in more detail or to describe a technical term.
Collaboration in Crisis! Reinforce business purpose and objectives frequently
The belief that their work serves a higher purpose motivates people to think, behave, and collaborate more collectively. Clearly understanding business goals helps people see how their own knowledge responds to the complex needs of the business, and that response is never enough on its own.
Let team members think about their preferred ways of working
This includes the leader. When you’re under stress, you tend to retreat into your comfort zone. So it’s important to reflect on what behaviors come from within. When the pressure mounts, are you looking for a colleague to share your concerns and brainstorm?
Or do you retreat into your corner and go it alone? As part of this process, take another look at your behavior assessment from last year and learn other people’s perspectives. For example, ask people you’re close to how you behave when you’re stressed. As team members become aware of each other’s typical styles, they can begin to figure out how to use these tendencies to work more effectively as a group.
Advocate for collaborating leaders and teams
When many leaders focus solely on praising individual employees who achieve their sales goal or work overtime, they undermine their own conversations about the importance of collaboration. While appreciating individual efforts, express the actions of support of other members and how they achieved a goal together.
Also appreciate the team that helps make the successful person a hero. Especially if people are working from home, leaders should emphasize supporting players by talking about the role of team members in enabling each other to be productive.
At a given point, leaders should examine and address corporate structures such as pay-incentive systems and hiring practices to see if they support a culture of collaboration. Clearly, this task will probably have to be postponed until the crisis has passed. During this time, try implementing the seven strategies above. By encouraging cross-functional collaboration, your organization is more likely to survive these difficult times and succeed when the crisis ends.
