the doctor Goes Mental on Myths I: Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
The elephants in the room and the barney deals aren't the only problems plaguing our industry. Dangerous myths are constantly infecting the minds of those who will listen to the fear-mongers and the melancholics. Some of these myths are fairly well known, like the myth that once prices are locked in a contract after an e-Auction, those savings are guaranteed. But some of these myths have not been adequately exposed, which is not surprising as some myths are still being promulgated by the major vendors (like the myth that a "supplier network" has value in and of itself and that a supplier should pay for the privilege of just being a member).
Thus, in addition to exposing the elephants in the room, no matter how quiet they are or how hard they try to hide behind that floor lamp, I'm also going to tackle some of the more dangerous myths now and then. Today I'm going to make Skeptic, who apparently didn't like my Feel-Good Friday post on Collaboration, happy and admit that collaboration and knowledge sharing doesn't necessarily add value.
I know right now you're probably still in shock from that statement, especially since I constantly promote how valuable collaboration and knowledge sharing can be, so I'll give you a few seconds.
Okay. That should be enough time. That's right, what should be among the most valuable activities you undertake does not necessarily add any value to what ever it is that you're doing. The reality is that a collaboration initiative or knowledge sharing initiative, like any other initiative, is only valuable when done right.
Specifically, collaboration will only be valuable when it is undertaken with honest intentions and each side makes a genuine effort to make it work. Just like you can have a barney deal, you can have a barney collaboration project. Each side sits down at the table, says they'll work together, but then goes their separate ways and rarely says two words to each other again. That's not collaboration. That's lip-service.
Collaboration requires both parties to work together as a team on a regular, often daily, basis. To jointly plan, implement, and monitor the project. To work together to identify a problem when it arises as well as its solution.
Similarly, knowledge sharing will only be valuable if real knowledge is shared that's relevant to the project or problem. Simply sending over the contract that was struck the last time the project was undertaken with no accompanying explanation or twenty documents that may or may not be related to sourcing direct materials is not knowledge sharing. That's nothing more than a data dump. And a rather useless one at that.
Knowledge sharing requires actual knowledge to be shared that is relevant to the project being undertaken. It requires the knowledge to be in a form that is digestible by the party that needs the knowledge. Furthermore, it requires the amount of knowledge to be appropriate. Too little knowledge and the recipient will be left more confused than before she started the project. Too much and the information overload will prevent the right knowledge from being appropriately absorbed.
Do you have any myths you'd like the doctor to go mental on?
Send them his way (the doctor <at> sourcinginnovation <dot> com).
Q: What is "collaboration"?
A: Collaboration is two parties working together as a team on a regular, often daily, basis to identify problems and solutions, plan, implement, and monitor a project.
Q: How is collaboration measured? Is there a CI (Collaboration Index)?
A: If two parties are meeting on a regular basis and planning, implementing, and monitoring a project then there is collaboration. If they are not meeting there is no collaboration, right?
Q: How do you know if you have collaboration?
A: If you are meeting, there is collaboration.
Q: Are there symptoms that indicate there may be collaboration in your system?
A: The presence of meetings, discussion of problems and solutions, planning, and monitoring are all symptoms of collaboration.
Q: Is there a prescription for increasing collaboration?
A: Meet more. Plan more. Monitor more.
I don't know. It just seems like there may be something more to collaboration than meeting. Don't get me wrong, that is a great place to start but, there is more to it than that.
Do the meetings need to be face-to-face? or does teleconferencing count? Could a threaded discussion contain collaboration? There is no meeting there. I wonder why "both parties"? It seems like there are project where there are multiple parties involved. Certainly collaboration requires more than an individual. Doc, you need to say more about this. This posting doesn't describe collaboration. It's lip-service.
No, It's becoming more obvious all the time that I need to say less ... because, as you have just demonstrated, when I say more, people read more into it than what's actually there, question that meaning, and say I didn't say enough when the truth is I might have said too much.
I wrote exactly two lines in defining collaboration, specifically:
"Collaboration requires both parties to work together as a team on a regular, often daily, basis. To jointly plan, implement, and monitor the project. To work together to identify a problem when it arises as well as its solution."
And this fully describes collaboration to the point where it may even be over-described. I probably should have just said:
"Collaboration is where two or more parties work together as a team to identify problems, solutions, and implementations."
Or maybe even just:
"Collaboration is just teamwork."
This does not imply that collaborators have to "meet", or that they have to "meet" in the sense of the word you are implying. I never implied that there was a collaboration index, or that it is even measurable in any sense that a business analyst or scientist would want it to be measured. Nor did I imply that you needed a "prescription" for increasing collaboration.
Collaboration is just teamwork. And like teamwork, there is not just one way to do it, no single prescription for success, and no way to measure it with a single formula. But if you really want a "prescription", then the best I can tell you is "Zen".