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Executive Interviews: Interview with Jonathan Hughes on Collaboration
March 2008
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
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What are the benefits of getting
collaboration right? What does it
take to realize these benefits?
The fundamental benefit of collaboration
with external partners is leverage
being able to derive benefit fromthe
assets, capabilities, and expertise of
partners. The benefits of internal collaboration
are myriad. One, as I indicated
earlier, is to enable successful
external collaboration. Moreover, effective
internal collaboration allows
companies to better leverage the range
of assets and expertise they have
within their own walls, to make better
decisions faster, and to execute
more efficiently and effectively.
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To realize
these benefits, groups and individuals
across the enterprise must be
willing to confront their differences,
and able to creatively and constructively
address the conflict that results. Consider a company where marketing,
R&D, and procurement all
work seamlessly together to design
and bring new products to market.
At every step of theway they have different
ideas and recommendations.
Marketing says customerswon't value
a new feature enough to pay for it.
Engineering insists that customers
don't always know what they want
sometimes you need to allow them to experience a truly innovative feature
before they realize they can't livewithout
it. Procurement says the best way
to develop the feature is to involve
suppliers in creating the specifications
and design. Engineering is worried
about the time that will take.
However, at every step, the conflict
among these groups is directly and respectfully
engaged. Creative solutions
and wise decisions result. Unfortunately,
this is not the way things work
at most companies. Instead, different
groups often try to defend their turf
and work around each other, missing
many opportunities to leverage different
expertise to develop optimal solutions.
Moreover, when people from
different functional groups or business
units do work together, they get
bogged down in conflict, such that
making and implementing decisions
is significantly slowed. -
Why is it that despite the billions
of dollars spent on initiatives to improve
the collaboration, few companies
are happy with the results?
From your extensive research and
consulting experience, what do you
think are the reasons?
Very few companies, and very few executives
have really examined and
come to an accurate understanding of
what makes collaboration so difficult,
namely, the ability to engage and deal
with differences and conflict, and to
do so constructively. Most people are
significantly more comfortable dealing
with similarity rather than difference.
Moreover, most companies are
organized for control. As indicated
by an ever-growing academic literature
that touts the benefits of the "extended
enterprise" collaboration between
and among companies requires
ceding a certain amount of control in
order to leverage the expertise and capabilities
of partners. It turns out to
be a fundamentally unnatural act for
most companies. Their business processes,
incentives, and culture all militate against effective collaboration
and constructive management of differences.
Much of my work is focused
on addressing the current lack
of practical advice for leaders and organizations
on how to manage differences
and conflict to enable more effective
collaboration. -
What are the "three myths of collaboration"?
How often are they mistaken
for truths?
One that focusing on equipping
people with skills for good teamwork
is sufficient to enable effective collaboration;
two that engineering the right
formal incentives for people will guarantee
effective collaboration; and three
that the ideal organizational structure
will, in and of itself, enable successful
collaboration. These myths are pervasive.
All overlook the central role of
conflict in collaboration the fact that
collaboration requires actively engaging
differences, that differences generate
conflict, and that unless people
and organizations are equipped to deal
constrictively with conflict, collaboration
will break down.
1.
From Competition to Collaboration Case Study
2. ICMR
Case Collection
3.
Case Study Volumes
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