Russ: This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. It's guest time on the show - actually, repeat guest because I have with me Dr. Don Minnick who was on the show probably about two years ago. It was a very popular interview that led to a series of vignettes called Business Survival Tips. They were very popular at the beginning of this economic downturn that ultimately led to a book called Survive Downsizing: How to Make Yourself Indispensable to Your Organization. He's with us today as Managing Consultant with YSC, the global business consulting firm with an office right here in Houston. Don, welcome back to The BusinessMakers Show.

Don: Thank you very much, Russ, a pleasure.

Russ: You bet. And today we're gonna talk about that very important topic: business collaboration.

Don: Correct.

Russ: Okay. And, as you know, I have experience in major corporations and then lots of experience in small businesses. A lot of the small business success that I have achieved I will always attribute it to great teamwork and consistency throughout the team and very active business collaboration, and I always feel deep down inside that that's really hard to mimic in a large corporation, but that's what you've been focusing on, correct?

Don: It is. It is.

Russ: Okay. Well, tell us how a big company can do that.

Don: Well, you're absolutely right. It's very, very difficult, and I want to back up just slightly and tell you, kind of, where we started with this idea.

Russ: Okay.

Don: It came, really, from one of our clients who make, kind of, a key observation about his organization, and what he said was, "If we could really think and act as one team in this organization - not just pay lip service to that idea, but really do that, the benefits to our company would be enormous."

Russ: I can't argue with that.

Don: You know, we could get products to the market faster. We could really improve our customer service capabilities. We could engage our employees much better than we do now. We could really develop talent strategies that are gonna help this company be more effective.

Russ: Okay, all right, cool. So, that motivated you to figure out a program.

Don: We did.

Russ: Yeah.

Don: We started to think about everybody wants to do this; what prevents them from doing this in big organizations? And when you have that discussion, very often what people seize on immediately is we've got a problem with silos.

Russ: That's right.

Don: We have these rigid, functional boundaries between departments that prevent us from collaborating across the organization.

Russ: Absolutely.

Don: But as you think about that a little bit more, you really begin to realize that it's not the silos themselves that are the problem because as big businesses get bigger, it becomes critical for organizations to begin to departmentalize, to specialize, to form these operating units that really bring focus and specialization to the company. So, just the fact that there are silos is not the problem. The problem becomes how do you, kind of, punch holes in those silos so that you create windows and doors that allow collaboration to occur?

Russ: Horizontal windows and doors.

Don: Exactly.

Russ: Right, right.

Don: Exactly.

Russ: Cool.

Don: So, we begin to think about what are the organizations that we know of that do this work pretty well, what makes them different from organizations that are more aggressively and resolutely siloed?

Russ: Okay.

Don: And to this point, we've come up with, kind of, five capabilities that, sort of, help organizations do that kind of thing.

Russ: Great.

Don: So, the first one is something we call Agree on the Big Picture. Agree on the big picture is just what it says; it means creating that, kind of, shared understanding about what is the superordinate goal for this business? The key, one-team question is what's best for the business?

Russ: Right.

Don: If everybody is asking that, there's a great likelihood that you're gonna be aligned on that big picture view of the organization.

Russ: You can't argue with that one, I believe, yeah.

Don: Right.

Russ: Yeah, all right.

Don: One of the - I mean, the, sort of, catch phrase we use is it's like you need to have read the whole play and not just memorize your lines.

Russ: All right.

Don: That's what big picture is all about, and I also want to say each one of these capabilities has, kind of, a shadow side, too.

Russ: Okay.

Don: And the shadow side are behaviors or practices that push an organization back in the direction of silo functioning.

Russ: Okay.

Don: And the shadow side of agree on the big picture is pursue separate agendas.

Russ: Mm-hmm.

Don: So, to the extent that we do that, and it's very easy to do in big organizations between departments, between teams, between functions, we're in trouble. So, that's Capability Number 1.

Russ: Okay. So, what's the second one?

Don: So, the second one is something we're calling Deal with the Reality.

Russ: Okay.

Don: And what that means is simply agreeing to tell the truth to each other, the truth as it is, not the truth as we wish it were.

Russ: Okay.

Don: There are, unfortunately, lots and lots of organizations around that spend a lot of time telling the truth to each other as they wish it were -

Russ: Absolutely.

Don: - and that gets you in big trouble. So, that sort of commitment and the courage to tell the truth to each other around those tough issues - very important capability.

Russ: Okay.

Don: Shadow side of that one is avoiding and denying reality.

Russ: Right, right.

Don: Avoiding and denying reality.

Russ: Okay.

Don: And, unfortunately, we do that a lot as well, particularly when times get tough.

Russ: Right.

Don: We have an inclination to kinda put a spin, positive spin on things, and really not confront the issues that exist.

Russ: Right.

Don: So, that's the second one.

Russ: Okay.

Don: The third one is something we're calling Create the Conversation, and really, that's, kind of, at the heart of collaborating across an organization.

Russ: Sure.

Don: It's putting the right people in the right forums to have those conversations that are gonna generate collaboration. The shadow side of that one is stifle communication. If you think about knowledge in an organization as being currency, sometimes we get in the habit of treating knowledge like currency.

Russ: Right.

Don: We hoard it.

Russ: Hoard it. Okay.

Don: We give it out to people that we like. We hide it from people that we don't like, and in a knowledge-based company when you're doing that kind of stuff, again, you're gonna be in big trouble.

Russ: Right.

Don: You may be okay in your silo, but you're not gonna be okay in terms of collaborating across the organization.

Russ: Right.

Don: The fourth one is Share the Load. That's an easy one, right?

Russ: Okay, mm-hmm.

Don: It's prioritizing and planning together around the work.

Russ: Okay.

Don: Together meaning across functions, across teams, across departments, and making the agreement and the commitment to do that. You can only do that if you've got a superordinate goal that spreads across those boundaries, but once you have that in place, it's that agreement to share the load in that way.

Russ: Okay.

Don: Downside of that one, shadow side of that one, protect your own turf.

Russ: Right.

Don: I'll do what I'm gonna do; let them worry about what they're gonna do.

Russ: Right.

Don: The, sort of, catch phrase is, "If you work here, it's your problem."

Russ: Right.

Don: Right?

Russ: Okay, right.

Don: There's no more saying, "Well, that belongs to some other department, to some other function." If you work here, it's your problem.

Russ: It's your problem, cool.

Don: And that's what sharing the load is all about.

Russ: Cool.

Don: And the last one is something we're calling Capture the Knowledge.

Russ: Okay.

Don: The notion is in every organizational action there's an opportunity for learning, and capture the knowledge is simply taking the time - and it doesn't take very long - at the end of every project, at the end of every action, at the end of every meeting you say, "What did we learn here? What did we learn that we can use in other places going forward?"

Russ: Okay.

Don: As opposed to what we very often do and that's focus on the process rather than the outcome.

Russ: Oh, yeah.

Don: We got this project done; now let's rush off to do the next project and not take a minute to say, "What did we learn from doing this?"

Russ: Okay, okay.

Don: So, those are, kind of, the five key capabilities.

Russ: All right. Well, you're always such a great explainer and those all make sense, but how do you put that actually into real world process?

Don: Yeah. Yeah, it's a long-term process, and really it's a culture change for a lot of organizations. What we encourage organizations to do as we work with them is over a period of time do a couple of things. One is to embed those capabilities and, sort of, teach those capabilities across the organization so that all employees are, sort of, empowered to understand how those things work.

Russ: Okay.

Don: Now, clearly, the sort of, defining the business case, the superordinate goals, that has to start at the top in what we're calling United Leadership.

Russ: Right.

Don: So, the senior leaders of the organization have to be the ones who cast the business case for collaborating across their teams.

Russ: Okay.

Don: Here's a partnering necessity that we have. What are the functions in this organization? What are the teams that need to be coordinated to get this piece done? So, casting that, kind of, united leadership, superordinate goal is the start, that's where you start.

Russ: Okay.

Don: Once you have that in place and you've got your functions and your teams identified, you begin to help them do collaborative problem solving around what the business case is, and it's online, realtime work with real business issues. So, you're basically, again, empowering them to do that kind of collaborative problem solving and real agreeing and partnering, I mean, even to formal agreements to say, "We agree as this function, this function and this function to work together on this goal, this initiative, and here's the way we're gonna do it. Here's what we commit to in our function. Here's what we expect from you, and here's what our ask is of you," and actually form a real alliance, a real partnering agreement around that business case.

Russ: Cool, cool. Well, Don, thank you very much. You're just such a great explainer, and you actually made it sound like it's possible for a big company to really start collaborating.

Don: Well, thanks, Russ. We're really excited about this work, and I think there's some real possibilities going forward.

Russ: All right, great. That's Dr. Don Minnick, Managing Consultant with YSC, and this is The BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.