Improve Collaboration with Others through These 7 Thoughts

The years teach much which the days never knew.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

A very interesting quote by Emerson, isn’t it? In your career, how many smart people have you been exposed to? I’ve had the good fortune of being exposed to many. It never ceases to amaze me how just a few moments of discussion, or sitting and listening to well thought-out debates, can open your mind to ideas you can’t believe you didn’t think of on your own. And at the time, we probably didn’t think too much about it. But over the years, ways to improve collaboration make a big difference.

I have always found the ability to learn from collaboration with others to be a fantastic gift: free of charge, limitless of value. Limitless of value because the pearls of wisdom you can pick up can be connected to some of your ideas to produce something greater than what you might have created on your own.

In thinking about exploring, imagining, creating, learning and collaborating with others, the following thoughts cross my mind:

Openness to others

Openness is not achieved by reading about it in a book or from a class. It comes from lots of focused practice. It comes most readily in those that have achieved a sense of self confidence as they live in a widening circle of individuals from other backgrounds and persuasions.

Imagination and exploring

Imagination is the ability to see what is not there. Creativity is applied imagination. Exploring is being open to, and experimenting with, new ideas. And innovation is putting good ideas to work. All are stimulated through effective collaboration.

More thoughts on collaboration: Teamwork and Collaboration: 14 Tactics to Get You Better Results

Curiosity

Curiosity tends to emerge from growing personal experience in as many areas as possible from growing experience in widening groups of people. It too doesn’t just come to you … it takes lots of engaging practice, engagement, and collaboration.

Creativity and learning

Creativity is not a quality that is only found in the chosen few, but not everyone is as good at finding it as others (though everyone can improve with practice).

Focus on innovation

Creativity and innovation by necessity requires different people with diverse perspectives and expertise to cross-pollinate with fresh ideas. Set the bar for innovation very high and creative collaboration becomes an expected part of the culture. At that stage, people have no choice but to start silo-busting.

Eliminate biases

Do not get branded by your job description. Think well outside those bounds … all the time. Add as much value as you can, as often as you can.

Ideas from others

Build on other people’s ideas. Do not knock them down and try not to start on the ground floor. Connect ideas as often as you can. Take notes and review them periodically for more connection.

Linkage and enrichment

Collaboration anywhere offers great possibilities for linkage and enrichment rarely obtained without it. Collaborative learning through widening linkage are among the most powerful and enduring methods of understanding.

We are all very busy: personally, professionally, and socially. One of our scarcest resources is time. Time to sit and think. To stretch our own limits. To learn new things. Time to imagine, create, explore, and experiment.

As Emerson said in the quote above, time can often be a teacher. Let it.

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.