Collaboration among team members helps move an organization forward and make it more effective in reaching its goals. However, many people lack the skills and attitudes that make collaboration possible and effective.
Changing an organizational culture to foster collaboration requires time (aka patience), focus and commitment on the part of the leader. I estimate spending 3-4 months to shift attitudes and create structures that support a collaborative culture. During that time, you’ll find out who is willing to shift and who is not.
How do you start that culture change process? A very effective method is having everyone on the team read the same book. Subsequent discussions can focus first on what people learned about themselves and their organization from reading the book, and then on how to apply some of the lessons in the book.
Here are some books that would help stimulate thought and “launch” the collaborative team-building / culture shift effort.
Who Moved My Cheese? – parable that discusses how different people deal with change
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – a fable by Patrick Lencioni that sheds light on how teams don’t work and indicates where troubles go – my sister and brother-in-law highly recommended it for helping to build a collaborative team
Leadership and the One Minute Manager – applies One Minute Manager tools to being a good leader – first of a trilogy on situational leadership
The One Minute Manager Builds High-Performing Teams – second in the trilogy of situational leadership
Self-Leadership and the One Minute Manager – the final book in the trilogy of situational leadership
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Collaboration – a collection of articles including one on emotional intelligence
They are all about the same amount of money. All would be helpful, in slightly different ways. I prefer the parable/fable format because it is much easier for people to read and digest, hence only one “scholarly” book.
Good ideas in your post. I talk about collaboration and silos as well in a post I wrote in March: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/focus-problem-scot-barker?trk=pulse_spock-articles
Would love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to share!