Collaboration: the key skill for managing complexity within a company

The more sophisticated an organisation becomes, the greater the risk that people will end up focusing on their own area of responsibility, their own role, their own objectives and their own constraints. The result is that people often find themselves dealing not so much with particularly difficult technical problems as with coordination issues. In other words, the problem is not knowing what to do, but managing to do what needs to be done together.

And this is where collaboration takes on extraordinary significance.

For many years, we have regarded collaboration as a soft skill – an important interpersonal skill, but one that was, at heart, secondary to technical skills. Today, collaboration has become a genuine ‘super-skill’. I use this term deliberately because collaboration is not a single skill but a meta-skill comprising numerous more specific skills that must all come into play simultaneously.

Collaboration means building strong professional relationships, characterised by trust, mutual respect and credibility. Without trust, people tend to increase controls, checks and formalities, and any increase in control inevitably leads to delays and organisational costs.

It may sound trivial, but all too often we go into meetings with the aim of being understood by others rather than of understanding them. Collaboration, on the other hand, requires a more sophisticated form of listening: the ability to temporarily set aside one’s own point of view in order to truly understand that of the other person.

It does not necessarily mean agreeing with someone. Rather, it means being able to understand how the other person is interpreting a particular situation and what needs, pressures and constraints are influencing their behaviour. How often, for example, do we judge a business function negatively without having the slightest idea of the metrics against which it is assessed or the responsibilities it has to manage? Collaboration, on the other hand, requires a constant effort at cognitive decentralisation. We need to step outside our own role to try and observe reality from the perspective of others as well.

People who collaborate well are not necessarily the most accommodating or helpful. Very often, they are those who have developed a good understanding of the organisational system in which they operate. They are aware of the objectives of other departments, understand the interdependencies, recognise existing constraints and are able to view corporate dynamics from a broader perspective than just their own role. After all, collaboration also means understanding that the organisation is a system and that local optimisations do not always yield overall benefits.

Many people associate negotiation with conflict or confrontation. In reality, the exact opposite is true. The more complex an organisation is, the more collaboration involves constantly negotiating priorities, resources, timings, expectations and working methods.

Genuine collaboration is not about avoiding differences of opinion, but about managing them constructively. It means being able to stand by one’s own point of view without jeopardising the relationship and, at the same time, being open to changing one’s position when a better solution emerges.

For this reason, collaboration cannot be regarded as an innate quality or a mere personality trait. It is a skill that requires study, practice and awareness. The growing complexity of organisations means that this is no longer optional but essential. Paradoxically, just as processes become more intricate and structures more sophisticated, the human factor becomes even more valuable.

Because no process, no procedure and no control system will ever be able to fully replace people’s ability to work well together.

(*) Partner of Newton S.p.A.