In several posts, I’ve talked about the value of collaboration between campus partners. I think that work is incredibly important, and regardless of the partner, we are better when we’re working together to set strategy, solve problems, and create change.
How do we do that work? That’s where I think it gets can become challenging. In this blog post, I want to share a few tactical ways I’ve worked to build collaboration. There are certainly others, but if you’re unsure how to start, these tips can offer a few suggestions.
Five Tactical Tips
Set a regular meeting cadence – In trying to build collaboration with a campus group, it’s important to set a regular time to meet. Whether it’s weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, having regular communication helps to build trust and rapport. It also helps to establish clear feedback when the departments may not be used to working together.
Include several people – Including several people from both departments is important. Symbolically, it indicates the meeting is valuable to you if you’re willing to send several team members to it. However, it also helps the meeting remain productive when people are out of office. If multiple people are in the loop and are regularly attending the meeting, progress isn’t as likely to stall because someone couldn’t attend.
Build the agenda together – If you’re seeking to build collaboration, you may have a few ideas of thing to discuss. As such, it is easy to steamroll your own agenda and not equally include the other department in the agenda setting process. That doesn’t work. Instead, it’s important work together to set the format of the agenda and meeting. It’s also helpful to clarify how to add items to the agenda, so both departments can contribute to the agenda.
Go to the partner – This sounds easy, but I think it’s incredibly important symbolically to visit the department you’re hoping to foster a relationship with. Going to their place helps the partner feel valued and ensures they don’t feel “summoned” to a meeting. It also helps you to build relationships with others in the office, who may not be part of the meeting.
Collaborative notes and agenda – Having a single source of truth helps to ensure everyone is aligned on the meeting’s purpose. By having one agenda, everyone knows what is going to be discussed and avoids people feeling like they were caught off guard on a topic. Additionally, sending a wrap up with collaborative notes ensures everyone left the meeting with the same understanding of the progress and next steps. This also helps to quickly address misunderstandings when they arise before they become larger problems.
More Ideas
These are just a few ideas of how to build collaboration. Last fall, I wrote a post about how to theoretically build collaboration.
I also published a journal article discussing 10 strategies for building collaboration.
Good luck as you work to build collaboration!
And Carrie On 