10 Tips on the Value of Collaboration in Startups

Any entrepreneur with a vision can postulate a new business, but it takes a collaboration of many people to make it a success. Today the complexity of forces required for success include multi-disciplinary skills, competencies, and experiences in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Entrepreneurs who embrace the “lone wolf” approach usually live to regret it.

I just finished a new book, “The Collaboration Imperative,” by Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese, which makes the case very well for why collaboration matters in every business, as well as startups. Every entrepreneur should heed the following lessons on collaboration derived from the authors work on the culture, process and technology of collaboration in hundreds of companies:

1. Consensus is the enemy of collaboration. Collaboration leaves everyone with a feeling of “win-win,” while consensus is “win-lose” or even “lose-lose.” Collaboration opens more possibilities, while consensus narrows them to a compromise.

2. Collaboration has to start at the top. Company culture is not set by words, but by the actions of the founder. That means treating everyone with respect, and providing regular constructive feedback. Trust is required for every successful collaboration.

3. The biggest barriers to collaboration are not technical. They are cultural and organizational in nature. Startup executives need to first build a culture and processes with communication and shared goals, rather than internal competition and bureaucracy.

4. Collaboration cannot be deployed – it must be embraced. Executives and managers must be willing participants, modeling collaborative behavior and embracing the technology tools, not just taskmasters. All team members must be committed.

5. Good ideas come from anywhere, so the more voices the better. These are critical in arriving at a clear idea of what is important, exploring what is possible based on constraints, and coordinating effective actions to produce successful outcomes.

6. Collaboration enhances personal communication skills. As team members interact and play to their strengths, they learn to be authentic and genuine, which increases their effectiveness as well as their skills. They reach agreement faster and communicate more.

7. You get out of collaboration what you put in. According to a global study of business conducted by Frost & Sullivan, the return on a collaboration investment progressively improves as better tools are deployed and a collaborative culture takes shape.

8. Collaboration success means changing both roles and rewards. This means creating processes that allow more perspectives, but make it clear who has decision-making rights. It’s essential to provide incentives to change ingrained behavior.

9. More interaction opens opportunities to create more value. Within any given startup environment (market, industry structure, competitors, product/service mix, etc.) opportunities exist that are often missed unless everyone is listening and communicating.

10. The average return on collaboration is four times the initial investment. From the study referenced, measured gains ranged from three to six times. This ROI comes from cost avoidance, cost reductions, business optimization, and faster business decisions.

In today’s highly competitive and unpredictable environment, it’s not enough to do one thing better than your competitors. You need to change your organization so that it can rapidly recognize and adapt to new opportunities and new threats.