All projects we undertake with our clients have one thing in common, there are multiple parties involved. Before officially launching the project to all parties, already many people from different companies are involved. When launching a project, the most important group of people are connected as well. This group is the largest, and has therefore the greatest influence.

Usually they are the personnel of a large company, or a large group of individuals, but always connected somehow. They can have real power. However, the power they can possess can only come to surface when all parties involved are great in collaborating with each other. One of our responsibilities is to try to create a situation where collaboration can really occur, to unleash the power of the large group. What is collaboration really, and what is needed to really make it happen?

Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals.

That’s what Wikipedia says at the moment. Collaboration consists of three important parts. First, collaboration is a process. Second, collaboration involves people. Third, collaboration pursues a common goal. While the first two parts are very important, the last is maybe even more important. The common goals is what varies the most in the trajectories we undertake with our clients, and their clients which is the largest group. It takes quite some time to research who all the stakeholders are, what their motivations are, to identify opportunities, and so on. This heavily influences the underlying process of the trajectory.

Collaboration for us starts at the very beginning moment we have contact with our customer. Together with our client we gather as much relevant information as we can. This process is never business as usual, the people involved and the differences in companies make it a unique experience every time. Not everybody has the same mindset whenever we start such a trajectory. Every time we have to convince many people what the common goals are (or they have to convince us), what the process should look like, and that we have to work together with all stakeholders. And we learn from this again and again. Collaboration is not the easiest way of working together. Many individuals have their own ideas and goals, which is great, but the common goals should always prevail in the long term. Agreeing on what these goals are, is a very important step to make when collaboration is really having a chance.

The above explanation shows the difficulty of collaboration. When the goals are commonly agreed upon, the process is the way to achieve it. And that process, not necessarily more important that the destination, but of course the way to it. The process should be constantly guided and guarded, and action should be taken to reach the common goals. All parties have a role here, and only with all these parties trying to reach the common goals, collaboration is fruitful.

So what is collaboration? And what is needed to make it happen? Besides the definition and the meaning, collaboration it is not easy, not business as usual, is a unique experience every time, and takes time and patience. But it can be fun and rewarding to all people involved. And it should be.