'The only difference between one organisation and another is the performance of its people.’ Peter Drucker
This opinion of Peter Drucker whilst seemingly clichéd is as applicable today some 50 years on from when it was first written in the middle 1960s.
Drucker was one of the most widely influential thinkers, educators, and writers on management theory and practice of all time. His work spanned 70 years in which he wrote and published some 39 books and many hundreds of articles. Many of his books remain influential and pertinent, for he focused upon the relationships between human beings and how organisations can bring out the best in people – challenges organisations today face on a daily basis.
No less a figure that Winston Churchill pinpointed Drucker’s most significant role in saying: ‘he not only has a mind of his own, but he has the gift of starting other minds along a stimulating line of thought.’
Taking Churchill’s cue and returning to Drucker’s opinion that ‘the only difference between one organisation and another is the performance of its people’ is actually about collaboration, or more succinctly: how more effective one organisation is than another in achieving this.
Collaboration is a highly important 21st century skill that too often many organisations take for granted. The outcome being that the level of organisational, as well as personal, performance achieved is below that expected.
The first problem is the confusion between teamwork and collaboration. Many leaders and organisations see the two as the same thing for the end result of either can often appear the same thing. They also think that as everyone in the group has the same shared purpose and in working together toward a shared goal with commitment to a single outcome that there is no difference.
The difference is that collaboration is not structured in the same way as teamwork, which is formally comprised of team members each with a defined role one of whom is the leader. Collaboration on the other hand is unstructured and works across and between teams being built upon interdependence - it is a two way process, whether it is between two people; a number of people; encompasses a number of teams; is embraced by the whole organisation; or brings two or more organisations together.
The second problem is the assumption that whilst we as humans have been designed to collaborate and work in groups, that we will do this naturally whereas the reality is we don't, for collaboration is a mindset.
Mindset is extremely influential, for it reflects the beliefs we have about situations, other people, our organisation – what psychologists refer to as ‘objects’ - that impacts the actions we take; our behaviour; regulates the quality of our relationships; the interactions we have; and crucially in this context, the way we choose to collaborate, or not, with others.
It is important to us that we understand how our beliefs affect us by recognising that there are beliefs that connect us with our past some of which may impact us adversely that we need to disconnect from, whilst there are some that can be utilised productively.
Similarly we have current beliefs that are constructive and can serve us well, whilst there are others that are potentially destructive that we need to discard.
With psychologists, and neuroscience research, informing us that 4 out of 5 of the 50,000 or more beliefs (a thought is a belief) we experience each day being negative in nature, we need to be aware of the effect of these particularly if they are confirmed by our past beliefs, which may have become ‘truths’ from which we are not easily parted (see blog of 31st December 2017, ‘Changing Perspective’).
Mindset affects not just the degree but also the quality of how we may, or may not, collaborate with others.
Leaders and organisations do not understand or recognise the importance of mindset upon collaboration.
Here are six areas where beliefs affect an individual’s mindset about collaboration and organisational performance:
Trust – beliefs that we have about trust, very often historic, relate to whom we trust and why. Beliefs about trust underpin our willingness to cooperate - a factor of collaboration - or not with others, for when we have unresolved beliefs about trust we do not commit to collaborate. Many organisations have low trust environments that consequently reinforce people’s unconscious beliefs about trust that powerfully act against many of their organisational goals.
Individualism - many people prefer to work on their own; be answerable only for their work; and to be measured and rewarded on this basis. The have developed beliefs about these factors that are unwittingly supported by organisations through their treatment of their people as individuals trough individually based performance processes, measures, and reward schemes.
Unresolved conflict – there is often ‘baggage’ in any relationship based in beliefs around what is ‘right or wrong’. Unresolved these differences impact communication - another factor in collaboration – that affects its efficacy. Until confronted we will continue to hold the beliefs that support that we are right and others are wrong. Indeed, we may go to extremes to preserve our beliefs in our ‘rightness’, for as humans we are extremely ‘loss averse’.
Communication – as a key factor in collaboration low quality communication is a ‘killer’. As humans we are highly tuned to the potential of danger being acutely attuned to body language - a major externalisation of our beliefs and our attitude (see blog of 10th April, 2017, ‘Talent and Body Language’). As a two way process communication can too easily be diminished through the meeting of the beliefs and attitudes of the people involved thus impacting collaboration.
Unaligned beliefs – too many organisations talk and rely upon values, often those they espouse, without realising that an individual’s beliefs are very powerful to the point that a belief can cause an individual to discount or overrule a value. Where organisational values do not align with an individual’s values the likelihood of beliefs overriding an organisational value are extremely high.
Style differences – working with others who are ‘different’ let alone collaborating with such people can cause us to unconsciously reinforce the beliefs we hold and so express an attitude that affects collaborative efforts. An individual’s working style is underpinned by their beliefs and clashes of style lead to poor cooperation, communication, and poor collaboration with leaders needing to understand that their leadership style can be a major factor in poor collaboration.
On this last point Drucker was as usual highly observant in saying: ‘Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.’
We at Executive Development have worked with numerous organisations, both large and small, over the last 30+ years in helping them to build collaborative working environments, effective joint venturing, partnering, performance and teamwork. In our work we use the ‘Beliefs and Attitudes Mindset Questionnaire’© a unique development tool created to help people understand how their beliefs and attitudes impacts their performance in all aspects of their work and everyday life.