The Collaboration Imperative

The evolving business environment continues to create challenges for leaders across the globe. Leaders of domestic and multinational organizations must confront competitive pressures from around the globe, increased scrutiny from regulators, shifting customer expectations, and cross cultural employee demographics. The pace of change continues to accelerate exponentially because of technology and the confluence of organizational and social values. While these macro level challenges continue to shape the face of organizations, leaders are faced with the primary issue of building talent through collaboration to enable organizational resilience and provide long-term survivability. Collaboration among employees and stakeholders provides the framework allowing organizations to leverage diversity, spark innovation, and create a sustainable competitive advantage.

Leaders from around the globe are confronted with the challenges of building agile and responsive organizations. Innovation and the free flow on information are the primary drivers accelerating the pace of change. (McKinsey & Company, 2006) In addition, improved capabilities of competitors resulting from a greater depth of collaboration and knowledge transfer are confounding many organizational leaders. (McKinsey & Company, 2006) Employment trends continue to shape the face of the workforce. Globalization, labor shortages, off shoring, and technology spur diversity within the workforce. (Schramm, 2006) Leaders must provide an infrastructure capable of capitalizing on the talent available and empowering collaboration among diverse employee groups. High performance organizations enable high performance collaboration among its employees. “Most work requires a team effort in order to be done effectively. The quality of a group’s efforts in areas such a problem solving is usually superior to that of individuals working on their own” (Sirota, 2006)

Leadership support is essential when developing open collaboration across an organization. The leader’s role is to provide an organizational purpose that aligns with the values and high moral purpose espoused under Christian doctrine. The message must instill and inspiring purpose, that being builds emotional commitment and allows employees to collaborate without fear. Leaders must provide a structure that recognizes the achievement of the team in addition to the individual. Further, the moral purpose must explicitly place high value on self-actualized work and collaboration among diverse groups of employees. Whenever possible, teams should have autonomy over the work methods and authority to make decisions regarding processes. (Sirota 2006) In addition to the work-centric values, caring for the physical and spiritual health of employees is essential for building trust and collaboration. Though consistent communication and practice of value based collaboration, leaders may establish the foundation of competitive advantage.

Across the globe, organizations are leveraging the talents and abilities of diverse employee groups to enable organizational success. The pace of change continues to accelerate and competition among organizations does not appear to relent. The cornerstone of long-term corporate competence lies not within the realm of technology, but within the hearts, minds, and spirit of groups of empowered employees collaborating in value based relationships. Effective leaders demonstrate Christian values when communicating the purpose of the organization. These values pave the path for candid collaboration among diverse employee groups to create competitive advantage for the organization.

References
McKinsey & Company. (2006). an Executive Take on the Top Business Trends. The McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved May 2, 2006, from http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_print.aspx?L2=21&L3=114&ar=1754.
Schramm, J. (2006). SHRM Workplace Trends and Forecast. SHRM Workplace Forecast.
Sirota, D. (2006). Why Your Employees are Losing Motivation. Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. Retrieved April 11, 2006, from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/tools/print_item.jhtml?id=5289&t=innovation.