How to collaborate mindfully?

Is it easy to bring people together to work on the same goal? Yes, if everyone gets the chance to collaborate mindfully. What does this mean?

We all have unique personalities, strengths and weaknesses, experiences, stories, pasts etc. We take this into consideration in personal relationships, with our friends, partner, family, … and we understand that we cannot always share the same opinion or side of the story. Having different points of view is common, that’s why we have discussions, we talk, we sometimes fight, we reconcile. I don’t want to put personal and professional relationships on the same level, but they are still relationships.

The status quo
In my opinion, in the business context, we still don’t go deep enough to understand each other’s personality and point of view. We forget that every person has unique talents and they keep learning, developing and experiencing things outside of work. Interview processes are done too quickly, selections of new profiles are still often based on stereotypes and subjective sensations and, especially professionally, we hardly give more chances to a person who has disappointed us once. We just don’t have time for it. Suddenly, we have a new project coming up, maybe something “out of the box”. Good thing we have a team or group of people that always takes on these kind of projects and they have been working well for years. I’m not saying this is bad, I’m just asking you: Have you assessed all the profiles you have in your company / team? Do you really know the unique strengths and weaknesses of each person? Have you ever given other people the chance to work on these kind of projects or topics?

Mindful collaboration
Mindful collaboration starts the moment we select the people for the task or goal: What are every person’s abilities, blockages, motivations, ideas? If you don’t know, ask them. Then, let’s prepare the space to gather and brainstorm, observe and listen carefully to everybody’s input and communicate clearly (more details here: How to have a mindful meeting?). Try to find out where the group is on the same page and where there are differences and address them. If one person has a very different point of view, try to ask and understand why. See if you can split the necessary tasks according to everyone’s preferences, passions and talents. Maybe people surprise you and suddenly take on a responsibility they have never had before. Give everyone the chance to shine. When there are discussions, let’s try to find a compromise that all parties can live with. Don’t exclude anyone from the group by giving them an “easy task” so they are quiet and don’t interrupt. Try to motivate the group, make sure everyone shares the same intention, the same goal. When we bring people together and they feel safe within a community to speak up, to share, to collaborate, the most beautiful things happen!

The benefits of a mindful collaboration
Teams who collaborate mindfully, experience:

• improved teamwork and relationships within your team which leads overall to a more satisfying, positive work environment;
• improved motivation and personal realisation as everyone feels they make a difference, contribute to a common goal, they feel their opinion counts;
• when people feel seen/heard, supported and comfortable to speak up, they feel safer and a safer work environment is a healthier environment;
• improved communication, quicker understanding of everyone’s input, possibility to solve complex challenges together improving overall decision-taking;
• more “out of the box thinking” as team members are encouraged to think, share more creative approaches, hence more innovative results.
  
  To sum up: It’s more effort to collaborate mindfully, because it takes more time. Time is one of the most valuable resources. Your effort and input of time will be rewarded though with a happier, thriving team and more efficient, innovative results. Do you already collaborate mindfully within your team / company? Are you going to approach the next project from this point of view? Leave me your comments, I would love to read your feedback.