In Part 1 of this post I mentioned that collaboration trumps time management…every time. In others words, if you want to do things faster and better, instead of looking toward time management techniques to make 5% or 10% improvements, figure out how to work more effectively with others – on your team, across departments, and within the broader organization. For collaboration to work, relationships must be focused on open communication. How do you create open communication? People must be comfortable being transparent. For example, if you are running into manufacturing problems, you must be willing to air the dirty laundry on quality and delivery times if you want to work effectively with Sales and Sourcing to resolve the issues. Peel the onion back, though, and you’ll realize that you can’t have open communication if you don’t have two other key ingredients: Respect and trust. Respect enables you to values differences of opinion, perspectives, and ideas. Trust enables you to have the difficult conversations because others know you are having the conversations with the best interest of the organization in mind, and not your own agenda. Without respect you can’t have trust. And without trust, it’s impossible to work in a collaborative manner. Respect and trust, then, become the cornerstone of efficiency. Want to do things faster and better? Try collaboration. It trumps time management…every time.
