Warning: Collaboration considered harmful

Warning: Collaboration considered harmful 

Say what?! Collaboration considered harmful, how can that be? Collaboration has brought us so many miraculous things and continues to bring us essential, often under appreciated everyday household items, like the pencil.  




In the words of famous economist Milton Friedman:
 
"Look at this lead pencil. There’s not a single person in the world who could make this pencil. Remarkable statement? Not at all. The wood from which it is made, for all I know, comes from a tree that was cut down in the state of Washington. To cut down that tree, it took a saw. To make the saw, it took steel. To make steel, it took iron ore..."   
  
and on and on, as you can imagine...
 
Maybe I should revise my opening statement.   Collaboration is truly amazing, however not all collaboration is created equal.  Collaboration which does not result in a better product, service or process is usually wasted.  It is this type of wasteful, counter productive collaboration that is considered extremely harmful, especially if it is allowed to fester.

Warning: Counter productive collaboration considered EXTREMELY harmful

Just how expensive is collaboration? The cost of collaboration increases
exponentially as team members are added. It's basic graph theory. 
   
Assuming that each team member needs to collaborate with every other team
member at some point, we can define the following equation to help us calculate
the amount of effort required for collaboration given the size of a team: 
 
Effort = Size of team ^ 2 – size of team

For example:




You can verify the results by drawing the graphs yourself and counting the number of arrows.    

                                                  


For collaboration that results in a better product, service or process, the benefit is usually worth the cost, however for collaboration that does not result in a better product, service or process the effort is completely wasted.  


So, what can you do to avoid waste and reduce the cost of collaboration?

1. Begin with the end in mind.  Don't hold any meetings without a clearly defined agenda.
2. Make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction.  During the meeting, stay focused on the agenda. "If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time". - Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team  
3. Start on time and end on time.  The cost of collaboration is already high, don't pay it multiple times by having to repeat yourself for latecomers. Establish a culture of timeliness.
4. Eliminate the "after meetings".  Build consensus and deal with objections during the meeting or you may be forced to repeat it.  
5. Reiterate and distribute agreed upon action items immediately following the meeting.  A meeting that doesn't result in agreed upon action items is usually a waste of time.  

So what do you think, did I miss anything? Do you have any tips of your own for reducing the cost of collaboration? Leave a comment below to continue the conversation.