On a recent camping trip to the Flinders Ranges, while sitting under the dazzling night sky and checking my phone only a little (ahem), an email caught my eye. It was from Medina, Saudi Arabia. The leader of a local program was enquiring about assistance on their city-wide, multi-agency collaborations.
We set up a Teams meetings upon my return to the office. On this call the thing that struck me most was just how familiar are the challenges we face inside bureaucracies. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I had thought that given the very different cultural and governance context in Saudi Arabia, leaders there would face different problems to my other clients. But it seems that the barriers to effective collaboration are universal and the aspirations are very similar, including:
- Working better across silos
- Getting greater alignment across teams in terms of what to do and how to do it
- Reducing competition among teams and increasing collaboration
- Increasing commitment and accountability across the business
- Reducing rework, increasing efficiency
- Working more effectively with stakeholders.
What is it about our organisations, wherever in the world they are, that makes collaboration challenging? Why are we still not doing this better as a matter of course?
The second thing that struck me was that this client found Twyfords by Googling. They could have gone anywhere in the world, but found us. When I asked about that it became clear that it was our Collaboration system and toolsets that made the difference. When struggling to know how to collaborate more effectively and consistently, there is some comfort in being able to follow a clear approach, with a guidebook to follow.
I have since spent a fascinating week in Medina, during which time I’m sure I learned as much as my client. And I’ve been inspired all over again to continue to build our collaborative cultures and practices, wherever we are.