Are you cooperating or just pretending?

Easit GO

In this post, we will try to clarify the differences between collaboration and cooperation. Why do some organizations think they are collaborating when they are really just working together between departments? We will also explain how this relates to Enterprise Service Management.

Collaborating and working together - aren't they the same thing?

Many organizations often like to emphasize how good they are at internal collaboration. The English word for collaboration is "collaboration" is widely used. In English, there is also the term "cooperation", which is a little more like collaboration, i.e. working together. If we think we are collaborating when we are actually working together, it can have a negative impact on our ability to digitize and automate our work - that is, to be even more efficient and competitive.

Isn't it obvious to cooperate?

Collaboration allows businesses to use the right people, for the right tasks, to deliver the right results - thereby improving efficiency and problem-solving capacity, building stronger working relationships and driving innovation. It may seem obvious, so why is it so difficult?

Yes, because with cooperation comes challenges, for example:

Loss of group identity
Identity gives groups a focus and meaning within an organization. Quite simply, a reason to exist.
Loss of legitimacy
A group's legitimacy develops when its own group is perceived by others as appropriate, acceptable, valuable and unique within the organization.
Loss of control
Groups feel they need to be able to act independently to bring about meaningful change.

For example, an IT service desk may feel that it is not qualified enough to be an enterprise-level service desk. They may feel that they are losing control and this creates anxiety. They are happy to work together (collaborate) with other functions, but they become selective in what they really want to collaborate on.

'Owning' an area and being unique provides an opportunity for groups to feel that they differentiate themselves, create value and have the decision-making rights needed to be successful. You have total control. New collaborations also create a departure from 'business as usual'. The tired cliché "Everyone wants change but no one wants to change" becomes palpable.

Traditional reward systems that compensate on the basis of individual and/or departmental targets can also cause problems. These can easily lead to unintended consequences such as individuals and departments focusing on achieving individual goals at the expense of the broader and overarching goals of the business. So rather than working together, departments and individuals tend to work for their own ends.

How can you get past the barriers?

In an article from Harvard Business Review you can read about the following tips:

Reinforce the group's identity by publicly recognizing the critical roles that a group has always played in areas that are fundamental to its identity.
Confirm the legitimacy of the group by publicly recognizing its importance and its value in the company.
Re-establish control by identifying the main areas where the group has autonomy and decision-making power, by identifying the processes, decisions for which the group is responsible.
Then consider processes, decisions and other topics that require shared or joint control and how these fall within the department's identified responsibilities.

From an Enterprise Service Management (ESM) perspective, it may be to remind the IT service desk how it excels at its core mission: solving problems and helping its customers get their work done.

Make sure that, for example, the facilities department knows that they are the experts in designing and creating a physical work environment that enables productive work.

In an article on Fast Company lists some ways to help individuals who struggle to be cooperative:

List the benefits
Help individuals to visualize the benefits of cooperation. Then make a list of the benefits of not collaborating. Ask which list makes them feel more involved and significant, and which list makes them feel limited and less involved.
List strengths and weaknesses
This will help individuals realize that doing everything by themselves is not sustainable and identify areas for potential collaboration that would be mutually beneficial.
Don't forget the mission
One of the biggest reasons why organizations slip back into competitive thinking is that they don't realize their involvement in the organization's mission and their deeper individual values.

Why is cooperation so important for the success of the ESM?

Enterprise Service Management relies on and helps to strengthen and drive collaboration. ESM helps organizations to focus on the whole delivery and support the whole organization. Properly implemented, ESM supports the concept of "win-win" which is a prerequisite for good collaboration. It cannot just be the organization that benefits from collaboration, individuals and departments must also recognize how they contribute to that success by working effectively with others.

Good ESM creates opportunities for workflow automation, reliability, consistency and quality of business processes and end-to-end measurability.

Stay focused and see the big picture

One example that is quite common is that a lot of effort is put into finding and implementing a common service management tool. These are good first steps, but a recurring problem is that they stop there. The big, even more important and quite extensive job, is to set the models for how the departments should collaborate in the tool.

To avoid getting stuck in the first part, you can try the following:

Mapping the customer journey
The customer journey illustrates how individual customers experience your organization. It identifies each interaction between the customer and the organization, shows which departments are involved at each stage - and highlights potential areas for collaboration.
Map value streams
A value stream shows how information and work flows through an organization. Most value streams within an organization cross departmental boundaries, again illustrating the need for collaboration.
Map the employee journey
An employee journey is like a customer journey, but it looks at the experience with the organization from the employee's perspective.

Once the decision is taken and anchored

Be inclusive
Effective collaboration is based on involving every department that will contribute to the collaboration. Good collaboration is a team sport!
Have a strong focus and a clear strategy
A proactive strategy drives engagement and results.
Don't do everything at once
Work in small steps and start with some low-hanging fruit to quickly demonstrate gains
Reinforce the benefits of collaboration by celebrating success!