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Collaboration-workshop

How This Collaboration Workshop Empowered Everyone!

At the end of 2024 I was tasked to create a collaboration workshop to enhance the working relationship between employees across two teams.

The problem was that poor communication was negatively impacting their working relationship.

This was causing slow progress on shared projects and creating a sense of frustration between the teams.

It was clear that without action, these two teams were not going to get the best out of each other.

In this blog, I’m going to share how this collaboration workshop brought two teams together to create a working relationship built for success.

Contents

The Challenges These Teams Were Facing

The Approach to This Collaboration Workshop

Key Collaboration Workshop Topics Explored

Want a Collaboration Workshop for Your Team?

The Challenges These Teams Were Facing

These two teams were struggling with a communication breakdown that stemmed from unclear expectations, differing priorities, and ultimately a lack of trust.

Misaligned goals meant that while both teams were working hard, they were often pulling in different directions, leading to many inefficiencies and frustration.

Meetings were often unproductive, with important points being miscommunicated, lost altogether, and key takeaways not being actioned.

Compounding the issue was the absence of a shared understanding of each team’s expertise and capabilities, which led to unnecessary and ineffective processes that could have easily been avoided.

This tension created a frustrated work environment where individuals felt disconnected, and as a result, progress on joint projects stalled.

When I was tasked to deliver this collaboration workshop, I knew I had my work cut out, but I was up for the challenge.

It was clear that without intervention, the issues across these teams would continue to impact productivity, delay critical initiatives, and negatively impact the shared goal. Which was becoming increasingly blurry.

colleagues-arguing-pointing-fingers

The Approach to This Collaboration Workshop

To tackle the challenges these teams were facing, I needed to design and deliver a workshop tailored to address the root causes of their communication and collaboration issues.

The workshop needed to address some of the inefficiencies teams were facing, but crucially, without pointing fingers.

I needed to create a safe space where both teams could come together, explore their differences, and find common ground.

The plan was to highlight the importance of great collaboration and ignite the will to ensure progress going forward.

After meetings with the senior leadership team, I decided to deliver a session with 5 key topics that constructively targeted some of the issues the teams were facing.

Of course, the leadership team had to understand and see my vision, but they were on board!

Now, when it comes to delivering impactful workshops, it can be a challenge to get individuals to open up.

However, a skilled workshop facilitator will use a range of methods to help attendees feel at ease and comfortable.

It was my job to introduce structures that allowed open, honest, and most importantly, productive conversations.

Through years of delivering workshops, it was my responsibility to draw on my experience to ensure all hell didn’t break loose. And of course, it didn’t 😉

Let’s look at some of the key things we covered in this workshop to ensure a productive and

Tyler-Lowe-delivering-a-workshop

Key Collaboration Workshop Topics Explored

This collaboration workshop consisted of 5 key topics that were strategically designed to help improve the working relationships between these teams.

Exploring the Role of Teamwork

We began the session with a short icebreaker by getting everyone to discuss in small groups a memory of them being part of a successful team.

To encourage participation, I started with an example of being part of a team when attempting Tough Mudder.

We then explored the characteristics of a great team and discussed what it truly takes to be part of a great team.

This allowed attendees to see the positive characteristics of teams, while subtly showing them the characteristics that they are not displaying.

It created an eye opener for many and an opportunity to improve.

Teamwork-as-part-of-a-tough-mudder

Aligning to a Shared Goal

We then looked at the shared goal of the teams, an essential part of effective collaboration.

After all, both teams were working towards the same goal but some of the day-to-day tasks had allowed them to forget the bigger picture.

This loss of a shared goal created a situation where teams were not always working in the best interest of the company’s vision.

Through an interactive activity, teams of small groups came up with a mission statement that aligned with the team’s shared goals.

This part of the session helped to remind everyone that everyone wants to achieve the same thing.

It helped to realign their focus and served as a powerful reminder that despite differences, everyone in the room was striving for the same positive outcome.

Understanding Different Perspectives

In many teams, one of the greatest barriers to effective collaboration is a lack of understanding of others.

To address this, we dedicated this part of the workshop to exploring and appreciating different perspectives.

Through a few interactive activities, we looked at how everyone can experience the same situation but may see things differently.

This workshop was meticulously designed to help participants step out of their own viewpoints and consider the challenges, priorities, and pressures that others in their team may face.

We used an empathy mapping exercise to make this process more structured and impactful.

Empathy mapping allows individuals to see the viewpoints of others.

What are their concerns? What challenges do they face? What support might they need?

The discussions were eye-opening and let people realise that most of their frustrations were due to misunderstandings rather than malice.

Taking the time to listen, reflect, and empathise, gave attendees the opportunity to understand the other side of the story.

workshop-facilitator-with-a-team-in-a-workshop

Creating Open and Honest Conversation

Good communication is a big part of any successful team collaboration.

However, it can often be hard to navigate the intricacies of communicating effectively.

We started by discussing the importance of effective communication and what happens when people create open and honest conversations with each other.

There was lots of productive dialogue and part of that was discussing how to make our conversations more effective.

Through interactive activities we explored a range of scenarios that helped the teams understand constructive ways of communication.

I asked the attendees, “Why is it that most of the time we think we’re the ones in the right?”

Someone cheekily shouted out “Because we are” and we all giggled.

But we discussed this together and looked at solutions to allow ourselves to rethink this mindset.

One of those solutions was abandoning blame.

Blame looks backward.

Instead of looking at blame, we explored looking at the contributing factors that lead to a disagreement.

Contribution allows us to see all the factors, rather than solely placing blame on one thing.

Why Collaboration Wins

To wrap up the workshop, we focused on the powerful advantages of collaboration.

We began this section by exploring real-life examples of successful collaborations, both within and outside the workplace.

I shared some of my examples and opened the discussion up to the room to share some of theirs.

These discussions highlighted that when collaboration is done properly, there are countless benefits.

By the end of this session, both teams were energised by the possibilities that true collaboration could bring.

To finish, we discussed the next steps.

The group understood that my workshop was just the starting point and if they wanted to gain real success working together, they were going to have to continue the conversation.

Teams agreed to set up meetings and continue discussing effective ways of collaborating.

Before we brought the session to an end, everyone discussed their key takeaways from the day and the key actions they were going to take following the workshop.

It was another successful workshop and I look forward to delivering it again for other organisations.

happy-senior-managers

Want a Collaboration Workshop for Your Team?

If you’d like to organise a collaboration workshop for your workplace, get in touch to see how we can work together.

Email us at Hello@lovinglifeco.com and we’ll discuss how we can help you to truly make a positive impact in your workplace.

Author 

Tyler Lowe – Workshop Facilitator

Tyler Lowe