Show Notes: Episode 158 – Collaboration in the Workplace

Transcript: Episode 157 – Innovative Benefit Offerings

December 5, 2022

Transcript: Episode 158 – Collaboration in the Workplace

December 19, 2022

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Click here for a full transcript of the episode.

Collaboration is crucial for a successful and JoyPowered® workspace, but it’s not always easy, so we invited collaboration expert Deb Mashek to share her thoughts on navigating the relationship headwinds that tank timelines, bottom lines, and morale.

Collaboration is important to do well in the workplace because it’s beneficial to your team’s productivity and engagement, employee retention, and the quality of the work product. When it tanks, you see a lot of stress, employees carrying home their workplace worries, turnover, etc.

Because collaboration depends on relationships, and relationships are incredibly difficult to do well, it’s difficult to have a truly collaborative team. This isn’t an area where you either know how to do it or you don’t – it can be trained. Unfortunately, students and employees rarely get training on collaboration, despite the fact that it’s the number one skill employers want new college graduates to have.

To go from “collabor-hate” to “collabor-great,” Deb suggests first decreasing interdependency in the work; give people a little breathing room so they’re not sinking or swimming depending on what the other person is doing. Once you untangle a bit, you can work on relationship quality, and once the relationship is strong, you can bring back some of the interdependency.

In this episode’s listener mail, we’re asked for tips on influencing up in a respectful but impactful way. In the news, a JobSage study shared some pet peeves of job seekers.