Collaboration: tired buzz word or dynamic force for good?

In our stressed and busy workplaces, how can we cultivate effective collaboration? How can it be more than just a buzz word or a burden placed on teams from above? Julien BRIN, Customer Experience Manager at DS Smith reflects on this quandary and shares his experience.

While collaboration may be an overused word in many circles, there are some places where it is essential and not at all an empty sentiment. Take, for example, relief workers, firefighters, police forces or other first responders – collaboration is at the heart of everything they do. You don’t see emergency service teams rivalling one another, pursuing their own agenda or getting caught up on insignificant minor problems – they are all working towards a common goal and there is great clarity of purpose.

However, in our current day and age, there is a danger of collaboration fatigue. Last year Harvard Business Review printed an article entitled “Collaborative Overload” and The Economist responded with “The Collaboration Curse” both questioning whether collaboration has gone too far and become ineffective. The Harvard Business Review explained that while the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has ballooned by 50% this doesn’t necessarily equate to productivity and tangible outputs. The biggest problem with collaboration, it surmised, is that it makes “deep work” difficult, if not impossible. At many companies, workers spend approximately 80% of their workday attending meetings or answering requests from colleagues and their productivity inevitably plummets under an avalanche of demands for input and advice.

I believe that at its core, collaboration is not about answering emails or requests for help but more about bringing together people with alternative perspectives to solve a problem or create something new as a team.

— Julien Brin, Customer Experience Manager

That’s why at DS Smith we are vocal exponents of our Impact Centres – a physical place where true collaboration between all sorts of functions in our customers’ businesses becomes possible. We witness collaboration happening week after week, not only at our Impact Centres but across our entire customer journey, it’s truly dynamic.

As one of Europe’s leading Packaging Strategists, we are passionate about bringing people together who don’t usually have the opportunity to meet and share ideas. We love to invite individuals from all key functions within our customer’s business, such as the marketing, sales, logistics, distribution, procurement and design teams, to explore what thoughtful packaging can do within the supply chain. We focus on their world, their needs and always the “why” before the “what”, so that we’re focused on how we can add value to their business.

Very often, different functions of our customer’s organisation work in silos, with different objectives and challenges. In some cases, coming to the Impact Centre is the first time some functions of a business have met face to face. By spending time at one of our Impact Centres, our customers are often aware of the fact that different functions of their business need to communicate better and work more closely to find a solution that fits every need of the business. It wouldn’t be unusual for a business to re-group during a visit to realign themselves, and often solutions and decisions are met quite quickly, reinforcing the power of collaboration.

Only as all these voices are heard, can companies get a truly holistic overview and begin to see the heart of an issue.

During a visit to an Impact Centre, we aim to increase awareness and interest about what is possible through intelligent packaging solutions but it isn’t necessarily a time when we do a hard sell of our products. We think it is much more powerful to generate a desire for what innovative packaging can do and highlight the potential impact it could have on a business’ bottom line. An Impact Centre is not a showroom but a practical environment where customers can look, touch, feel and see different best practice packaging solutions, so that ideas come to life. We guide customers through the entire supply chain, using good and bad examples of packaging and logistic practices to make them think and react.

We are focused on bringing people together to discuss shared challenges, break down silos and drive forward innovation. Ultimately, we aim to inspire or to act as a “mind-opener” for our customers, demonstrating how early collaboration can help them reach their global objectives faster.