The Big Collaboration Myths
At the high level there are two main myths that completely stop collaboration in its tracks. These are wide spread, deeply ingrained and difficult to overcome.
Myth Number 1 - Organisations declare that they are collaborating, possibly because it is ‘fashionable’ and good for their share price, but in practice they continue to treat their ‘partners’ as they always have done, as just another supplier or customer. In the majority there is disappointment because the anticipated payback is not realised. Furthermore, the attempt is hard work, costly, difficult and often acrimonious.
Myth Number 2 – Collaboration attempts fail to happen. Many managers appear to lack the vision to identify the potential collaborative opportunities within their current supply chains and networks. They don’t understand, for instance that they can’t just rely on technology, they need to manage them differently. As a result, they carry on doing what they have always done regardless of the consequences. In reality they are missing the simple truth that putting in place joint processes and procedures, while incurring some additional costs, will result in considerable operational, market and financial benefits.
In both of these scenarios managers display a high degree of ignorance and laziness. They have given us many reasons or excuses why they fail to act. Here are a few examples:
- We are already working with them so what else is needed
- We’re a competitive company and working closely with others is not what we do
- We can’t afford to put resources into this, we are already maxed out
- We do things a certain way and it works why should we change
- We tell our suppliers what to do and expect them to comply
- We line up our customers in revenue order and get as much as we can from them
- If we don’t have a tight contract, they could take us for a ride
- We already relax financial controls to reduce bureaucracy, what else is there
There is a strong indication that management’s short-term focus on goals and neglect of long-term value creation has a large part to play. Is this a sign of the times? There are a number of factors that contribute to these attitudes and behaviours:
- The day job comes first
- Organisational resistance to change
- Fear of loss of control, especially in the public sector
- Vested interests e.g. in sales dominated companies; where strong governance groups such as commercial and finance hold sway
- Failure to recognise that collaboration management is a discipline
- Lack of a champion and leadership
- It’s another cost we can’t justify