COLLABORATION

Regardless of what business you do or from which industry you come from, collaboration is a powerful tool for you to grow. Undoubtedly, collaboration has its fair share of contribution to one's business. No matter whether you are a soloist, freelancer or a small company, you can still partake in collaboration with people from different industries. Simply found in any dictionary, collaboration is ‘to work with another person or group to achieve or do something’. The purpose of collaboration is to expand ideas on your products and other services to bring you to success.

While it is nice to work alone, it is better to work with others. It does not only make your job lighter, it also broadens your knowledge and helps you grow in the process. You gain additional information and ideas that you did not think of in the first place. Each individual thinks and works differently. However, let's not get comfortable just yet. As simple as it sounds, it carries challenges along. For every move we act on in our business, we know there is a purpose for it and there will bound to have setbacks. So let's take a look at the power of collaboration as well as the challenges that it brings.

The reason why many said that collaboration is important for a business' growth and success is because people inspire one another which helps in creative thinking and problem-solving. As you go along the process, it gets educational as you get to learn from one another - views from a different perspective, new ideas and also learn how to be constructive with opinions.

Collaborating with people, or even with your team opens new channel of communication that you never expect. Networking - as mentioned before in the previous post, networking is important at one point in your life. Your partner or team are the main important part of collaboration - they allow your business/product to be recognised by others through word of mouth. Without them, the progress or growth in your business would slow down.

So what is it that could go wrong with collaboration? Here are some of the challenges that one may face in the process. If there are setbacks, both parties must be able overcome it together as professionals. The common one would be miscommunication. When there is communication breakdown - failure to exchange information, poor listening skills or even language barrier - can deeply affect the project. Therefore, being in a team, partners and collaborators need to communicate with one another often to progress positively. This can be easily dealt with if you know how to communicate and discuss professionally with your partners.

Another challenge is having indecisive partners. There ought to be overlapping ideas, bad and better ones that sometimes neither one could agree or finalise with any. Having uncooperative members or partner can be an issue, depending on the size of the group and project. Eventually, all these factors would slow down the progress because some are unwilling to get involved in the project or they depend on the other party too much.

To avoid all these unnecessary problems, one should do thorough research and have in-depth meetings with potential collaborators before working together with them. Keep meeting new people and network. Expand your contacts, talk to people! Communication is key when collaborating or working with others. Above it all, always begin with positive thinking in everything you do. Be professional but don't forget to enjoy the process!

Collaboration for growth and success!