The Principles of Collaborative Global Teams in 10 Words or Less

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TMA World Viewpoint

The Principles of Collaborative Global Teams in 10 Words or Less

In my book, Where in the World is My Team? I presented what I call The Six Cs of Global Collaboration: 

• Cooperation: Building trusting relationships across borders and distances

• Convergence: Staying aligned to the primary purpose and direction of the team

• Coordination: Synchronizing work for efficiency and effectiveness

• Capability: Leveraging the knowledge, skills, and experiences of all team members

• Communication: Developing shared understandings

• Cultural Intelligence: Forming a work culture that is inclusive of cultural and style differences

Collaborative Team Architecture

This is what I call a Collaborative Team Architecture – a performance framework on which to focus leaders and team members throughout a project. 

Leaders need to think about how they can continually create the conditions in which the Six Cs can thrive. Team members always to be thinking about what they are doing, could do, or do better to embed the Six Cs in the team.

Clients find the Six Cs a very useful framework for assessing a team, exploring best practices, and planning strategies, but the Cs aren’t framed in a particularly friendly language.  

Being academically minded, I tend to write in abstract terms. I am most comfortable creating ideas, playing with concepts, and seeing where they take me. 

Collaborative Team Architecture

There was no point in my trying to find other C words that were less abstract. I had already spent many hours of researching and thinking to arrive at the Six Cs. I needed to take a different approach.

I set myself the task of trying to capture the essence of each C - from a team leader or member point of view - in 10 words or less.

Ideas and concepts can be very useful, of course, but they also need to be engaging – they have to attract an audience, so to speak. Convergence is a term that some find they can’t really get to grips with - like an abstract painting it usually requires a greater degree of explanation. 

The Principles of Collaborative Global Teams in 10 Words or Less

The result, I believe, is more concrete and engaging. The Six Cs are still the foundation of the collaborative team framework, but I’ve added the mindsets or aspirational principles that need to guide the team in becoming a team.

Here they are:

• Cooperation – We Help Each Other

• Convergence – We Pull in the Same Direction

• Coordination – We Work Together

• Capability – We Share What We Have

• Communication – We Pay Attention to Each Other

• Cultural Intelligence – We Play Well Together

The Principles of Collaborative Global Teams in 10 Words or Less

Not everyone, of course, finds this language appropriate because it appears familiar and ‘natural’.  Many in business – and the consulting world - prefer a more scientific, transactional, and instrumental terminology. The workplace is more technology-based than ever and this development could increase the use of impersonal language. As we grow into a global collaboration age, we must focus on human connectivity not just technological-connectivity (and language is about human connectivity).

One fact that could shape the future of business language is that many of the technologies used in corporate life are also used by people in their social lives. Just think of all the social networking and blogging technologies out there. The boundary between work and social language is likely to get fuzzier and fuzzier… and fuzzier. And I’m OK with that! 

To learn more about how TMA World can help your

organization unlock the secrets of collaborative

global teams, please contact us at

enquiries@tmaworld.com or visit http://

www.tmaworld.com/virtual_world.cfm