How poor collaboration kills projects
In my last post (linked here), I mentioned some warning signs of poor collaboration and suggested that if you suspect some misalignment on your team to pause work immediately to get everyone on the same page. In this post, I’ll outline why misalignment can wreak havoc on the collaboration of your team and prevent you from reaching your business goals.
It’s estimated that 70% of all projects fail to deliver what was promised. Of that 70%, the most common reason for project failure was a lack of clear goals (37%). That’s a large majority of your precious time and energy spent on work that doesn’t get to see the light of day. Your business and/or the organization that you work for have far too important goals and visions to bring into the world to risk the failure of projects simply due to collaboration issues caused by misalignment.
2 ways misalignment will impact collaboration
There are two categories in which alignment issues will affect the success of collaboration and ultimately project work. The functional aspects of how the work is done and the emotional toll on you and your team.
The functional pains (When the work itself seems harder than it should be):
Communication issues
Inefficient time management
Missed deadlines
Duplicated tasks
Poor executive sponsorship
Pointless meetings
The emotional toll (The road to burn out):
Mistrust
Animosity
Conflict
Frustration
Low morale
What you can do to improve collaboration
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to stay this way. The important goals you and your team are working towards don’t have to feel so messy and difficult. Alignment is possible. And when a team is aligned, the work will be crazy productive because collaboration will be optimal! Here are some things you can do:
Using a project and strategy alignment matrix helps your team decide whether to support, invest, de-prioritize or kill a project.
Revisit the strategic focus of your organization or company. Get as specific as possible about how your project contributes to the completion of that vision and mission. Make space for the team to be honest how they think their work is contributing. As a team, decide whether the work is worthwhile to continue.
As a team, decide whether the work is worthwhile to continue. It’s better for everyone to be part of an honest discussion rather than someone on your team being told that the work is no longer aligned and their time is being reallocated elsewhere. Consider using a project alignment matrix to help you discern what projects to invest, support, de-prioritize or kill.
Get executive support. Lastly, make sure your executive sponsor/stakeholders are part of the process. You may find that there are differing perspectives that will help everyone come to the best decision possible regarding the state of your project(s).
Need more help? Run a one day alignment workshop with me. CLICK HERE to book a free call to learn more.
