Today’s best managers know that they need to create a space in which their employees can collaborate in order for organizational changes to occur. To create a collaborate space, managers need to enroll people who are open and willing to discuss the problems at hand. Next, managers help the enrolled employees to discuss and determine the issues, boundaries, and obstacles involved in solving the problems. Then, the managers help the group of employees to transform into a collaborative, functioning team. Lastly, managers support this newly open, honest, constructive team, where everyone is an equal participant, and there is free flow of ideas, deep reflection, testing, and challenging of each other to solve problems and find solutions.
Source: Yorks, L., Neuman, J. H., Kowalski, D. R., & Kowalski, R. 2008. Lessons learned from a 5-year project within the department of veterans affairs: Applying theories of interpersonal aggression and organizational justice to the development and maintenance of collaborative social space. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44, 352-372.
