Tamara Schenk, Research Director

“Collaboration” is a term that is often used but rarely defined. It means different things to different people. For some, it just means working together. Others think collaboration is an IT tool, and others think it refers to everybody discussing everything with everybody on the team. That’s not collaboration.


Collaboration is not important for its own sake. The purpose of collaboration is achieving better results, ideally in a shorter amount of time. 

It is necessary to point this out, because if we could achieve the best results in the shortest amount of time by working alone, why would we ever collaborate with other teams, other roles or even partners? Let’s define collaboration specifically: why to collaborate (goals to be achieved), and how to collaborate (roles, teams, principles), and in which areas to achieve these goals. As an example, collaboration in a strategic account environment to drive 20% in revenue growth is different from collaboration within an enablement function to provide integrated content and training services, or collaboration in product development to develop a product innovation. The goals will always be different, and the roles and teams that are required to collaborate will be as different as the necessary collaboration process. Imagine the collaboration framework for a new product launch, the collaboration framework for creating a new value messaging playbook, or the framework required for account management to achieve 20% revenue growth in a strategic account. Collaboration frameworks, especially those in enablement, have to be tailored to the specific scope and challenges in a certain organization, always based on an enablement production process.

Our latest online process for bringing introductions, leads, referrals and collaboration to our Power Partner USA members is #referralwednesday.

Why Wednesday? We chose Wednesday as a day to remind our members to proactively think of other members for introductions, leads, referrals and collaboration. 

We will use this hashtag to highlight our members as well as offer and receive referrals from all B2B professionals in cyberspace.

Our printed Directory Brochure and Partners Online Directory lists the business categories each Power Partner would like to meet.  Refer to these resources and member introductory videos to gain referral ideas and suggestions.

#referralwedneday is an easy, consistent and repeatable way to remind us to help each other meet potential business contacts.   Each Wednesday, proactively think about how you can assist a fellow Power Partner. 

We registered the #referralwednesday at http://twubs.com/referralwednesday in order to associate Power Partners USA with #referralwednesday. If you are active on social media, please use #referralwednesday and #powparusa when using Twubs, Facebook or Twitter to post a referral, request an introduction or offer a lead.

Please write to Alan at [email protected] if you have any questions. 
 
 

Power Partners Bethany Guajardo from Team Beth and Alan Armijo of Tech International both are in the business of developing websites. They both provide quality graphic design and functional website technology. However, they work in two different website technology platforms. Team Beth specializes in WordPress while Tech International uses a proprietary Content Management System.
Recently, Alan received a lead for a website project.  After hearing the requirements, Alan realized that the client wanted a WordPress type website. Alan immediately called Bethany to strategize how they could work together to meet the clients specifications. 

Tech International sub contracted the majority of the design and technical work to Team Beth. Tech International handled the business development and project management.
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The only way this collaboration between “competitors” could have happened is knowing what each other’s capabilities were.   

In her new book, "Presence," Harvard social psychologist Amy Cuddy says people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you:

• Can I trust this person?
• Can I respect this person?

People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating?

​Cuddy has been studying first impressions for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions.

Psychologists refer to these dimensions as warmth and competence respectively, and ideally you want to be perceived as having both.

Interestingly, Cuddy says that most people, especially in a professional context, believe that competence is the more important factor. After all, they want to prove that they are smart and talented enough to handle your business.
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But in fact warmth, or trustworthiness, is the most important factor in how people evaluate you. "From an evolutionary perspective," Cuddy says, "it is more crucial to our survival to know whether a person deserves our trust."  

While competence is highly valued, Cuddy says it is evaluated only after trust is established. And focusing too much on displaying your strength can backfire.