Harvard Business Review - HBR Guide to Collaborative Teams (HBR Guide Series)

Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

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More and more, individuals in organizations are being asked to work together to accomplish important projects and meet key objectives. But effective collaboration is no easy task. From navigating competing priorities to simply finding time for team members to meet, any number of obstacles can slow down productivity or even lead to failure. Getting all members of a cross-functional team on the same page, and working toward the same goal, is far easier said than done.

Collaboration is a skill that many companies expect of their employees but rarely train them in. Building a diverse team, ensuring everyone can work together smoothly, setting norms around communication and decision making, and proactively resolving conflicts all tend to be left to team leaderswho may not even have formal authority over the people theyre leading. Its no wonder collaboration can feel like an uphill struggle. But it doesnt have to.

Whether youre leading a collaborative team for the first time or youve worked on cross-functional initiatives for years, this guide will help you manage challenges and solve problems so your projects reach successful outcomes. Youll learn how to:

• Find the right mix of skills and personalities for your project
• Lead and motivate people you dont have authority over
• Ensure all team members understand their roles and responsibilities
• Manage a high-powered group of A players
• Create the psychological safety people need to do their best work
• Make decisions as a groupeven when team members disagree
• Solve turf wars and interpersonal conflicts
• Collaborate effectively across locations and zones
• Work productively with colleagues you dont get along with
• Help team members execute on goals
• Set the conditions for agile teamwork

To work together well, we need to embrace our differences.

BY JEFF WEISS

To lead people who dont report to you, try lateral leadership.

BY LAUREN KELLER JOHNSON

You need three specific capabilities.

BY JENNIFER PORTER

Figure out where you add the most value.

BY ROB CROSS, SCOTT TAYLOR, AND DEB ZEHNER

Heres how to get the right mix.

BY DAVE WINSBOROUGH AND TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC

Think about what you can offer them in return.

BY DORIE CLARK

Theres a right way and a wrong way to organize them.

BY MICHAEL MANKINS, ALAN BIRD, AND JAMES ROOT

Nurturing internal networks can lead to better outcomes.

BY ALIA CROCKER, ROB CROSS, AND HEIDI K. GARDNER

Heres how to create it.

BY LAURA DELIZONNA

Fuzzy responsibilities are bad for collaboration.

BY TAMMY ERICKSON

Every company has many cultures.

BY ROGER SCHWARZ

If-then planning is the key.

BY HEIDI GRANT

Each project stage needs the right amount of teamwork.

BY ELAINE D. PULAKOS AND ROBERT B. (ROB) KAISER

The most intractable people take up the most time and energy.

BY NIGEL NICHOLSON

Six tools for training people to work together better.

BY FRANCESCA GINO

Keep the group small and diverse.

BY TORBEN EMMERLING AND DUNCAN ROODERS

Before you start, agree on how it will end.

BY BOB FRISCH AND CARY GREENE

Be strategic about meetings and communication.

BY ELIZABETH GRACE SAUNDERS

Constructive conflict is good for creativity.

BY LIANE DAVEY

Four questions to start getting on the same page.

BY RON CARUCCI

Check your mindset, and focus on the larger goal.

BY AMY GALLO

Be a mediator, not a boss.

BY JEANNE BRETT AND STEPHEN B. GOLDBERG

You can still have a productive relationship.

BY MARK D. NEVINS