According to Tim Sanders, reliability is the result of multidisciplinary teamwork, driven by a culture that promotes information sharing across department lines. The author, speaker and former chief solutions officer of Yahoo! Explained how reliability truly is a team sport and shared research, insights and practical takeaways about collaboration, relationship building and problem solving.
"Whether you're a supplier or operating company, collaboration is the key to success," said Sanders, who recently spoke at the AFPM Reliability & Maintenance Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans. "Industry peer collaboration based on strong relationships can solve the most challenging issues, from operations to talent management. The key to collaboration is to build a web of relationships across your company and out into the market. There's a lot of technique to getting collaboration right."
According to Sanders, when you increase the number of perspectives around the table, the results that come in are surprising. Studies show that when four perspectives are working on a problem, the chances of finding solutions skyrocket 300 percent.
"No matter who you are or where you work in a company, if you win something or solve a problem as part of a cross-departmental team, you actually contribute to changing the culture of the organization," Sanders explained. "When collaboration is a first response and not a last resort, it sets the tone for the entire company."
Sanders emphasized that anything an operating company or service provider can do to shave days off solving problems will absolutely equate to a more predictable, stable set of business outcomes. According to him, this is why collaboration is so important and a game changer. Sanders doesn't believe in "lone genius thinking" and encourages companies to steer away from "the big idea" from one person.
"Look more to the well-built team," he said. "You would be shocked at how much faster you'll get to the finish line."
According to Sanders, the difference between a good collaboration team and a "goat rodeo" is staffing. If you're going to put together a collaboration team to solve a problem in operations or win a deal, there are two questions that must be asked:
- Who has a stake in the outcome? For example, if you take a look at who's really impacted by the turnaround time, those people should be the majority of your team.
- Who has some expertise about the problem? Ideally, you want to find who's been through the problem before.
"If you can create an environment and a stable process for people to be honest with each other and respect each other's ideas around the table, you would be surprised how much creativity comes out of the room," Sanders stated. "Ideas can come from anywhere. At the end of the day, your collaboration team should be one less person than you think you need."
One of the most amazing items Sanders discovered during his time with big companies is how long it takes a best practice to go from the field to the playbook. On average, this can take a company of 1,000 employees 20-24 months.
"From deal making to improving operations, reporting is the key to making innovation become a permanent solution that gives you a competitive advantage in the market," Sanders said. "Within a collaboration team, it's critical you have a real debate about the root cause of the problem."
According to Sanders, another one of his secrets to success is conducting only face-to-face meetings, whether in person or through video chat services like Skype or FaceTime.
"You have to see your collaborators," Sanders said. "I don't think collaboration works very well with conference calls. Conference calls are highly interruptive. I believe the future of success in management and problem-solving lies in people who can master video chat. I know it takes time and getting used to, but video creates a lot more engagement with people."
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