When there's work to be done, it's tempting to jump in with both feet and get started right away. But when that work involves collaborating with others, here are few things to consider before taking the leap: 1. Know Yourself: If you prefer working alone, maybe that’s what you should do. Collaboration isn’t as straightforward as working independently. If you find it difficult to be patient, and specifically to invest the time necessary to get on the same page with others, it's not likely that things will go well. Or if it's hard for you share control over the design and implementation of the overall work, it may be best to avoid collaborating in the first place. 2. Know Your Team: You can’t
If you've been following this series, you know it’s important to build ownership and alignment when collaborating with others. Last time, we looked at what it takes to build alignment on teams. Here, we do the same for ownership. The concept of ownership is simple, but widely misunderstood. It’s defined as the extent to which we feel or believe that something is ours. People can feel ownership for anything really: An object (car, house, piece of artwork), an idea (problem, decision, design concept), or even a process (cooking recipe, business strategy, learning technique). And what makes ownership so important is that people tend to invest in, and take care of, the things for which they feel
