DO YOU MEASURE UP? Effective Collaboration Levels

When collaborations fail is because people do not understand the importance of it. Often, people’s ego gets in the way because they ignore the skills of effective collaboration. Undoubtedly, lack of collaboration limits creativity and innovation; as we look around, we see that most marriages do not work, most businesses may work for 3-4 years, and organizations that last 20-30 years are rare.

Collaboration is in our DNA, starting with two human cells collaborating. Once we are born, 86 billion cells make up our brain. These neuron brain cells receive external sensory input that sends motor directions to our muscles and relays the electrical signals throughout our body. Then, the 86 billion brain neurons architect collaborates making 100 trillion connections that shape our nervous system to sense the environment, command our body, think, and much more. Collaboration is the most natural activity in our body. When the body does not collaborate with itself, we get sick, and diseases like cancer or other autoimmune diseases happen. Organizations or societies can become cancerous as they fight against themselves, and it takes a lot of maturity, care, compassion to make it work.