42 Rules for Successful Collaboration: A Practical Approach to Working with People, Processes and Technology [Paperback]

I highly recommend this book. It is full of a lot of helpful tips that I find myself going back to time and time again. It breaks the rules down into easily digestible sections that offer a lot of substance.

I very much appreciated the collaborative approach and insights of so many coming together to share best practices and 'gems' of knowledge from day-to-day experiences. As a program manager working on similar collaborative "Enterprise 2.0" initiatives in my own organization, many of the ideas and insights hit home and helped to confirm my own experiences and approach.

In today's business world, quite a bit of time, money and effort is spent on collaboration and collaborative tools without stopping to address the fundemental questions: WHO needs to collaborate, about WHAT, and WHY? Simply implementing a corporate-wide process or tool without addressing these fundemental questions often results in sub-optimal results if not complete failure.

The organization of this book into PEOPLE, PROCESS & POLICY and TECHNOLOGY helped to organize these "rules" into a simple but effective model. I appreciated the authors' insights into issues of "Security" vs. "Collaboration" as well as the impact of different generations entering the workforce and the impact of mobile on today's workforce. It's clear not only from this book, but from my own experiences, that we are continually re-writing the 'rules' on a daily basis as the economy and technology around us change at a whirlwind pace.

Great job on this one --- keep collaborating!

Collaboration is a concept that affects many of us in the workplace, even when we're not working on a structured or formalized team. It would be an understatement, then, to say that when it comes to working within a project team, cohesive collaboration is a key success metric. That being said, I found reading "42 Rules for Successful Collaboration" by David Coleman to be time well-spent. In it, Coleman solicits the perspectives of numerous business leaders across multiple fields - essentially making the book itself a collaborative process. The book is divided into three sections, which I feel enhances the reader's experience. If you are facing a particular collaborative dilemma, you can easily scan the table of contents to see if any of the topics (rules) might be of use.

Section 1 focuses on "People". The underlying themes are "why you are collaborating", and how you can build trust into that collaborative relationship. For some, many of the rules in this section might fall under the "common sense" banner, but they are worth reviewing as a way to "sharpen the saw". For example, Rule 2 "Know Why You Are Collaborating" aims to drill down to the specifics of the goal. This is an easy rule to break, but putting in the extra effort to follow it can result in a much more efficient (and successful) project. I found this section to be valuable in two ways. For project leaders (sponsors, leads, managers, etc.) there are some useful suggestions for getting the most out of teams. For team members, these rules can assist in discussing ways in which you can better help your team. Taken as a whole, this section provides the language for facilitating the discussions that can maximize the potential of diverse groups of people.

In section 2, Coleman has gathered rules that deal with "Process and Policy". This portion of the book takes a look at how collaboration can have a positive impact on an organization as a whole. While the thought of processes and policies can have a real "big picture" feel to it, the rules are presented in such a manner as to illustrate how a quality approach to team-level collaboration can have an impact on how the company-wide approach is formulated. The rules in this section serve as a means of laying the proper groundwork for effective collaboration, by creating the policies and guidelines that will enhance teamwork. I found Rule 27 "Collaborate Successfully Between Generations" to be particularly interesting. As someone who has worked with groups from disparate age groups, I find it to be a good use of time to reflect on the contrasting ways in which these groups approach communication and collaboration. This rule neatly summarizes the approaches of four generations (Seniors, Baby Boomers, GenX, and NetGeners), and serves as a useful primer on understanding how they function and interact in a group setting.

The third and final section, "Technology", focuses on choosing the appropriate technology to facilitate collaboration, and the best practices for maximizing its positive impact on your team. This section provides some solid insight into the various forms and uses of technology and choosing the strategy that will work best for your team. Rule 32 "Create the Ideal Collaborative Environment" does a good job of highlighting ways of encouraging meaningful collaboration, and the ways in which technology can be a useful tool in breaking down the barriers to participation. Virtual teams are still a relatively new component of the work environment, but they have quickly become one of the standards. A review of this section can be very beneficial in terms of understanding how best to integrate the strengths of geographically dispersed teams.

Overall, "42 Rules for Successful Collaboration" is a worthwhile read. Not all rules will apply to every team, but the structure allows the reader to pick and choose the topics that could assist in maximizing the collaborative nature of his or her particular group (or organization). It should be noted that the rules are presented as "quick hits" - they do not go into a lot of detail. I view this to be a positive element, though, for several reasons. I was able to read this book and process all of its 42 rules in a short period of time. Also, it allowed me the space to think about how they would apply to my own specific situations and teams. This can be helpful for those that work on several concurrent teams. Perhaps most importantly, there is enough context in each rule to serve as a springboard to further investigation. In this regard, the book in its entirety serves as a gateway to additional learning.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 5 reviews  4.6 out of 5 stars