We've asked over 140 companies, world-wide to measure the effectiveness of collaboration in their organizations. These are the results of this survey.

1. Organizational
Collaboration Survey
Results
Results from 140 Companies
Mark Nyman, President,
Organizational Strategy and Design

2. 2
Collaboration Definition
People from different parts of the organization/s
working together as individuals or cross unit teams
on a common task
1 Plus 1 Equals 3
Challenges
• Often requires interaction by
people who don’t work together
everyday
• Competing goals and priorities
are the norm
• Politics and “winning” often drive
decision making
• Limited resources

3. 3
“Collaboration Overload”
Time spent on collaborative work has ballooned
• At many companies 80% of time spent in meetings or
answering colleague requests
• Managers and employees time spent on collaborative
activities has increased 50% or more
• A significant amount of the value-added collaboration
comes from a small percentage of the employees
“Too much teamwork exhausts employees and saps productivity.”
“Although the benefits of collaboration are well documented, the costs
often go unrecognized.”
-HBR, Jan – Feb 2016, Cross, Rebele, & Grant

4. 4
“Stop the Meeting Madness”
• Every minute spent in a wasteful meeting eats into time
for solo work that’s equally essential for creativity and
efficiency. For another, schedules riddled with meetings
interrupt “deep work”.
• Many organizations we have worked with endure the triple
whammy of meetings that are (1) too frequent, (2) poorly
timed, and (3) badly run, leading to losses in productivity,
collaboration, and well-being for both groups and
individuals. This is the worst-case scenario—and,
unfortunately, the most prevalent.
- HBR, July-August 2017, Perlow, Hadley, and Eun

5. 5
HR Leadership Program Survey
Questions
1. How well does your company collaborate today?
2. How important is collaboration for continued success?
3. How well does your organization determine when/when not to collaborate?
4. Where do you have the biggest collaboration needs?
5. What is the primary benefit you hope to achieve in your collaboration efforts?
6. What are your main criteria for when to set up a collaborative work team?
7. What prevents effective collaboration in your company?
8. What results would you expect from more effective collaboration?

6. 6
3%
18%
45%
25%
9%
Extremely well
Very well
Average/OK
Slightly well
Not at all well
How well does your company collaborate
today?

7. 7
How important is collaboration for
continued business success?
53%
42%
4%
1%
1%
Extremely important
Very important
Average
Slightly important
Not at all important

8. 8
How well does your organization
determine when to collaborate and when
not to?
1%
14%
44%
26%
15%
Extremely well
Very well
Average/OK
Slightly well
Not at all well

9. 9
45%
44%
52%
22%
Where do you have the biggest
collaboration needs?
With outside businesses,
partners, suppliers
Between businesses
and functions
Between different
internal businesses
Between different
functions

10. 10
What is the primary benefit you hope to
achieve by improved/increased
collaboration in your company?
24%
76%
Creating new, innovative ideas,
processes, products, etc.
Sharing information about existing
customers, processes, products, etc.

11. 11
What are your criteria for when to set up a
collaborative work team?
35%
24%
13%
13%
8%
7%
Cross functional impact
Multiple perspectives
needed
Only when required
Complexity & scope of
project
No criteria
Collaboration is default

12. 12
What prevents effective collaboration in your
company?
32%
33%
17%
18%
Alignment issues
Interpersonal problems
Lack of resources and
support

13. 13
What results would you expect from more
effective collaboration?
28%
18%
22%
15%
7%
10%
Increased efficiency
Better internal culture
Better organizational results
Better alignment and communication
Increased innovation
Overall improvement

14. 14
Survey Observations
• Almost every organization sees the need for effective
collaboration – 95% see it as critical (4 or 5)
• Interesting contrast with how few collaborate well
• Only 21% of respondents feel they collaborate well (4 or 5)
• The reaction is often to over collaborate
• 87% of the companies surveyed are average or lower in
determining when to collaborate (3 or lower)
• Significant implications for how peoples time gets used
• Most collaboration needs are internal to the company
• We anticipate that this will trend toward more external
collaboration which is a unique skill set

15. 15
Survey Observations
• The primary benefit is reportedly innovation
• This is a surprise – everyone talks about innovation as
key but well over 50% of the companies we work with
are most focused on internal coordination and sharing
• Do we focus enough on alignment issues versus the time
spent on interpersonal skills?
• The easy fix is for companies to train people on how to
collaborate but in our experience training has less
impact than aligning your systems to reinforce
collaboration
• Effective collaboration has a positive correlation with
productive work cultures and employee engagement

16. To learn more about developing
collaboration in your
organization, please contact
The RBL Group.
Visit our Website: www.rbl.net
Email Us: mnyman@rbl.net