E43 Why You're Struggling with Collaboration with Jim Benson

“Most of the failures in any project that I've ever been on have been due to lack of communication, lack of coordination, lack of respect for other people, overemphasis on procedure, as opposed to being able to react elegantly to changes in the situation that you're in.” - Jim Benson

This quote is from our guest on today’s episode Jim Benson, who has extensively studied why people struggle to collaborate and is the author of Personal Kanban and The Collaboration Equation.

Jim joins our hosts Ben and Aaron on today’s episode to have a crucial conversation about how relying on procedure can prevent progress, and more importantly, why people won’t collaborate or why they can’t seem to get it right.

It is clear that when done well, collaboration produces the highest quality outcome and it just feels good. But why do people struggle with it? This is the question that Jim, Ben, and Aaron discuss in today’s episode, as well as how to collaborate effectively, the benefits of collaboration, how to assess your level of collaboration, dealing with conflict and frustrations within a group, and how to get leaders to get the most out of their team, and much much more.

If your team is missing deadlines, not seeing eye to eye, noticing more bugs, and the stress levels are high, or if you’re just looking for ways to improve your collaborative efforts, this episode is for you.

You don’t want to miss this one!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• A little bit about Jim’s background

• Similarities between music and games

• Dealing with uncertainty through collaboration

• Incentivizing “pulling the cord” in collaboration vs. in knowledge work

• Producing value in teamwork vs. solo work

• Why don't leaders use collaboration more often?

• Do gamers want more complex tech?

• Improving sequels by removing the “bad stuff” instead of adding

• The best way to deal with stress

• Questions to ask yourself to gauge your level of collaboration

• Dealing with conflict when collaborating

• A healthy way to deal with unhealthy frustrations

• What is learned helplessness and how to deal with it

• How to make visualization effective for groups and teams

Check out what Jim Benson is up to by visiting his websites here: https://moduscooperandi.com/

https://modusinstitute.com

You can find Jim Benson’s books here: 

Personal Kanban: https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Kanban-Mapping-Work-Navigating/dp/1453802266/

The Collaboration Equation: https://www.amazon.com/Collaboration-Equation-Strong-Professionals-Delivery-ebook/dp/B0BHXDBG25

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Content Editor: Jonathan Singh

This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com