Collaboration simply means “to work together.”

As John Donne is famously quoted, “No man is an island.” Great companies, organizations and world-class departments know this instinctively. Yet every organization must work intentionally to collaborate.

It’s not easy.

The fact is that the alternative—working independently—may seem to hold the promise of speed and efficiency, but leads to dysfunction and poor outcomes.

The effectiveness of any service function in an organization largely depends on the department’s ability to effectively collaborate with its internal clients. It’s no different for the organizations that serve those departments. Information Technology service providers are notorious for their lack of a collaborative approach with clients.

These three categories anchor the points on the triangle for assessing service providers:

When working with a service provider, IT organizations must deliberately determine how they will engage outside help. As a Fortune 100 IT Controller once told me, “Our people think they are contracting for results, when in fact, they are just contracting for resources.”

In the past, there were really only two choices: the Arrogant Solution Provider (ASP) or the Ignorant Solution Provider (ISP).

They are defined as follows:

The Arrogant Solution Provider (ASP) Model
“We are the pros from Dover.”

In the great old TV series M*A*S*H, there was an episode when the “expert” surgeons arrived to help the 4077 and declared that famous line quoted above. The surgeons who arrived to help Hawkeye and the troops had superb skills, great formal training, and an excellent command of the more “academic” approach to how things were done in the operating room. However, that was of minimal use in the heat of the battle where the wounded didn’t come in on a convenient schedule and compromises to procedure were needed to save lives. Of course, the “pros” didn’t really understand how things were done on the front lines and became an impediment to saving the wounded. In the end, they learned how things were really done and both the “pros” and the Mash unit learned important lessons, but it wasn’t an optimal intervention to augment skills and learning.

This is the model many traditional “solution oriented” IT service providers use to engage their clients. Many times, they bring excellent personnel, but will also bring seven volumes of methodology, multiple layers of management, and they’ll want to do things the “right way” – which of course, happens to be their way. They see clients as victims of their circumstances and believe that only by following the seven volumes, will the client truly be successful. Typically, the work will get done, but it will be more expensive, more disruptive and more invasive than was contemplated at the beginning of the project.

It will not be as satisfying as hoped. The “island” in this case is the ASP who works independently from the client.

The Ignorant Solution Provider (ISP) Model
“See ya when you’re finished.”

This second model is another sub-optimal engagement practice. When IT organizations choose to lead their own project, they don't have access to ASP talent and methodology. It's an all or nothing proposition. So the IT manager is left with the option of “staff augmentation.” In this situation, the manager will contract with a company who has little understanding of what the manager wants to accomplish, and even less interest in learning and helping the organization achieve success. The ISP is genuinely interested, but that interest is typically limited to whether or not timesheets are faxed in on time and whether or not they can bill you weekly.

This model leads to very dissatisfying outcomes as well. In this case, you have to manage people who are not your employees and you’ll end up with the same, or even greater, workload than if you had employees engaged. You will also end up with contractors whose companies are not paying them on time and provide no benefits. Typically, you won’t even see the company until the contractor wants a raise, and then they’ll hold you hostage for another $8 per hour. Both the client and consultant are ill served in this model, as the client ends up with skills that he needs, but with the additional “friction” of the engagement channel.

Additionally, the consultant won’t feel like a part of either the client or ISP organization, and will likely remain in a state of limbo, functioning as his or her own “island.” This is yet another dysfunctional way to approach the consulting engagement that results in sub-optimal outcomes.

The Third Way – The Collaborative Solution Provider (CSP) Model
“How can we get this work done?”

SkilGroup sees a third way to approach the consulting business and we’ve reconfigured our organization to lead in this approach.

We call it the “Collaborative Solutions Provider” model.

The Collaborative Services model is based on the central tenet that companies cannot optimize success by engaging outside resources that are arrogant or ignorant. They need a partner who will have the ability to understand the problem and then provide ongoing talent and appropriate oversight to ensure that commitments are kept and projects are completed successfully. We believe this model blends the best of both previous models, while leaving out the less desirable aspects of each.

The Collaborative Solutions model has the following critical components:

• A true understanding of the challenge that needs to be met. A CSP will take time to understand your unique challenge. On the other hand, the ASP will try to solve your problem by providing an industry standard solution to an industry standard problem, thereby minimizing the uniqueness of your particular situation. The ISP will not even understand the issues – they will present people until one works out.
• A solution that is targeted to meet the particular challenge. As a CSP, a provider will use its management talent and broad reach for specific resources to exactly meet the need of the situation.
  An ASP will try to “fit” their solution to your problem (round peg, square hole), and an ISP will keep presenting people until one works out.
• A collaborative approach to engagement management. A CSP will provide subject matter experts, or teams of people, and will also provide an engagement manager to ensure that 1) commitments are reasoned before they are made, and 2) there is follow up to ensure that those commitments are met. An ASP will tell you what is good for you, and may even require you to present your progress to them. An ISP will disappear unless you need another resource.
• Support in bringing your project to a successful completion. A CSP will stay with you as you work through the twists and turns of your project, suggesting alternatives and providing a sounding board. The ASP will many times leave you wondering how and when things will be completed, and the ISP will wait for you to tell them when you are finished with their help – unless you need another resource, at which time they will be at your doorstep.

Three steps to successful collaboration
Collaborative Solutions Providers are typified by their ability to do three things well. SkilGroup began with these tenets at the core of its approach to working with clients, and we’ve found great success by following this simple framework.

• Listen – truly “hear” what your stakeholders and sponsors are saying
• Learn – work to develop a holistic understanding of the needs expressed and test your understanding with your clients
• Lead by Example – focus on results, and be the “go to” organization for accomplishing great things

These three aspects of collaboration are important whether one aspires to be a Collaborative Solutions Provider or a better IT group within an organization.