A diagnostic for collaboration

For companies and teams that wish to become more cohesive, concrete steps can be taken to establish a collaboration culture. In many cases, a good place to start is for teams to conduct a self- diagnosis to measure their current level of collaboration. This will help them chart the journey from a loosely associated group of Colleges/Universities to a cohesive and high- performing team. The diagnostic tool gauges four main elements that make up a collaborative culture: Trust, Ambition, Cohesion and shared Knowledge, or TACK (see Figure 2). TACK focuses on the collaboration behaviors that are essential to strong teams. It includes measures of both “head trust” (an intellectual grasp of the team members’ mutual reliance to complete the project) and “heart trust” (“You have my back and will protect me”). The basic principle underpinning collaborative behaviors is that they build on each other gradually and then the momentum leads to a virtuous circle. Leaders can build TACK by encouraging and facilitating small steps in each of the four areas.