Better Solutions Together: The Soft Skills of Leading Collaboration

Why are leaders — and leadership development — so focused on “problem-solving”? Why do we care, especially, about the soft skills required to

• problem-solve “in collaboration with others,”
• model a problem-solving mindset, and
• guide others to engage in joint problem-solving?

The data is simply too compelling to ignore — whether from the McKinsey or Deloitte studies cited in my initial article in this “Soft Skills, Adaptive Leaders” series, or from research by everyone from LinkedIn (“soft skills … are increasingly vital…”) to the World Economic Forum (“human skills” will increase in importance, even as automation grows). All tell essentially the same story: problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity are essential to the jobs that will not be automated, outsourced, or simply eliminated. Already in today’s reality, we solve problems better when we engage our suppliers, clients, business partners — even those with which we also compete. Companies do better when they can leverage complementary capabilities of others in their ecosystem, and when they count on the visibility and insight offered by others either further back, or further along, their value chain. And internally, organizations (especially large ones) are complex entities, often matrixed or siloed in ways that require employees to work across department or functional barriers to get things done.

Still, why is this so important for leaders? One could argue that joint or collaborative problem-solving is what the rank and file in the organization need to do — not a front and center competency for leaders. But could you win that argument? At the senior-most levels of any organization, leaders must ensure that purported solutions to business problems actually work in practice across functions and business units inside the organization — and don’t break our distribution relationships or supply chains outside. Leaders must solve problems anytime that standard answers don’t work, plans prove outdated, or circumstances are different than we anticipated. In other words, all the time.

But leaders not only have to be good at joint problem-solving, they also must enable others to do it well. In some ways, enabling others is an even more important attribute of leadership. In organizations of any significant size, myriad built-in tensions create literally thousands of competing priorities, resource needs, and project timelines. Conflicts brew with suppliers, customers, and other business partners. If our people are not consummate problem-solvers, we are left fighting, retreating, or splitting the difference — none of which represent particularly good outcomes for the company’s agility or performance. Therefore, we need leaders not only to enable our problem-solving, but to guide us to come up with better answers. Without better solutions to problems — solutions that essential stakeholders buy into — we really cannot execute even a great strategy. Problems inevitably arise as we move from theory to action; in the heat of execution, if we come up with poor answers, our business plans fail, and we damage critical relationships.

There are many problem-solving tools. Most of them work. What separates successful ones from those that fail is how individuals apply them. Yes, having some skill with a good problem-solving methodology is important. But developing collaborative problem-solvers is quintessentially about changing instinctive behavior, which of course, depends in large part on their mindset:

• Assumptions they make as they reach for the tools
• The way they engage with others (remember, this is collaborative problem-solving)
• How well individuals learn about what they are solving for, as they engage

To get leaders to “do better” at problem-solving, and for them to enable others to do as well, effective learning journeys start with testing their assumptions about problem-solving.

• Over what timeframe are we looking at this problem and considering solutions? Are we focused on the near term or looking further out?
• Does this problem require a zero-sum solution, or are there opportunities to create value?
• What do think about the likely causes of this problem? Are they fairly linear — or are there feedback loops we should identify and account for?

Without giving learners the opportunity to consider (and preferably experience) how these assumptions bear testing — before they jump to finding solutions — it can be difficult to change mindset or to reset the starting point for any kind of problem-solving activity. Some of the behaviors that are critical to problem-solving with others will seem less relevant, unless learners confront the implications of tackling a problem the way they’ve always done it.

In addition to testing some assumptions, a collaborative problem-solving learning journey for leaders should hone their listening skills. Again, this is problem-solving with others, and you can’t collaborate without listening. Effective listening requires genuine curiosity and some empathy for the feelings (and drivers of those feelings) of those with whom we are collaborating.

Finally, as their collaborative problem-solving skills improve, leaders learn not to define success as “getting them to agree to my solution.” (That’s problem-solving of a different sort, perhaps appropriate for other circumstances.) As I noted in my prior Medium article in this series, fundamental aspects of work and the skills required to get it done are in rapid flux. Problem-solving with others will require leaders to understand

• the context of the problem (and what happens if we can’t solve this together),
• the underlying interests of the relevant parties, and
• who other stakeholders might be (and how they will evaluate the solution)

well enough to craft a solution that actually solves for those.

So when and how do we develop leaders in these ways? As we know, leadership development is not primarily about taking leaders away from the business and putting them in the (virtual) classroom for days at a time. Developing collaborative problem-solving capabilities requires thoughtfully designed learning journeys that leverage some key modalities:

• Action learning. Everything we know about experienced and high-performing individuals suggests that they do best when they can pick real problems occurring in their “day jobs,” take some time to work on them (applying whatever tools and skills are part of the journey), and then reflect on how their assumptions and practices are helping solve those problems.
• Spaced learning. Changing deep-seated assumptions and rechanneling instinctive reactions to being confronted with a problem (Fight? Or flight?) requires more than just a single, concentrated effort. To change mindset and build real capability, we must interject learning opportunities into the rhythm of work. Think process, not an event.
• Direct instruction. Learning journeys also should afford leaders some time in a relatively safe environment to practice, take some chances, and reflect on their problem-solving repertoire. Classroom (or virtual classroom) instruction explicitly allows leaders to set other demands on their time aside to focus, for a period of time, on skill-building.

This overview on developing leaders’ skills to lead collaboration is the third of five “Soft Skills, Adaptive Leaders” articles appearing on Medium, part of a broader “learning journey for Learning and Development” led by Vantage Partners. My fourth article — publishing later in June — delves into the skills of influencing others and building alignment. It is not sufficient simply to admonish leaders to collaborate — nor for them just to exhort others to do so. What else have you found that’s crucial to cultivating the skills of leading collaboration? Leave me a comment, and visit our soft skills learning journey overview page to take our survey.