Collaboration frequently occurs in the workplace where people come together to cooperate and work on a strategic project in order that they can accomplish a common goal.  It is simply teamwork taken to a higher level and has become a more productive way of doing things.

Most often collaboration happens within fairly small teams  – functional teams, time-limited project teams or cross-functional management teams.

In effective collaboration, all people involved use their emotional intelligence well to balance emotional needs with their thinking, build authentic relationships and make good quality decisions on behalf of the organisation. Whether working with others one-to-one, in small groups or large teams, there is exemplary communication with empathy that engages hearts and minds.  This occurs at all levels of the organisation.

This course is about collaborating with others in ways that will help you to communicate more efficiently as you work to understand and work with differences that lead to effective collaboration.  In addition, the skills, processes and tools taught in this course can bring value to other aspects of your life.

People often talk about positive and negative emotions.  This is not that helpful as emotions cannot really be labelled in that way.  The course also covers the myths around positive and negative emotions and why this terminology is not appropriate when working to understand emotions and emotional intelligence in the workplace.

The course covers all aspects of collaborative working focusing on win-win collaboration where everyone benefits. The characteristics, principles and modes of collaboration are examined to give you a much broader insight into getting the best from collaboration.

The course, also, covers trust and how you can build trust as you work together with others.

Behavioural styles are reviewed looking at the strengths and liabilities of each. You get the opportunity to complete a questionnaire that will give you an insight to the behavioural style that you prefer to use with the chance to explore how your style can help and how it can hinder collaboration.  Completing this practical activity will enable you to how to use your behavioural preferences and style to better effect when collaborating within a project.

This course is a standalone course for anyone interested in understanding collaboration at work and how to get more from collaborative relationships.  It compliments other courses that explore emotional intelligence in more depth.

By completing this course, you will be able to

• Determine why a collaborative approach is beneficial in teamwork
• Recognize why collaboration is underpinned with good emotional intelligence
• Evaluate ways to work with the principles and characteristics of collaboration – what works best, when and where
• Explain the various modes that can be used in collaboration
• Assess your own collaborative style and how this helps or hinders you in collaborative working
• Identify strategies and ideas about how to collaborate more effectively
• Manage work with multi-disciplinary teams at all levels within an organisation
• Explore how to use mindfulness techniques to run collaborative meetings more effectively
• Recognize how to use emotional intelligence to collaborate with others and build emotional bonds

You’ll receive all the information that you need and will be coached using loads of practical hints that you can use straight away.

The course is made up of a series of lectures and contains comprehensive course notes. There are a series of interactive exercises that involve some activity with other people and some reflection.

PLEASE NOTE – This course is NOT for you if you are not prepared to work through the practical activities that make up a fundamental part of the course.  Collaboration cannot be developed just by watching the video lectures.  It requires you to do some reflective thinking, to get some feedback and to discuss your development with others.  I’m afraid that you won’t get the best from the course unless you are prepared to do this.

There are SEVEN practical activities included within the course that are designed to help you understand collaboration and how you can improve the way in which you work with other people towards shared goals  All of them require you to engage with your collaborative team and do some work outside of the course.

The course is being continually refined and updated to ensure it remains current and relevant.  Feedback is always welcome.

The course contains a series of Lightbulb Moments resource cards, which have been created to provide you with handy reminders of key points around topics covered within the course.