Collaboration

UC Core Competencies - Building Relationships

  • Interacts with others in ways that demonstrate collaboration and cooperation. Builds partnerships with others to achieve organizational results. Cultivates, builds and maintains positive relationships across the organization.

    • Building partnerships

    • Positive relationships

    • Networking/building your network

    • Helping and supporting fellow employees

    • Implementing solutions

    • Fostering open environments, creating a safe space

    • Work relationships/alliances inside and outside the organization

    • Improving relationships

Communities of Practice: The Missing Piece

Communities of practice are rising in popularity at organizations that seek to focus its members on a specific outcome while also having the added benefits of facilitating personal growth and fostering community. Encouraging communities of practice within the workplace directly addresses issues like organizational silos, duplication of work, and discouragement due to lack of support.

Ready to incorporate communities of practice in your workplace? Remember these key elements:

Create a safe environment where members are comfortable asking questions and exploring ideas Support...

Why Communities of Practice Are Important

Educational theorist Etienne Wenger proposed and established the concept of collaborative learning through reflection, inquiry, and practice in his 1998 book, Communities of Practice. Since then, communities of practice have become an acclaimed professional learning method due to its long-term and short-term benefits for both the individuals involved and the organization as a whole. As members of communities of practice develop enhanced skills such as networking and confidence, organizations will also gain value in retention of talent and innovation, among other benefits.

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Working with People Who Aren't Self-Aware

A strong sense of self-awareness, having a clear idea of who we are and how we are seen by others, is a valuable trait to possess and practice in both the workplace and in everyday life. However, according to research by the Harvard Business Review, most people overestimate how self-aware they really are. Working towards improving our self-awareness is beneficial to us and those around us. Despite this, it is not a guarantee that others will follow suit. Unaware coworkers can cause interpersonal conflict and frustrate others in the workplace. Chances are, everyone will come across an...

What is Social Learning (And How to Adopt it)

Social learning defines learning as a cognitive process that occurs in a social context through examples and direct experiences, favoring a real-life approach. In contrast to formal learning systems such as classroom or web-based traning, social learning tools present knowledge in relevant social contexts. Social learning promotes knowledge retention, encourages learning in working environments, and allows learners to pull knowledge from experts within the organizations. The 70:20:10 model, a strategy based on social learning, suggests that 70% of learning happens through on-the-job...

Manager Success: Driving Innovation

Encouraging innovation in the workplace increases the ability to effectively generate, evaluate, and execute new ideas. This is helpful as it prevents the work environment from being too risk averse and isolated from the rapidly changing outside world. Boosting innovation in the workplace can be done through team challenges and exercised that include generating and improving employee ideas....

Influence Without Authority

Excellence in business analysis requires the mastery of a diverse set of skills. In addition to possessing a variety of analysis skills, business analysts must be great creative thinkers, facilitators of decisions, conflict managers, relationship builders, communicators and facilitators, process and data analysts, and more. As instructor Angela Wick dives into each of these competencies, she offers practical examples that illustrate why the highlighted skills are so crucial. Topics include: Identify the elements of co-creating Explore the fundamentals of influencing without authority...

Guide to Building Team Transparency

Encouraging and practicing team transparency means facilitating a trusting system of communication between organization members.

Use this guide to start building an open, skill-sharing team environment and better understand the context in which your direct reports work.

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5 Ways to Become Politically Savvy at Work

You don't have to run for President to play politics. You can do it right at work. Office politics is a real game in every organization and you can win by learning the rules of being politically savvy.

Learn more here.

10 Top Qualities of a Great Collaborator

In an evolved workspace environment, collaboration has become an even greater necessity. The ability to work effectively and diplomatically with your team is a focused skill that requires an individual effort. Some qualities of a great collaborator include being team focused and appreciative.

Learn more here.

The Impact of Interruptions

In order to achieve high performance it is important that we are able to work with focus. We have all had the experience of working on a task and starting to gain some momentum. Our brain is fully engaged, we begin to get immersed, and we sense an underlying feeling of excitement as we begin to make progress. And then…

Fred stops by to say “Hi, nice to see you at your desk.” or

Mary says… “Quick question…” or

John says… “I’m just going to sneak past you to leave a quick note for Nancy.”

In this one moment, this point of...