Fostering collegiality

One thing I’ve always admired about the business of higher education is the idea of collegiality. The big idea is that coworkers ought to have a good sense of civility and cooperativeness. In higher ed, like most other workplaces, it’s easy to find intradepartmental collegiality, but tougher to find interdepartmental collegiality. On the whole, at my workplace anyway, I’ve found a pretty good sense of collegiality across the board. I think this stems from a strong corporate culture of service–understanding who the customer is and why they’re so important. It also seems to be tied to personality–some folks seem to walk around in a bubble of happy collegiality, while others seem to radiate the opposite. Clearly, an organization that desires a culture of collegiality ought to hire people who walk around in bubbles of happy collegiality, eh?

Fostering collegiality in any environment is a good idea. Collegiality can be grease for the wheels of progress. In fact, I’d say that fostering collegiality is abosolutely something that good leaders do–it might even be a hallmark of good leadership. Collegiality is an ideal that good managers understand and foster as well. Good managers know that getting people to work well together, be civil, cooporative and limit or eliminate backstabbing and passive aggression will help increase efficiency and/or effectivness at work. And maybe even cut down on heart attacks.

Here are a few ideas for fostering collegiality at work:

• Know the makeup. The first thing a good manager or leader needs to do in order to foster collegiality is to understand who they’re working with. Not in an “examine your life” kind of way, just a nice broad understanding of general characteristics. Is everyone an introvert? The opposite? A mix? Technology freaks or neo-luddites? Independent thinkers or “follow the crowd” types? You’re getting the idea here.
• Be the change. If collegiality is an alien concept to the folks you work with, you’ll need to be the initial (and best) example of the new behavior. If you’re a leader in your organization, your actions will be scrutinized by those you lead. Walk your talk.
• Consider technology. Depending on the makeup of your group, consider using technological leverage to increase collegiality. Listservs are dead simple and can be a great way to get people cooperating and talking. An internal blog might be a good answer for making sure everyone is getting consistent communication. Take it easy here, though, and don’t fall into the trap of seeing everything as a problem that your technology hammer can solve.
• Reward it when you see it. Nothing secret here, just the age-old adage of praising people when you see them doing things well. If you see examples of collegiality sprouting up within the department/s, call them out publically. Send an email to the department head, with cc’s to those involved in the good deeds, letting them know how great their department is. Consider small tokens of appreciation, like a Starbucks gift card, for folks who consistently uphold a higher standard.
• Laser light shows. Nothing fosters collegiality like a night out at a Led Zepplin laser show. Okay, maybe not. Then again, taking an afternoon off and treating your group to a movie might be a nice addition to the previous bulletpoint.
• Mold the plebes. When new folks enter the department help them get a good initial footing by talking explicitly about your expectations for collegiality. Give concrete examples of how this looks. Introduce the new person to influential members of the department and try to build a mentoring relationship, at least in the short run. Stay in regular contact with the new person and check in on how they’re doing, how their experience with collegiality has been. Listen to their suggestions for improvements and refinements. Be sure that your new people are fitting in and feelin like productive contributing members of your group. If they’re feeling alienated, dig into the root causes.
• Retreat! This can get expensive, but it can be really worthwhile. If you’ve got a whole new team, or even an experienced team and you’re the new person, you might consider taking everyone out for a couple of days offsite. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. Take a retreat with all the folks who depend on collegiality to survive. This works best when the folks in charge of all the departments are on the same page–if they aren’t, move along there’s nothing to see here.
• Regular reviews. Hold occasional “vertical” meetings that are purely focused on reviewing what’s working and what’s not. Be brave enough prod the sacred cows in these meetings. Brainstorm new approaches. Have these meetings with both the line staff and with other departmental leaders. Be ruthless in your quest for a better way.

I dunno. Collegiality is kinda tough, but I think it’s very well worth the time and effort. I’m convinced that collegial workplaces help with job satisfaction, retention and even the quality of work. And I have exactly zero evidence to back me up on that. But sometimes, that’s how I roll.