Working on Partner Collaborations
Some Berkeley Lab supervisors may hold roles where they and their employees are regularly interacting with partner divisions – this can be done through collaboration projects, matrix work assignments, or through distributed work assignments. Here are some best practice approaches to help enhance these collaborative partnerships.
Agree with partners on work requirements, priorities, and schedule:
- Discuss and assess the needs of the project: what’s most important to complete, what are the key deadlines vs. preferred deadlines, where might there be flexibility in the schedule without compromising efforts.
- Discuss what’s involved regarding time and effort to ensure both parties have realistic and aligned expectations.
- Verify the amount of time your partner will need from your employee(s), if this is a project.
- Know your own bandwidth; be honest in your ability to achieve or deliver on commitments.
- If conditions change, immediately follow up with your partner to discuss options or renegotiate scope/schedule.
Communicate often and openly to build trust with your partners:
- Provide regular updates and check-ins with partners about progress, results, completion of work.
- Be accessible and available to meet with partners. Establish a standing meeting if this helps keep communication open and ongoing.
- When issues arise, proactively follow up with your partner to address and resolve them. Avoid surprises by responding early to unexpected problems before issues escalate or a deadline is missed.
- Stay informed about deliverables to anticipate where issues or obstacles may arise.
- Respond non-defensively when there is criticism about you or your employee; focus the discussion with your partner on finding a resolution that will be satisfactory for those involved and will support project success.
- Consult with your HR Division Partner and/or division management to work through communication challenges.
When challenges arise and how to engage with partners:
Project or work deliverable issues:
- Provide data, information or scenarios on what it will take to meet project needs so your partner has realistic expectations of what’s involved in getting the work done.
- Describe what you can do or did do to meet expectations.
- Discuss alternative ways to proceed to make progress rather than just saying “no.”
- Discuss anticipated costs and/or expected results.
- Re-prioritize and shift tasks around where possible in order to meet partner needs and deadlines.
- Gather additional information or perspectives you and the employee may need to fully understand the situation from the partner’s perspective.
Performance issues:
- Coach the employee on work deliverables to meet partner expectations.
- Discuss expected results and schedule with your partner and make sure your staff understand these outcome and the timeline.
- Contact your partner directly if you think the employee can’t advocate on his or her own behalf or if the situation has escalated and requires your involvement.
- If needed, seek additional guidance from your HR Division Partner.