In the Western world a different way of thinking has developed among employees than in many Eastern countries. It's no surprise that we call the modern corporate world and the way workers feel they have to function within it the "rat race". This is because employees have very often lost the feeling of working for a greater good. Of being part of something bigger than themselves. Everyone is competing against everyone else, even in the same company. Competition between different companies can be to an extent advantageous to society. Within the same company it can be disastrous if a business stops functioning as a whole. This is when companies normally call in the collaboration consulting experts to try and fix things.

Their first step will be to analyze the way the various departments in your company work together and whether that optimizes existing human and non-human resources. Then they will drill down to individual level and study whether there are individuals who, through their actions or failure to act, are sabotaging the culture of collaboration in the company.

A failing to collaborate between and within departments is very often a leadership failure. That's why the consulting company will look at the way leadership operates first. Managers don't always realize how closely their actions are watched by the people working for them. If managers demonstrate a culture of individualism and in-fighting and not one of working together for the good of the company, this philosophy will filter down right to the cleaning staff and have a very bad effect on company morale and productivity.

Next to be studied will be the heads of business units, such as finance, marketing et cetera. Very often problems start here. If you have managers who are totally unable or unwilling to delegate tasks, people who feel they have to do all the 'important' work themselves, it will have two effects: Firstly the workers will become extremely frustrated because they feel they are not given scope to develop in their careers and secondly management will forever be highly stressed and too busy to attend to what they had to do in the first place: manage.

Once they have studied the way the different departments and employees in your company interacts, the consultants will produce a report and also propose certain changes to be made. They might for example recommend that you appoint one staff member to take responsibility for the collaboration drive in your business. He should then set up a team comprising of members from every department within the business. Their job will be to monitor and encourage collaboration at every level of the company.

You can expect employees to initially resist any changes this will bring about. They are used to doing things in a particular way and it will take time to change their mindsets. The best way to solve this problem is to involve them in the whole process. Don't let collaboration be a 'top down' initiative. Let employees get together regularly and brain-storm about ideas on how to improve collaboration in their own department as well as between them and other departments in the company.

Collaboration consulting is a concept that has existed for quite some time. In the current economic situation it has acquired new relevance. A business simply can no longer afford to operate as a group of virtually unrelated departments and individuals each with an own agenda. Collaboration is no longer a luxury - it is a necessity to survive.