Five tips for building healthy academic collaborations

Effectiveness and success in academia rely on collaboration. From academics teaching courses in teams of two or more, to working on institutional accreditation projects with colleagues or engaging in collaborative research with co-authors. To generate the high-quality outcomes and outputs institutions crave, academics are encouraged, even expected, to collaborate, underpinned by an assumption that people know how to work well together.

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Unfortunately, we’re not taught how to do it. We learn on the job, sometimes through challenging situations, resulting in damaged relationships and hurt egos.

Collaboration is a key skill that shouldn’t be overlooked. Here are five tips for building healthy academic collaborations.

1. Be clear about the content of the collaboration and everyone’s roles within it

We sometimes get involved in a collaborative project because it triggers our enthusiasm and passion, or perhaps because we are invited by a colleague we like or admire. But sometimes we don’t think about the implications of saying “yes” before committing. It’s important to find out exactly what is expected of us, and everybody else, in order to avoid expectations not matching up to reality.

Risks: If responsibilities, roles and deadlines aren’t clear, it’s likely that one or more collaborators will get confused and frustrated, that important tasks aren’t completed on time – or at all – and that the team ultimately will not want to continue working together beyond this project.

Discuss: What will the project involve? What are the responsibilities of each collaborator? What deadlines can you expect? What is the scope for negotiating tasks and deadlines if things don’t go according to the plan?

2. Treat collaborators (and expect to be treated) equitably

Individuals will hold different roles in a collaborative project. Very often, your colleagues will be people at different career stages with varying levels of experience, expertise and academic acumen. Bringing together everyone’s competences and ensuring that all collaborators can fulfil their role in the project can be challenging enough, but introducing unnecessary hierarchies among collaborators is not only unhelpful, it can jeopardise the team’s efforts.

Risks: A lack of equitable treatment poses the danger of engendering a sense of disrespect, unfairness and exploitation among the collaborators, creating a negative atmosphere and destroying goodwill. In addition to this, unnecessary hierarchies can become an obstacle to leveraging the potential of all members, particularly those who are less senior and experienced, to fully contribute to the project.

Discuss: Is there a shared understanding that everyone’s contribution, regardless of their formal rank, is important to the project’s success? How are team members going to address situations where someone feels they aren’t treated equitably?

3. Remember: it isn’t (just) about you

Because performance evaluations in academia usually take place at an individual level, when engaging in collaborations we might be thinking about a project primarily through the lens of our own priorities and benefit. While this is understandable, it’s helpful to consider and collectively work towards everyone’s interests, not just one’s own.

Risks: Without an understanding of the importance of the project to one another, there is a risk that team members will lack empathy and will prioritise their individual benefit rather than that of all collaborators – and the project itself. When the project’s success is of a higher priority for some team members than others, a risk of free-riding and exploitation emerges.

Discuss: How important is the project to everyone and are all collaborators committed to working towards its success? Are project tasks equitably and appropriately distributed, without a disproportionate reliance on those for whom the project is of a higher priority?

4. Be respectful of all collaborators’ external commitments and well-being

People often juggle different work-related projects simultaneously and in parallel with personal commitments. For example, one collaborator might have a busy schedule of family caring responsibilities, whereas another might decide to focus primarily on the project even beyond normal working hours. Or, in a research collaboration, one person might be working on the project during their research leave without major distractions, whereas another might be balancing their project work with a heavy teaching load and/or health issues.

Risks: A lack of respect towards one another’s commitments and well-being needs can give rise to tensions and unhelpful mutual perceptions in the team, leading to resentment and conflict. For example, one team member might be perceived as “pushy” and “insensitive” in their expectations of others’ productivity levels, while another might view other team members as not working hard enough.

Discuss: Is everyone able to fulfil their tasks as agreed at the outset of the project? Are the practical arrangements within the collaboration (dates/times of meetings, ways of communicating, etc) designed and agreed with everyone’s circumstances in mind? Is a team member’s right to disconnect respected within the collaboration (for example, as a general principle, no evening/weekend/holiday time emails and meetings)?

5. Practise kind, clear and transparent communication

When working on a project it’s possible to become so focused on its objectives and deadlines that one forgets about paying attention to the collaborative process, and especially to ensuring effective communication. Remember: the tone, content and transparency of communication aren’t additional features in a collaboration but, to a large extent, they constitute it.

Risks: Inappropriate communications – for example, using an overly familiar or exaggeratedly emotional tone – can give rise to anxiety and discomfort in the recipient and, eventually, cause them to withdraw from communicating within the team or perhaps from the entire collaboration. A lack of clarity and transparency in communications – for example, including only some members in discussions that are relevant to everyone – can feed mistrust and create further communication barriers.

Discuss: Are all team members committed to communicating in a professional manner? Is everyone conveying their messages clearly, sticking to the point, and without dominating communication through excessive verbosity or emotional exaggeration? Is the tone kind and comfortable for everyone? Is everyone included in communication that is relevant to their involvement in the project?

While we academics must take responsibility for our actions and decisions when it comes to building healthy collaborations, crucially, universities also have a responsibility to provide collaboration-related support and training to graduate students and staff at all careers stages in order to help them develop the necessary skills.

At the very least, failing to help facilitate positive working partnerships or support staff who are struggling under the weight of a problematic project will result in disengaged, discouraged team members who may be unlikely (or unable) to take on future collaborative opportunities. At worst, institutions may find themselves becoming less competitive, with academic reputations, rightly or wrongly, called into question.

When conducted skilfully, harmonious collaborations do not only benefit the individuals and teams involved, they also underpin the success of academic institutions in developing educational and research excellence internally and actively sharing it for the benefit of all in society – exactly the principles a university is supposed to stand for.

Martyna Śliwa is professor of business ethics and organisation studies at Durham University Business School, UK, and vice-chair for equality, diversity, inclusivity and respect at the British Academy of Management.

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