Short answer
Collaboration means combining work effectively, building working trust, and contributing to outcomes shared with other people or teams.
About Collaboration
Works effectively across teams, builds trust through visible contributions, and contributes to shared outcomes. The focus is coordinated work, not popularity, agreement, or time spent in meetings.
Use this competency for
- Assessing how someone coordinates dependencies and contributes to shared delivery.
- Clarifying expectations for constructive disagreement, handoffs, and reciprocal support.
Do not use this competency for
- Do not use it to reward agreeableness, availability at all hours, or taking over other people's work.
Important distinctions
Communication
Communication evaluates the exchange of information. Collaboration evaluates how contributions are joined to reach a shared outcome.
Ownership
Ownership concerns responsibility for an outcome. Collaboration concerns coordinated contribution without erasing individual accountability.
Expectations by level
IC1
Contributes to shared tasks
Contributes reliably to defined shared work, seeking guidance when roles, dependencies, or disagreements are unclear.
Observable behaviors
- Completes agreed inputs in a form the next person can use.
- Responds to relevant requests within the team's working agreements.
- Raises a disagreement with the work or evidence rather than the person.
Examples
- Checks a handoff against the agreed acceptance conditions before passing it on.
- Asks the project owner to clarify overlapping responsibilities.
IC2
Coordinates ambiguous shared work
Independently coordinates ambiguous work with partners, resolving routine dependency conflicts while keeping responsibilities clear.
Observable behaviors
- Aligns partners on interfaces, owners, and timing before work diverges.
- Incorporates relevant expertise and explains when input is not used.
- Offers targeted help that preserves the other person's ownership.
Examples
- Replans a shared milestone with two partners after a dependency changes.
- Invites a specialist into a review and records how the input affected the plan.
IC3
Enables collaboration across teams
Improves collaboration on complex outcomes spanning teams, especially where incentives, constraints, or established practices conflict.
Observable behaviors
- Creates shared working agreements for a multi-team outcome.
- Surfaces structural conflicts and helps decision makers resolve them.
- Changes a recurring handoff or coordination practice using observed evidence.
Examples
- Defines decision rights for a program whose teams had competing priorities.
- Redesigns a cross-team handoff after tracing repeated delays to unclear inputs.