Questions to Ask in a Job Interview | How to Determine if the Company is Collaborative

Key Concepts:

• Collaboration: The process of ideas being channeled to create a better idea, project, or program. It's more than just hearing voices; it's about incorporating valuable input.
• Evidence-based assessment: Evaluating collaboration based on concrete examples and behaviors, not just subjective claims.
• Propensity: The boss's inclination or tendency to foster and support collaborative behaviors.
• Common Goals/Problems: Teams working together to achieve shared objectives or overcome shared challenges.
• Supporting/Improving Ideas: A key indicator of collaboration where individuals build upon each other's ideas, even if they initially didn't fully agree.

Assessing Collaborative Environments

The speaker emphasizes that determining whether an environment is truly collaborative requires more than just asking a direct question like "Is the environment collaborative?". People can easily provide superficial answers, such as describing social gatherings or team lunches, which don't necessarily indicate genuine collaboration. The speaker argues that collaboration is about ideas being channeled to create a better outcome.

Moving Beyond Superficial Claims

The speaker illustrates the problem with a hypothetical response: "Oh, it's totally collaborative, we meet for lunch every Friday, we have pizza in the room, we talk about ideas, we do our brainstorming, it's really great." The speaker points out that this response only describes social activities and doesn't provide evidence of actual collaboration.

Defining Collaboration

The speaker defines collaboration as a process where ideas are channeled to create a better idea, project, or program. It's not just about hearing voices, but about incorporating valuable input to improve outcomes. The speaker acknowledges that not all ideas are necessarily good, and it's not about incorporating every single suggestion regardless of its merit.

Focusing on the Boss's Propensity

The speaker suggests focusing on the boss's propensity to foster collaboration. This involves understanding how the boss supports their team and encourages collaborative behaviors.

A Key Indicator: Supporting and Improving Ideas

The speaker identifies a key indicator of a collaborative environment: instances where someone supported or improved an idea that they initially didn't fully agree with. The speaker suggests asking the interviewer to describe a recent time when this happened.

Example Question

The speaker provides an example question to elicit evidence of collaborative behavior: "I love teams that work together to achieve common goals, that achieve common problems, that overcome them, and it's really important for me to be part of a collaborative environment. I'd love to understand, you know, how you work with your team to actually support them, and one of the greatest indicators of a collaborative environment, in my opinion, is if somebody came up with an idea that maybe you didn't totally love, but you supported it or you improved it based on their ideas or feedback. Can you tell me about a recent time when that happened?"

Conclusion

The speaker concludes that assessing collaboration requires moving beyond superficial claims and focusing on concrete examples of how individuals support and improve each other's ideas. The example question provided is designed to elicit specific instances of collaborative behavior, providing a more accurate assessment of the environment. The key is to look for evidence of how ideas are channeled and improved through teamwork, rather than simply relying on subjective claims of collaboration.