New Business 'Collaborative Strategies' Teaches Skills to Improve Working Relations

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- How much productivity do businesses miss out on by not having a Collaborative group? How much damage is inappropriate behavior causing our groups?

"If you are not asking yourself these questions, you already need me," says Bob Donaldson in announcing formation of his new business "Collaborative Strategies." The new Bay Area-based venture teaches any type of group how to develop effective collaborative techniques, that simultaneously helps job satisfaction and profits.

Donaldson teaches groups how to use "Collaborative Group Behavior" and "Collaborative leadership Initiatives." The end result is blending multiple disciplines for mission-centered outcomes that improves the way the team works together.

"It can be a group with heavy people problems, mediocre groups stuck in the 'just getting by' rut or high performing groups that are looking for another edge to boost productivity and mission accomplishment," Donaldson said.

Donaldson developed his collection of almost 100 Collaborative Group Behaviors to empower and promote the effectiveness of each group member and thereby the success of any group while working in the trenches. He recently left a position as Operations Manager and Project Manager for Silicon Valley Clean Water, a wastewater agency in the San Francisco Bay Area, to devote his energies to Collaborative Strategies.

"Many consultants make similar claims but their efforts fall short after they leave, allowing the group to revert to the same old destructive patterns," Donaldson said. "So what makes my approach different? My successful approach was developed through the grit of trench warfare in real groups, where I converted the worst situations into high performance. For more than 25 years, I used these groups as a laboratory that allowed me to discover, gather, tease out, and test the most effective behaviors while throwing out or modifying those behaviors that didn't work and simply repeating any behavior that did work."

Donaldson's formula is based on developing consistent collaborative behaviors. "Moving away from subjective statements like 'positive thinking' and 'get along with others,' I have turned all performance measures into behaviors because behaviors give clear expectations," Donaldson said. "They are easier to teach emulate, easier to observe, and easier to record as performance. On the other hand, unclear expectations cause error because group members are not sure what is expected of them. Collaborative Group Behaviors fixes this subjective mess."

His website, www.robertmdonaldson.org, contains detailed description on how to benefit from working with "Collaborative Strategies" as well as testimonials from more than a dozen professionals Donaldson has worked with over the years, many of whom were his "laboratory."

When signing up at his website visitors receive a free copy of the 45 page "Collaboration - The Birth of Human Brilliance - A Manifesto."

Donaldson can be reached through the website or directly at [email protected]

SOURCE Collaborative Strategies