Sharing Resources and Working Together – does it work?

Following on from yesterday’s blog looking at creative ways to use shared working space we had a long discussion in our office about how we work with our own suppliers and how much collaboration is involved. Companies are often encouraged to develop ‘partnerships’ with their suppliers or companies that provide or receive services for them, but how much does that actually happen in practice?

When we looked at our own relationships we felt although we could always do better it was also acknowledged that our normal way of working is to understand and be able to describe the end solution that we want and where possible to allow our partner companies to add their expertise in creating and providing that solution. The end result may not be exactly as we initially visualised but more often than not there are additional benefits that have been added by other parties as they will, because of their role, look at the problem from a different angle. Perspective can be everything!

We’ve learnt along the way that the best solutions are often found by working alongside our suppliers, by trying to understand what is important to each party and what the difficulties or concerns are from each side. Solutions this way, we’ve found, are more robust and more specific to the task they were designed for and require less ‘tweaking’ or adjusting once in place as the parties concerned have been involved in the decision making process. Involving several people, departments or even companies requires its own set of skills as you need to manage not only personalities, but expectations as well as budgets and timescales. A simple phrase describes what the goal is perfectly though; “ To be Greater than the Sum of all the Parts.”

Environment is also important, if you’re in an environment where there are other companies with communal areas to ‘hang out’ then the chances of collaboration on any level are greatly enhanced. Easy Offices works in a Serviced Office and has done for several years, chats over coffee can often become more and more helpful as you identify those individuals or companies that may be of assistance or seeking assistance. One of our staff recently modelled for a Men’s Designer in our building!

So, along with all the other benefits that suit modern business of any size a Serviced Office may also create a more collaborative environment that can help business of all sizes.