Risk and Opportunity in Collaboration
Collaboration is a risk and it becomes even riskier if you find yourself in this situation -
You’re a member of a team tasked with finding a solution to a time sensitive challenge your client is facing. The client is high value but also high maintenance. The team comes up with ideas for a solution but none of them are certain to work. No one wants to back one idea over others for fear of it failing to work for this important but tough client. The clock keeps ticking….
The Risk Spotter - Risk Seeker Collaboration Dimension
We know collaboration is a powerful tool for solving these complex problems and ultimately successful outcomes. However, the decision to collaborate often comes with inherent risks and rewards. The Risk Spotter – Risk Seeker collaboration dimension captures behavioral preferences of individuals between focusing on the opportunity and how to minimize the risks. Understanding this dimension can help individuals navigate these potentially competing views and for teams, where collaboration dynamics around risk is likely to impact the approach to Smart Collaboration.
The Psychology and Research around Risk Spotter – Risk Seeker in Collaboration
In professional settings, collaboration introduces unique risks—such as entrusting colleagues with clients or relying on others to deliver at a high standard (Gardner, 2016). Individuals vary in how they perceive these risks. Some are motivated to avoid potential failures, while others focus on seizing opportunities despite potential setbacks. This dynamic aligns with well-established theories of motivation orientation (Higgins, 1997), which suggest that people are either driven by the desire to avoid negative outcomes or by the pursuit of success.
Smart Collaboration and Risk Spotter – Risk Seeker
Smart collaboration and smarter collaboration, terms used by Dr. Heidi K. Gardner (Harvard), emphasizes the need for experts to integrate their unique perspectives to generate more comprehensive and innovative solutions. Gardner’s research shows that firms embracing Smart Collaboration achieve higher revenues. Whether individuals choose to collaborate often depends on their willingness to embrace or mitigate risk. This dimension around tendencies towards risk, is a catalyst for collaboration and therefore is important to measure.
Understanding the Risk Spotter – Risk Seeker dimension
The Smart Collaboration Accelerator measures this dimension through two primary tendencies:
Risk Spotters: These individuals are motivated to identify risk and mitigate it. Their natural vigilance helps ensure that collaboration efforts are well-planned and risk-mitigated, reducing the likelihood of costly mistakes.
Risk Seekers: These individuals focus on the potential upside of collaboration. They are willing to take chances, move quickly, and play to win. They are more concerned about missing opportunities than making errors, and their optimism often drives bold decision-making and innovative solutions.
A balanced approach and/or an ability to ‘flex’ between both these tendencies is also possible for some individuals.
Risk in Collaboration
Collaboration often requires both of these perspectives to action the collaborative efforts but also to identify the risks of the collaborative efforts. Risk Seekers bring energy, ambition, and an eye for opportunities that drive action and the pursuit of team objectives. Risk Spotters can provide a reality check, ensuring that collaborations are structured and pursued within acceptable risk parameters.
Risk and Team Dynamics
An effective team benefits from both Risk Seeker and Risk Spotter tendencies of their members. For Risk Seekers, when they consider the views of Risk Spotters, it can help balance their ideas with the associated risks of the practical execution, increasing the chances of sustainable success. For Risk Spotters, the Risk Seekers in their teams can help them see new opportunities that could be worth pursuing and become more comfortable with calculated risks.
Are you more of a Risk Spotter or a Risk Seeker when it comes to collaboration?
Does your team have a balance of Risk Spotters and Risk Seekers and if not, are the perspectives of both considered in decision making and execution?
Recognizing and leveraging these tendencies can help teams create a collaboration culture that is both ambitious and grounded—one that maximizes opportunities while effectively managing risks.
The Smart Collaboration Accelerator measures behaviors that impact collaboration in teams or groups including perspectives on risk.
References:
Gardner, H. K. (2016). Smart collaboration: How professionals and their firms succeed by breaking down silos. Harvard Business Press.
Higgins, E. (1997) Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52(12):1281.
