How do you define collaboration?

It could be a question in a job interview or something your teenager Google searches at the last minute before debate class.

What does collaboration mean to you?

As corporate communicators, we all know what collaboration is. We also know—after years of painstaking experience—that collaboration is often more effective in theory than in practice.

At my company, there are certain people who refuse to work together; still others’ attempts at collaboration lead to meeting and email overload.

Put simply, collaboration is working with someone or with others to create something or achieve some other common goal. Collaboration creates a shared understanding about a process, a product or a goal.