In his latest book, The Collaboration Equation: Strong Professionals Strong Teams Strong Delivery, Jim Benson highlights the solution to the problems most organizations face in really achieving the outcomes they want: how to foster human collaboration, where individuals work together in teams to create value, where professionals act with confidence, and where work can be visualized.

Check out our interview to dive into our rich conversation about collaboration, continuous improvement, and how to create cultures that foster connection and innovation.

Jim is a fabulous storyteller and we both share stories of our experiences in working with leadership teams around the world to foster cultures of continuous improvement – and share why it’s about the process, the people and the collaboration – not the tools – that are the key to success.

Our discussion questions:

1. What inspired you to write this book? What was the problem you were trying to solve by writing this book? (4:36)
2. On page 30 you talk about “maintaining anti-collaborative cultural patterns without realizing it” – what have you observed and how did this lead to the content of the book? (8:42)
3. On page 130 you write,“Without understanding your culture, you will never obtain a culture of continuous improvement.” What have you come to learn about that value of understanding your culture and how that influences how we create continuous improvement cultures? (17:21)
4. How did you come up with the succinct list of the 5 principles of collaboration? (20:40)
5. What is one thing that you’ve personally had to adjust in your style to become a better collaborative leader? (25:13)
6. What is one thing that you discovered or learned with a new perspective through the process of writing the book? (29:35)
7. What is a question that you haven’t, or are not usually asked about the book? What is that question? And what’s your answer? (35:01)