Benefits of a Collaborative Culture

At C+R, we consider ourselves a bunch of smart people who have a passion for market research. But, even the best and the brightest can benefit from collaboration – and we do! Our organization is built on collaboration – both with our fellow C+R team members and with our clients.

We collaborated and put together five benefits to our collaborative culture, and why it works so well for us. Hopefully it will work for you!

1. One person can’t think of everything. While a colleague may have the most knowledge on a particular topic or method, there’s a good chance someone else knows more about another aspect of the topic at hand. Collaborating helps us come up with innovative and better ideas/approaches for whatever we’re trying to accomplish. One person may come up with an approach that works and then another person builds on it, and it leads to a better way. We’ve found that there are always ways to improve on what we already know or have done in the past.

2. We all have a unique perspective. C+R knows research very well – and we know our clients’ businesses well from building relationships with them. And, of course, our clients know their businesses very well (and some of them know research pretty well)! This helps us to keep each other honest – it ensures we don’t get too “researchy,” and we try to help our clients have a perspective outside of their day-to-day business. Sometimes, an outside viewpoint is needed to ensure we’re asking questions that consumers will understand and be able to answer.

Beyond that, our teammates’ diverse backgrounds are advantageous to the work we do for our clients. For example, there may be aspects of a demographic or social group that are important to understand so that we frame our questions and response options properly. Likewise, it’s important to add a different lens when analyzing results – including not only those who are experts on a particular topic or audience, but also those who may be part of that audience in their daily lives.

3. It helps us grow. Even those of us who have many years of experience can learn from collaboration. But, more importantly, when we collaborate within our analytical teams, it provides our junior-level staff members opportunities to learn. They’re involved in our projects every step of the way – and while they may not be leading the charge, by being a part of our collaborative environment, they become more engaged in the project, helping to reinforce their position as an integral part of our team. We believe that learning is very much a hands-on experience, so the more experience we can provide during each phase of a project fosters confidence, and they’ll be more equipped to take on more responsibility as they progress in their careers.

4. It’s more efficient. While it doesn’t make sense to do every task together as a team, larger, more strategic initiatives benefit from collaboration on all sides. There’s no advantage to one person working through a complex questionnaire or discussion guide. The benefit of collaborating is that what one person may miss, someone else will add. And, when we work with our clients on large initiatives, such as segmentations, we always collaborate to ensure our clients are receiving useful, actionable insights – many times through iterative work sessions. As an added benefit, this also helps our clients to be more familiar and engaged with the research!

5. It produces better research. In the end, being collaborative helps us maintain our foundational pillars – especially Great Research! It also helps us provide deep perspective when we incorporate multiple points-of-view. Collaborating ensures that our clients receive the optimal study design, accurate information, and actionable insights they can use and share within their organization.