Collaboration at GCS

I heard a college professor say the three things you need to have coming out of college are:

• Good writing skills
• Strong speaking skills
• An ability to work in groups

Those are the same three traits that apply to working at GCS.


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There is both an art and a science to working in groups. You know working in groups is effective when everyone leaves the meeting with a benefit. Here are some principles to running a good meeting:

• Have an agenda with each subject having a time frame and a leader, otherwise the meeting tends to drift toward the most popular subject.
• Make sure the meeting starts with everyone saying something. Silence begets silence. You want everyone to feel comfortable contributing.
• Be nice. Ask open ended questions. Encourage brainstorming.
• Stay on message. Begin with the end in mind and stay on the subject at hand.
• Use collaboration language such as “have we considered this,” “who is an expert in that.”
• Use a whiteboard. Drawing up the ideas will help connect the meaningful parts toward a solution.

The best collaborative efforts include these time tested principles. For example, in July we had a brainstorming session about increasing production hours. We used all the principles of collaboration and created the Flex Shift program. Other GCS differentiators including Self-Coaching, Straight Talk and Blending are initiatives created and improved by collaboration in small groups.

GCS is really good at collaboration. We took the Meetings 101 class and made an “A!”

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