Because today's organizations exist in an ever-shifting ocean of change, collaboration has become essential for survival and success. As a company's culture shifts, every manager, team leader, supervisor and department head needs to know what the organization is doing to foster collaboration and to understand the role they play in supporting those strategies.

#. I'll go through five organizational strategies and explain how to support each one:

One, rewarding collaboration. Companies are changing the reward system making collaborative performance part of the employee review process and giving recognition and promotions to people who work effectively across organizational boundaries. As a team leader, you reward collaboration when you let people know how much you value their contribution and when you acknowledge team members who help and support each other.

Two, focusing on innovation. When an organization focuses on collaborative innovation, it uses cross-functional teams to capture diverse perspectives. You help your team become more creative by treating failure as a learning experience and not something to be punished. I've seen leaders dramatically increase innovation by sharing the lessons they've learned from their own failures and making it safe for others to do the same.

Three, communicating transparently. In any organization, the way information is handled determine whether it becomes an obstacle or an enabler of collaboration. Company-wide transparent communication is a key strategy. As a leader, it's essential that your team knows it can rely on you to be open and candid. If you're not able to discuss an issue, it's better to say that you can't talk about it right now rather than to say I don't know when people suspect that isn't the truth.

Four, collaborating with customers. A few ways organizations involve the customer are through surveys, customer panels and feedback that's shared throughout the organization. You may not have direct contact with an external customer but you can build collaborative relationship with your internal customers by asking them how well your team is meeting their needs.

Five, redefining leadership. In collaborative cultures, the recipe for successful leadership has changed. The definition of leadership is shifting from command and control to influence and include. As a leader, your new role is to help team members build relationships, to see themselves as supported and valued contributors and to create a team environment where people willingly contribute their ideas in service of a common goal. What are you currently doing to support your organization's move to a collaborative culture? What might you do better? As a leader, people are looking for you to set the example so what you do matters a lot.