Collaborations toward a common goal, across organisations, can be one of the most gratifying things we ever may get to experience. It funnels energy, it triggers aspiration, it creates pride. And most importantly of all: it achieves things that individually would not have been possible.
So does team work if things work out: the initial challenge of being different in thinking and behaviour makes way to the buzz of energy that emerges from complementarity and the quality of work and achievement that results.
Neither collaboration nor team work is something outrageously difficult in principle. If the common and mutually beneficial goal is front and centre. And if the different individuals and parties do not see it as a way for ‘the winner getting it all’.
Both, collaboration and true team work only work if competitive behaviour is either abandoned, or – albeit this works only very rarely if at all – funnelled into very clear structures that serve the overarching purpose.
But this is exactly where the hitch is:
An organisation that has its own overall goals that don’t align with those of the collaborative effort.
A team member whose primary need is that ego driven.
Groups that do not appreciated the added value of different personalities and ways of thinking but require homogeneity instead.
Or those kinds of collaborations and teams where it is all about returning and giving favours in a societal game of musical chairs, and where the intent is to keep the newby or outsider out, and the ‘old boys and girls’ in and comfortable.
Neither collaboration nor team work functions well if there is strong ego in the room. More so, if the ego is hiding behind nice public statements, lack of engagement, absence of information sharing, or behind undue credit taking.
Be it the ego of an organisation or the ego of an individual – self-centred ego has no place in collaboration or team work. But too often takes space nonetheless.
It is fascinating to observe though that precisely many of these more self-centred players – organisations and individuals alike – do an extraordinary good job at finding the public limelight to ‘share’ their learnings and insights in that realm. And call it team work or collaboration thereafter.
Publicity and public appearances is a different skillet than actual collaboration or team work.
You could argue that it is equally different from actual information sharing and collaboration as theoretical physics is from landing a rover on Mars.
Those that find the public limelight to ‘collaborate and share’ are talking theory. Sometimes indeed theory does align with practice, and these people are great team members who just happen to be more comfortable than others in the public eye.
But such individuals that combine the tangible with the publicity talent are are rare.
People and organisations that are real collaborators, real team players, deliver first. As a team. They focus on making an impact and a difference. To bring others along – because everyone is and will be needed.
And then: They let others do the talking on their behalf.
Real collaborators, good team members, are ‘impact people’. It is their impact and those whom they have helped and supported, who talk on behalf of their qualities.
