"Together is a verb"

We provide customer service together. We perform Strategy Execution together. We fight the coronavirus together. We overcome the climate crisis together. We win together. We don’t lose together. Every parliamentary investigation invariably reaches the same conclusion: “There should have been more collaboration.” The mantra “together” then serves as a fig leaf, after which we go back to business as usual. Because actual learning from it…? “Together” is the biggest cliché I know. It’s certainly heavily overused in the world of organizational management as well. That’s why it’s good to take a closer look at “together” together :).

“Together” is a way of being with one another or alongside one another. And it’s the opposite of alone. “Together” requires something shared. Having something “in common.” A trait, a place, a hobby, a vision, an interest… or a shared concern; something that connects us. It fosters a sense of togetherness, whether it stems from love (creating something) or from fear (preventing something). Shared commonality yields many benefits—such as responsibility for the whole rather than just a part. And synergy—the power of the sum of its parts.

Three factors play a role in fostering a sense of community: arguments, relationships, and context. The arguments are rational: working together makes things better, easier, faster, and cheaper. The relational drive behind collaboration is emotional: shared values, passion, or a higher purpose. You don’t need to explain to anyone how cool it is to contribute to the Olympic Games. Finally, the environment matters. The rules, frameworks, situation, or phase we’re in largely determine how we shape our collaboration. During the COVID-19 crisis, decision-making is small-scale, compact, and top-down. Whereas in an organizational change process, we work on a large scale, in a Multidisciplinary manner, and specifically from the bottom up.

Anyone who works in teams can relate to this. Nobody is perfect, but a team can be. Harnessing complementarity isn’t about control or constantly weighing each other’s contributions. It’s about sharing work styles and preferences so we can all benefit together. Not compromise, but synergy. Someone once told me, “Let’s work together—my way.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

Collaboration pays off, but it only works if there are genuine relationships between people, based on equality and a deeper level of respect and trust. That’s quite difficult. On a rational level, we exchange a lot of information, but communicating on a relational level is much harder—let alone sharing our true intentions with one another.

This is precisely the area where we’ll need to work toward “true collaboration.” Our crises can only be resolved through interdisciplinary collaboration. The way we go about achieving something says everything about what we’ll ultimately achieve.

What’s holding us back? Most often, uncertainty. The fear of losing something prevents us from having the real conversation. In sectors such as Healthcare, law enforcement, or Education, intrinsically motivated professionals would rather cover for one another than have a meaningful conversation about how the organization works together. Isn’t that the role of leaders? Dealing with others’ uncertainty in the real conversation.

“Together” is a verb. Just like eating, walking, … Only by working on collaboration can we ensure that the whole remains greater than the sum of its parts, and “together” isn’t just a cliché or a fig leaf.