Teamwork And Collaboration - part #1

Introduction

Twenty-four years ago, John Maxwell wrote a book called The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork: Embrace Them and Empower Your Team (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001). In it, he shared “The Law of Mount Everest: As the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates.” I believe that if he wrote the book this year, he would have modified The Law of Mount Everest to state that as challenge escalates, the need for teamwork and collaboration elevates. 

Christopher Novak in his book, Conquering Adversity: Six Strategies to Move You and Your Team Through Tough Times (CornerStone Leadership Institute, 2004), writes that “Collaboration is about the people we take with us on our journey forward.”

Dan Cohen in his book, The Heart of Change Field Guide: Tools and Tactics for Leading Change in Your Organization (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), notes that in the process of stakeholder enrollment collaboration needs to happen before people will commit and advocate for change. 

For me, the subject of collaboration and team work became a very big issue in the summer and fall of 2015. Everyone was talking about it and everyone one was asking questions about it. Recently, this subject has come roaring back on to my radar screen. People are once again interested in this subject and once again asking questions. All of this interest can be boiled down into one important and timely question: How can leaders increase effective teamwork and collaboration?

Three Distinctions

As we explore this subject, I think it is important to clarify three words, namely cooperation, teamwork, and collaboration. In particular, we need to understand that each word creates a different outcome. First, cooperation is an interpersonal interaction on the one to one level, and has the potential to create interpersonal synergy. In mathematical terms, one plus one has the potential to be greater than two. 

Second, teamwork is focused on intra-team interactions. In basic terms, my part plus all of your parts has the potential to create something greater than the team, i.e. the generation of collective synergy and collective results which is always greater than individual results. 

Third, collaboration is focused on inter-teams interactions. Again, in basic terms, my team engages with your team in order to create a level of holistic synergy. At this level, we are all focused on the success of the company as a whole, and the outcome is greater than individual cooperation or team work. However, we must keep in mind that cooperation, teamwork, and collaboration are all critical to short and long term success. 

The Collaboration Continuum

When we focus on collaboration, we must recognize that it is a continuum more than a specific event or singular action. In the beginning, people are working in isolation. There is no need to communicate outside the group and those involved only share with others as needed. 

Next, we see people engage in a level of consultation with other individuals and/or teams. They do this to gain perspective or understanding outside their group. Then, they take the parts that they like, and the parts that cause the least amount of disruption to their group. Still, in the end, they do what they want to do. For many, they believe that this is collaboration. 

Now some will engage in coordination but call it collaboration. I think there is a big distinction between the two. When people coordinate, they work with others outside the group to get something done. It typically starts with the “I have a plan and you have a plan” mentality. Once we recognize this, they meet to share what each have planned. Then, they work together.

However, what I have witnessed that is unique about effective collaboration is that both teams start with a joint analysis which includes an agreement about what is the problem. Next, they continue with joint planning and execution of the plan. Furthermore, they discuss the compelling reason to collaborate, and there are agreed to guidelines to the process. Then, they expect there to be trial and adaptation periods, along with reliance on each other to collectively solve problems. Ideally, each group or team integrates the solutions into what they are doing on a daily basis, too.

Finally, there is one more stage past collaboration which is rarely experienced or talked about much, namely co-creation. This follows the same path as the aforementioned effective collaboration. But they do one more thing, that from my perspective is most unique about co-creation, namely they share resources based on a high degree of personal, strategic and organizational trust. It is the resource sharing that accelerates collaboration into co-creation, and often results in very creative solutions and outcomes. 

A Shared Mindset

Recognizing the aforementioned continuum, we must realize that teamwork and collaboration begins with a shared mindset. All involved know why they need to do the work, and all involved understand what kind of problems or problems they are dealing with during teamwork and collaboration. They also know what to do and are capable of doing it. In essence, they understand the goal from an operational and strategic perspective. 

At this point, I am reminded of some thing that James Belasco and Ralph Stayer wrote years ago in their book, Flight of the Buffalo: Soaring To Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead (Time Warner, 1994). As they explain, "The primary purpose of strategic planning is not to strategically plan for the future, although that's an important purpose of the exercise. It is primarily to develop the strategic management mind-set in each and every individual in the organization. The purpose of the process is not only to produce a plan. It is to produce a plan that will be owned and understood by the people who have to execute it.” The critical elements within this quote are the shared strategic mindset and that the plan is owned and understood by the people who have to execute it. 

Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen in their article, “The Secrets of Great Teamwork” from the June 2016 issue of the Harvard Business Review, write that “Distance and diversity, as well as digital communication and changing membership, make them [teams] especially prone to the problems of ‘us versus them’ thinking and incomplete information…. The solution to both is developing a shared mindset among team members - something team leaders can do by fostering a common identity and common understanding.” Again, a shared mindset is critical at the team level and in the collaboration process. 

Haas and Mortensen then point out something very interesting about effective teamwork which is the necessary pre-cursor to effective collaboration. As they write, “In the past teams typically consisted of a stable set of fairly homogeneous members who worked face-to-face and tended to have a similar mindset. But that’s no longer the case, and teams now often perceive themselves not as one cohesive group but as several smaller subgroups. This is a natural human response: Our brains use cognitive shortcuts to make sense of our increasingly complicated world, and one way to deal with complexity of a 4-D team [diverse, geographically dispersed, digitally connected, and dynamic as in in frequent changes in membership] is to lump people into categories. But we also are inclined to view our own subgroup - whether it’s our function, our unit, our region, or our culture - more positively than others, and that habit often creates tension and hinders collaboration.”

The tendency to sub-divide into small groups may be normal and a cognitive coping mechanism, but in the world of teamwork and collaboration this creates major problems. Leaders have to understand this is normal, and at the exact same time, they need to work diligently on building and maintaining a shared mindset. Given we are dealing with 4-D teams more and more, and given we are wanting these teams to work better as teams, and to collaborate better with other teams, then we need to recognize that clarity about why we need to work well together, and what we needs to get done becomes mission critical to success. We also need leaders who know how to help people collaborate. 

The Sum Of Multiple Behaviors

For many years, I have explained to senior executives, leaders and managers that collaboration is the sum of multiple behaviors. It is not a singular action but the outcome of multiple choices done well over time. For me, there are three core leadership behaviors that result in effective collaboration within a team or between teams. 

The first core behavior relates to communication. When an individual or team is outside their comfort zone and struggling, we need to remember that the support of a team, a strategic perspective, and a safety zone for strategic dialogue makes a big difference. Yet, the tap root all three is the ability to create and maintain safety in communication. While this may seem simple, it is not easy because safety at this level honors both facts and feelings. When I have observed exceptional leadership that has resulted in good teamwork and good collaboration, I have noticed two elements to their communication. First, they are exceptional listeners. The second is that they are credible leaders, because they do what they say they will do. Again, this seems simple but it is not easy because to do both things well, you have to be consistent and disciplined over time

The second core behavior relates to problem solving. While most leaders focus on the solving of the problem, the best leaders focus on the word problem itself. They spend a great deal of time identifying the problems, defining the problems, and analyzing the causes of problems. This takes a great deal of time and energy, but when it does well, the execution of the solutions has greater buy-in and commitment. 

The third core behavior relates to effective planning and execution. Most leaders who want better teamwork and collaboration focus on setting goals and making sure people are executing them. And while this is important, I have noticed that once the goals are set, they often do not take into account the rise of unknown variables or unpredictable issues that surface after the goal has been written. Thus, the execution of the goal by a team or a couple of teams working together becomes problematic over time.

Yet, in circumstances where the goal is written and then executed, a greater level of team work and collaboration will surface if there are weekly tactical meetings to check on the progress related to the goal, and when their are monthly strategic reviews where all involved analyze, debate, and decide if the goal is still the right goal as critical issues, unpredictable problems, or unknown variables surface post goal writing. If so, then all involved can adapt and work collaboratively to accommodate these factors. 

Through better communication, problem solving, and planning and execution, leaders at all levels of the organization can generate effective outcomes and build capacity for future efforts.  The key is to assist people at getting better at all three of these core leadership skills. 

To be continued on Tuesday.

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

The Intersection Of People And Work

A number of years ago, Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall in their book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019), wrote: “Checking in with each person on a team - listening, course-correcting, adjusting, coaching, pinpointing, advising, paying attention to the intersection of the person and the real-world work - is not what you do in addition to the work of leading. This is the work of leading.” 

In our rush to get things done, I think we forget that checking in with each person on the team is the work of leadership. I think we forget to be of assistance to them rather than thinking they need to be offering assistance to us. I think the work of leading can happen each and every day if we remember to focus on the intersection of the person and the work. 

As we embrace this simple, but powerful choice, we need to do three more things very well. First, we must remember to manage up and across the organizational chart, not just down. Collaboration is the foundation for success during turbulent times. As part of this broader process, we need to understand the difference between ripe, unripe and ripening issues across the organization. Just because we think something is a hot button issue does not mean everyone else does. Therefore, we need to look at issues from multiple positions and multiple perspectives. We also need to recognize the difference between discernment and judgement when making a decision. When we engage in more discernment before engaging in problem solving, we can be better at helping others. 

Second, we need to learn to lead without ignoring the people we love. There will always be more work than time to complete everything. Home and major relationships outside of work should not always be a distant second to getting the work done. If this happens, then we have let the non-essential piles undermine what is most essential in our life. Remember that the word integrity comes from Latin meaning “to make whole.” When we make choices that fragment us and our life, we undermine all that helps us cope and maintain perspective at the interaction of life and work. 

Third, we need to remember our presence makes a statement. While actions speak louder than words, words still matter. They impact people and they can make a profound difference on how people engage with their job and others. If we choose to back up our words with thoughtful and consistent action, we are helping others make better choices. It is the combination of thoughtful action and thoughtful speaking that makes a statement about what we value and who we value. Being present and choosing to listen is critical to leading people. 

When we do the aforementioned three things well, we bring a level of authenticity and integrity to the daily work of listening, coaching and advising. We also build trust and create a greater level of commitment to accomplishing short term projects and long term goals. The intersection of life and work is busy and dynamic. People are working hard and want to get things done in a timely, accurate and efficient manner. When we meet them where they are, we can help them make progress and know that their job matters. And that is what people want to be experiencing at the intersection of life and work. 

© Geery Howe 2025

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

The Challenge of Self-Management

A long time ago, Price Pritchett wrote the following: “The first chore in managing change is the toughest: self-management. Handle that right, and you’re halfway home.” On the surface, this seems self-evident. But when one rereads it a couple of times, we realize that it has great depth. The challenge is that most leaders do not do this level of work. They avoid self-management, and instead focus on managing others first, organizational change second, and maybe themselves as a distant third. Still, if they were to do self-management first, they might discover that they are “halfway home.”

From my perspective, self-management begins with an understanding of how we choose to think about time. Once you choose the path of leadership and then organizational change, you will be constantly interrupted by some one. Most people new to leadership are surprised by this happening. Most experienced leaders understand that it comes with the job. 

Years ago, Peter Drucker shared two important insights about leadership and time. First, “The executive’s time tends to belong to everybody else.” Everybody and anybody can move in on your time and eventually does. How we deal with these interruptions sends a message about what is important, how people should treat each other, and how people should respect each other’s time. 

Second, “Executives are forced to keeping ‘operating’ unless they take positive action to change the reality in which they live.” As leaders, we can not let the flow of events completely determine the priorities we hold. Instead, we need to define what is important in spite of the flow of current events and current interruptions. We need to lead proactively rather than manage reactively. 

I have often reflected on Drucker’s insights since he published them in an article called “What is Our Business?” in the June 2001 issue of Executive Excellence magazine. However, I always struggled on one level to explain them in a practical, self-management kind of way. It was not until I read Cal Newport’s book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout (Portfolio/Penguin, 2024), that I discovered a key concept that explains a lot of about self-management.

In the book, Newport defines slow productivity as “a philosophy for organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable and meaningful manner, based on the following three principles: 1. Do fewer things. 2. Work at a natural pace. 3. Obsess over quality.” He defines “Pseudo-Productivity” as “the use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort.” Both of these definitions were helpful. They reminded me of an earlier book where he articulated the difference between deep work and shallow work. 

With this slow productivity framework in mind, Newport expands on the first principle called “Do Fewer Things.” As he writes, “Strive to reduce your obligations to the point where you can easily imagine accomplishing them with time to spare. Leverage this reduced load to more fully embrace and advance the small number of projects that matter most.” Then, for me, he adds a deeply insightful concept into the mix about leaders and time. As he writes, “In knowledge work, when you agree to a new commitment, be it a minor task or a large project, it brings with it a certain amount of ongoing administrative overhead: back-and-forth e-mail threads needed to gather information, for example, or meetings scheduled to synchronize with your collaborators. This overhead tax activates as soon as you take on a new responsibility. As your to-do list grows, so does the total amount of overhead tax you’re paying. Because the number of hours in the day is fixed, these administrative chores will take more and more time away from your core work, slowing down the rate at which these objectives are accomplished.” Later, he continues, “A key property of overhead tax is that it tends to expand to fill as much time as it’s provided. So long as a project is something that you’ve committed to, and it’s not yet complete, it will tend to generate a continual tax in the form of check-in meetings, impromptu email conversations, and plain old mental space.”

When I first read about the concept of an overhead tax, I had to stop reading, put down the book, and think. It was the key that unlocked so much for me as an executive coach. Over and over, I have worked with leaders who are willing to put in the deep work, i.e. the time, the focus, and the commitment, on a project, goal or strategy, and yet over time, they struggle with completing it. What I realized is that the problem is not effort or focus. Nor was the problem the lack of strategic perspective. The actual problem was the overhead tax. The more administrative details they had to manage, the less time they had for the actual work. Furthermore, if they were engaged in multiple projects, then there were multiple overhead taxes, all demanding time and attention. 

As I continued to read, I agreed with Newport that so many people are struggling with the overhead taxes that they have crossed a tipping point and therefore can not get to the actually key objectives, goals, or strategy that they were seeking to accomplish. Instead, they are swamped in administrative overhead. In short, their self-management is not self-management. They are actually just managing more and more administrative details with no time for self and actual work. 

Furthermore, as more and more of their time is consumed with the overhead taxes, they also do not have time for renewal or recharge. They just become consumed with minutia and the sinking feeling that life is nothing more than small details piled on small details. The outcome from this pattern of working and living always results in decision fatigue leading to decision burn-out. As Marshall Goldsmith in his book, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be, (Crown Business, 2015), wrote: “Doing things that deplete us is not the same as doing things when we’re depleted.” And in the end, we always pay the overhead tax, resulting in careless choices, poor decisions, and ultimately a surrender to status quo. 

So, how does one do effective self-management when managing change?

First, sit down and evaluate how many current projects and priorities you are working on. Then, calculate how much overhead taxes you are paying per project. This may be an uncomfortable exercise, but the goal is to do fewer things well rather than many things poorly. And it is important to discern that doing fewer things well is not the same as accomplishing fewer things. The goal is to generate quality work by actually having real priorities rather than hopeful priorities. 

Second, improve your ability to delegate. When we choose to delegate something to another person, we are transferring the authority and responsibility from us to another person. The difficulty is that during the act of delegation we never clarify how much authority or responsibility the person has and can use. Furthermore, we assume that the person being delegated to understands the problem and has the skills and knowledge to solve the problem. Finally, we assume that they know how to measure their progress and know what a successful completion of the problem looks like over time. Nine times out of ten, poor delegation creates poor results, and in turn poor self-management. 

Third, schedule adequate transition time during each day. Our days are packed with back to back meetings and back to back check-in sessions. Often, we are shifting from operational issues to strategic issues to personnel issues. The result is reactive leadership and little time to process or complete anything. At some point, we just have to realize that this unceasing pace of work and life is unsustainable, and is detrimental to our health and our core relationships at work and at home. When we schedule transition time into our daily and weekly schedule, we are then moving from a place of clarity and alignment. 

Fourth, find and work with an executive coach, especially one who will ask you questions that you yourself would not ask. By creating time and space for structured unstructured time, we are building a foundation for resilience and capacity. This unique space gives us a chance to pause, share, and reflect. It also is a chance to think out loud in a safe and open environment. Here, we can zoom out to gain perspective or zoom in to gain understanding. We also can slow down so we can make wiser and more thoughtful choices. Then, we have a chance to check our default thinking and default reactions in order to not perpetuate unhealthy responses based on past unhealthy experiences. Over time, an experienced executive coach can offer unique insights and wisdom from their own years of working through problems of a similar nature, too. 

Fifth, discover or recover a why to live for that is greater than just getting all the office work done. As Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz write: ”Purpose creates a destination." It is time to reclaim purpose and to reclaim destination in our life journey. It is time to figure out why we do what we do, and then use this to guide our life choices and decisions. Too often, we are living someone else’s definition of success. We also are trying to meet their expectations, and are not clear about what are our own priorities, hopes and dreams. When we create a purpose driven life, we are living and working from a place of great strength and deep inner alignment. We then move in a new and more grounded manner toward our desired destination. 

Self-management in the midst of change is hard and important work to do. It happens on a daily basis and is never completed in a single day. Still, by doing it consistently and thoughtfully, we can manage change in an effective manner. And then, we will be halfway home.

© Geery Howe 2025

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change

Herding Butterflies - part #2

The Loss Stage

Now, the outcome of these choices does not generate rainbows, enlightenment, and dancing unicorns. Instead, many people show a level of resistance and dissatisfaction to change. Again, this is normal and uncomfortable for people in leadership positions, but we must remember that people are people and this level of response is difficult but not uncommon. 

The first step in dealing with resistance is to reframe it as a form of feedback. People care about the work they are doing and are expressing it to those in leadership and management positions. In basic terms, resistance is a a psychological defense mechanism wherein a person rejects, denies, or otherwise opposes the efforts of another. Dissatisfaction, on the other hand, means people are unhappy. When the two happen at the same time and in the same place, we must remember the root of the problem is about loss of the familiar. Ron Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky in their book, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World (Harvard Business Press, 2009), encourage us to name these losses. For example, they can be “identity, competence, comfort, security, reputation, time, money, power, control, status, resources, independence, job,” etc.  By naming what is happening and the losses that come with change, we are helping people grieve the end of the familiar, and aiding them to arrive at a place of acceptance where a new beginning can place. 

In the past, when I have been on-site, and encountered this level of loss, it comes in a variety of forms. Some people will ask the question: "Why me?”. Some will talk about this level of change being unfair, and focus on how to preserve their sense of meaning, identity, and familiar ways of doing things based on the previous definition of success. I routinely saw people focus on the "proper way" of doing things in order to assure protection from being blamed if things didn’t work out. Finally, it was very common to see people in management and leadership positions engage in the proverbial Tarzan Swing from "we have no problems" to “all bloody hell has broken loose”, and “there is no way we can do this” to "it's nearly finished”. When these elements are happening, I know we are clearly in the stage of loss. 

A Dialogue Strategy

At this point in the trough of chaos, there are three specific forms of leadership that need to be deployed. First, leaders engage in coaching. Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter in their book, 12: The Elements of Great Managing Gallup Press, 2006, make an important point about this level of coaching. As they write, “A coach or mentor is anyone who, in the eyes of the employee, ensures she successfully navigates the course. The important aspect is not which of many terms this protector goes by - friend, coach, advisor, sponsor, counselor, support - but whether the employee feels she is not abandoned inside the business.” This is particularly important when dealing with the combination of resistance and dissatisfaction. When we reframe the combination of these two common responses as a form of feedback for people in leadership, management and supervisory positions, and when we realize that employees want to “successfully navigate the course” through the trough of chaos, then coaching is vital and necessary for success. 

Kevin Cashman in his book, Awakening the Leader Within: A Story of Transformation (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003), reminds us that there are two forms of coaching. The first is transactive coaching which is focused on the transferring of competencies, skills and/or techniques from the coach to the person being coached. The second is transformational coaching which focuses on shifting a person’s view of the world around them. This reframing process can help them gain insights and new perspectives about what is happening and what is going to happen next. 

Whether we are engaged in transactive or transformational coaching, it is important for all involved to understand that coaching is a structured dialogue that  involves questions, analysis, action planning, and follow through. While we may not always be able as coaches to solve all problems, we can, nevertheless, emphasize the choices that need to be made. 

The second form of leadership during this stage of the trough of chaos is focused on selling the problem or problems. When I share this with leaders, they are often perplexed by this choice. They note that they have already done this earlier in the trough of chaos, and told people where, when, and how the coming changes will take place. I routinely smile, nod and I agree. But people are people and, at times, they forget. Status quo or the proverbial good-old-days call people to want to go backwards. They remember only the best of times from days gone by. 

However, John Kotter in his seminal article, “Leading Change: Why Transformational Efforts Fail” in the May-June 1995 issue of the Harvard Business Review, writes that the first most common problem for failure is “not establishing a great enough sense of urgency.” As he continues, “When is the urgency rate high enough? From what I have seen, the answer is when about 75% of a company’s management is honestly convinced that business-as-usual is totally unacceptable. Anything less can produce very serious problems later on in the process.” And while the article was written 30 years ago, it has been my experience that most leaders under communicate the urgency to move forward because they don’t sell the problems to the degree that all involved realize that business-as-usual is dangerous and unacceptable if the company wants to maintain viability moving forward. 

The third form of leadership is resolving problems and issues. Leaders need to make tough decisions and to solve complex problems. They need to focus on accountability and results. Yet, many leaders struggle with resolving problems and issues in part because they believe people may not like the decisions they need to make. So, they default to artificial harmony and wanting to be seen as nice and popular. However, this choice creates a false reality and can result in short and long term problems. 

I believe this happens because many leaders have not been coached properly on how to make decisions in an effective manner. When I find this the case, I have asked them to read and discuss with me the following article: “Making Judgment Calls: The Ultimate Act of Leadership” by Noel M. Tichy and Warren Bennis in the October 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review. Every time I’ve done this, I have witnessed great improvement in this area. 

The Acceptance Zone

In the end, the combination of resistance and dissatisfaction ends with the rise of acceptance and a willingness to move forward. Now, not everyone is willing to accept this level of organizational change. Thus, some choose to leave their current employment. 

On the other hand, when trust is built and maintained, and when thoughtful and regular communication happens, many of the normal problems within the trough of chaos can be resolved. This is particularly true when we understand that everyone, both leaders and followers, are at different levels of experience with change, and different stages of their professional growth as leaders. 

Therefore, we have an important choice to make. As Brownie Wise, the pioneering American saleswoman who was a largely responsible for the success of the home products company Tupperware, noted: “If we build the people, they will build the business.” For when we build people and support their growth, we create the capacity to move through the normal challenges that come within the trough of chaos. And when we build relationships that can handle the complexities of change, we build a foundation for on-going innovation. 

Still, some days it will feel like we are herding butterflies in the midst of a tornado. And on those days, when we are feeling everything is overwhelming and chaotic, we can turn to our allies and confidants for support and perspective. As the Serenity Prayer reminds us, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” This is good advice whether or not we are moving through a trough of chaos or herding butterflies in the midst of a tornado. 

© Geery Howe 2025

Geery Howe, M.A. Executive Coach in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Organizational Change