Stronger Through Adversity: World-Class Leaders Share Pandemic-Tested Lessons on Thriving During the Toughest Challenges

  CHAPTER 17  

Foster Collaboration

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

—HELEN KELLER,author and political activist

MAKING WORKING TOGETHER WORK

Collaboration is like physical fitness, everyone wants it, but not everyone is disciplined enough to make it a reality. In his book Collaboration, University of California, Berkeley management professor Morten Hansen warned that poorly executed collaboration is worse than no collaboration at all. Given the time, money, and resources invested in bringing teams together, collaboration can only be justified if it improves innovation, sales, service, or operations.

If collaboration wasn’t tricky enough in traditional work environments, the pandemic produced a seismic shift in how teams ...