For someone who’s been building teams for more than a decade now, the question of how to build teams that produce magical results has taken up considerable mindshare.
TLDR: “True Magic can’t happen without Deep Collaboration”
Apple was among the first major companies to require employees to return to the office after COVID.
Their reason? “You can’t weave the real magic without being together.”
Remote work might work for many things, but true creative work, spontaneous hallway ideas, and cross-pollination of viewpoints? That’s much harder to replicate on screens.
On a side note: In 2022, when I was looking for my next role after an 8-year-long entrepreneurial journey, working from the office was a non-negotiable.
Real Collaboration Is Uncomfortable by Design. The people you most need to collaborate with are usually:
- Full to Ego
- Not your friends
- Don’t think like you
- Don’t have the same priorities
- Sometimes annoy you
And yet, they’re often the ones who you really need to collaborate with and for the right reasons…
A company is basically an organised fight over:
- Resources
- Priorities
- Viewpoints
For a project to see the light of day, someone has to keep pulling all the contradictory spokes (humans) together so the wheel actually turns.
But that is easier said than done. That requires a champion who understands the value of collaboration well. They don’t mistake collaboration for office politics, because true collaboration also requires forging cross-functional relationships with (again…) people who you might not like much.
Mindset Shifts (Brain Transplant equivalent) are required to enable the collaboration shift.
Handling Disagreements: When someone disagrees with you, don’t think “opponent” or “enemy”, think “different life experience + different information”. Having five viewpoints on the table is almost always better than having one perfect idea in your head.
Accepting you can be wrong too: You acknowledge that with all the wisdom you have, you can never be right 100% of the time and hence listen with intent to understand others' views to avoid the trap of getting it wrong this time, just in case.
Humility & Patience: The Hardest (and most valuable) Collaboration Skill is being humble and patient enough to seriously listen to an idea even when your gut screams “WRONGGGGGGGG….” from the get-go. You must still listen patiently, offering clear, logical reasoning rather than rejecting it with status or, worse, sarcasm.
I have found these traits to be helpful in the pursuit of building great, innovative teams.
Amazon Prime Invention: A nice example is the invention of Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime wasn’t invented by one genius. It was a junior software engineer’s idea. The idea went through multiple iterations and faced objections before becoming the success that it is today. That’s how idea evolution works out at Amazon, a company that has been hugely successful at being inventive for the past 30+ years.
Realities of Collaboration: Collaboration isn’t efficient. It’s not always pleasant. It’s frequently frustrating to some. But almost every breakthrough worth remembering was born from exactly that uncomfortable, messy, human grind.
The magic is usually hiding in the value the team holds - humility, patience, team-first attitude, because as great Dr Tapan Singhel says, “Success is Temporary. Values are Permanent.” and that’s precisely what leaders should aim to inculcate in their teams if they wish to create a culture of innovation.