Credo #2: Stop all the happy talk about teamwork and start focusing on stronger collaboration
Inspirational posters of TEAMWORK inspire eyes rolling, not collaboration.
The words, “team” and “teamwork” have become hollow jargon and overused hashtags.
Our outdated ideas about how teams function lead us to over-simplify and romanticize teamwork, undermining efforts to improve it. We line office walls with hokey inspirational posters and administer personality tests expecting these things to conjure teamwork. (Another trust fall, anyone?) The words, “team” and “teamwork” have become hollow jargon, overused hashtags. As a result, seemingly endless admonitions encouraging more teamwork cause people to roll their eyes. They know that much of the most important work is done by capable individuals. To these people, teamwork can feel like a hindrance, a vague and bothersome expectation that slows progress.
That cynicism is a shame. Teamwork, understood accurately, has genuine promise and power. It’s worth aspiring to. That’s why our focus is on the foundational element of all group work - collaboration. Whether you call yourselves a team, a group, a community or a committee, what matters is knowing which work requires collaboration – and which doesn’t. Then it’s about getting the right people involved in the right ways. It’s simple, it’s practical and it makes genuine collaboration possible.
