In the age of cynicism, collaboration remains key

MOST assume that climbing the corporate ladder requires a degree of cunning. That being selfish and looking out for yourself will get you to the top. Most assume wrong.

We live in an age of corporate greed and selfishness in the name of success — a quick Google search on “selfishness and success” yields multiple results on how to be selfish in order to succeed. Collaboration has fallen by the wayside, and it’s time we start talking to each other again.

The pandemic has not helped. A 2020 study on the impact of working from home on collaboration showed that the ability to meet and brainstorm dropped 11 per cent, and the ability to maintain social relationships declined 17 per cent. Our distrust of each other, coupled with the pandemic, has resulted in an all time low for our interpersonal relationships.

Why do we think the worst of each other?

Veneer theory, coined by Frans de Waal, says that there is but “a thin veneer hiding an otherwise selfish and brutish nature” in humankind. In other words, we are inherently selfish, cunning and brutish, and the only thing holding humanity together is modern civilisation.

But studies have shown that the opposite could not be truer — that time and time again, in real life Lord-of-the-Flies-esque situations, in debunked prisoner-guard experiments, and even in the very trenches of World War I, we have an innate aptitude for kindness, communication and collaboration.

Why then, do we think the worst of each other? Forget the psychological experiments or unrelatable war experiences — what does this look like in everyday corporate life?

Contact theory in the workplace

It looks like leaders sectioning themselves off from their colleagues of “lower positions”, physically or mentally. When a leader sits in a separate room, only speaks to their colleagues in boardrooms, and avoids lunch excursions, this breeds an unfamiliarity that, at best, creates distance between leaders and their employees; and, at worst, creates animosity.

There is a simple logic: contact theory, which posits that “contact between two groups can promote tolerance and acceptance”. It seems overly simplistic, but a longstanding line of research has constantly proved that all that is needed to foster acceptance is contact between different groups.

This can be seen in different ways, besides leaders separating themselves. This is when junior staff band together without the opportunity to speak to the “higher ups”, or when departments who work together only ever speak to each other when needed.

Contact and collaboration

In the corporate world, this is labelled as collaboration. But the word has been overused so much that it has lost all meaning. The problem is that no one is entirely sure what collaborating means — is it strictly working together on a project? Are Friday night pantry drinks counted as collaboration?

True collaboration is contributing with another person for a common goal. Collaboration can be the value driver behind long and short term success, improving vital elements of boosting business such as planning, strategy and growth. In fact, 97 per cent of employees and executives believe lack of alignment within a team impacts the outcome of a task or project.

But it’s not as easy as that

But collaboration cannot be a quick fix of throwing random people together — it has to be done intentionally.

In Against Creativity, Ollie Mould argues that in most corporate attempts at collaboration, such plans often fail because the context of hierarchies and social relations often gets ignored. As Mould argues, too often it is “white, middle-class, straight, fully-enabled men that are creative and innovative, and all other forms of minority identities and further marginalised”. He adds: “Yet the minority subjects are truly creative in the way that they are experiencing the world in ways ‘beyond the majority’.”

In a collaborative space, an open-minded environment is important. Embracing your team’s suggestions means creating an open dialogue. An open-minded environment empowers team members to contribute innovative ideas that might otherwise be shot down in a conservative setting. Not all team members are confident enough to get involved or make their ideas heard.

Research shows, for example, that women speak less than men in the workplace despite the perception that they speak more, and that women in leadership positions face negative consequences for being more talkative. Leaders must find ways to accommodate different collaborative styles to optimise for the most open dialogue.

These complex social biases are further complicated by the pandemic. Some might live in a “post”-pandemic era, but there is no denying that the last few years have irreversibly changed the way we work. Whether we sit in our bedrooms or have returned full-time to the office, or a mix of both, collaboration remains tricky. Clunky technology and faces freezing mid-sentences are problems with which we have become familiar.

As long as there is a physical space where the leadership sits, there will always be 2 ways of communicating, says Wired. Realistically, most leadership in hybrid-remote organisations will keep working from the head office, inevitably placing more favour on working in the office. Successful collaboration between leaders, employees who work in-office and from-home, will require operational intentionality and most importantly, trust.

We need to re-learn how to effectively co-create and work alongside each other in a workforce that is fluid in its physical presence. In the pre-pandemic workforce, being physically in your seat just to look dedicated (‘presenteeism’) was common behaviour — 83 per cent of workers said presenteeism existed in their workplace. Now that many organisations don’t require employees to physically be in their seat, people will have to simply trust each other. That trust has to begin with leaders, who have to be open-minded, inviting in diversity, encouraging flexibility.

In conclusion, people want to be nice to each other — we just need the opportunities to demonstrate that, despite workplace biases and pandemic-induced complexities. Leaders need to be the ones to build these opportunities and instill trust, by first seeing the best in their employees.

The writer is managing director of Hyper Island Asia Pacific.