When faced with tough problems, our instinct is to get busy quickly. We decide what to do and how to do it, then dive into action. We spend precious little time on the ‘why’ and ‘who’ before getting started.
But what if this approach is exactly backward?
Working leaders tackling some incredibly ambitious collaborations - from shifting entire agriculture sectors toward sustainability to developing shared satellite positioning systems across countries - I've discovered a counterintuitive but powerful pattern.
The secret to effective collaboration is to reverse that order: Connect first, Align next, Act last.
Reversing the order is transformative.
Collaboration is first and foremost an invitation - an invitation to join forces with others who share a restlessness with the status quo. Effective collaborators reach inside and outside their usual networks to form a ‘coalition of the willing’.
Make no mistake: this isn't about finding clones of yourself. Quite the opposite - it's about bringing together diverse views, expertise, lived experiences, and thinking styles. It's about creating a microcosm of the system you're trying to change.
Collaboration is also a choice - an invitation accepted. Top collaborators know what they care about and why it's important to them. That's why they're ready to personally invest, to go beyond the artificial boundaries of their formal roles.
Effective collaborators start small and spend time sharing ideas and hearing diverse perspectives in the spirit of equal voice and open minds. By connecting to an idea (the why) and to each other (the who), trust and commitment are established. A new ‘us’ is created.
"We handpicked the right people to get started. Getting people across industry and sector who have never worked together before."
Building connection takes time - sometimes years. Without exception, however, effective collaborations invest heavily in connecting. It's a constant activity, sometimes done subconsciously, other times very deliberately.
The payoff comes later:
When significant challenges are weathered effectively.
When the synergy created accelerates progress beyond conventional approaches.
When what was previously impossible alone becomes possible together.
Top tip: Get the people right. Be exclusive - start with a coalition of the willing. Deal with the naysayers later.
Effective collaboration is only possible when there is deep alignment around a shared ambition. Taking time to reach this alignment is critical, yet the temptation (or pressure) to rush to action can be great. Resist it.
If you act before you're aligned, much time and effort will be lost, and you'll soon find yourself back at square one, trying to get lined up again.
To achieve alignment, the right conversations need to take place - conversations that go deep on the matters that matter to each person involved. Only when these conversations have occurred can genuine and robust alignment around a shared ambition emerge. Parties must be open to this being different from what they first imagined. In fact, it should be - a collective view is vital.
Parties must also accept that the direction will be less than perfect - it won't meet every requirement. It can't. But it does need to be good enough to take a first, deeply committed step together.
"What surprised me was how quickly some of the people shifted and how much risk they were prepared to take themselves."
Top tip: Alignment on the matters that matter is the collaboration touchstone - when challenges arise, reconnect on alignment.
Do not expect to travel, or make progress, in straight lines. When dealing with complex problems, multiple paths are possible - in fact, necessary - to achieve the ambition.
There will be unintended consequences you can't foresee. There will be rabbit holes and missteps. The universe will not cooperate with your best-laid plans. Top collaborators know this and are ready for it - they experiment and course-correct along the way. They maintain momentum and don't wait for perfect.
"Sometimes you learn a lot from failing."
Top collaborators manage action using intent and principles, over project plans and deliverables (although those are very handy). Part self-organizing, part structured and formal, it's crucial to recognize that different aspects of your collaborative work will move at different speeds.
Starting small and targeted initially helps demonstrate what's possible and provides signposts for others to join when they're ready (and able).
It's at this point that the Collaboration Effect really kicks in. With time, resources, and knowledge typically in short supply for all, finding "a way to" rather than "a reason not to" now predominates. Stepping up trumps standing back. Ownership is taken, and responsibilities are shared.
"We've achieved more in the last 4 months than we have in the last 2.5 years."
A word of warning: The Collaboration Effect acts like a gravity assist around the moon. It accelerates action and can change the direction of travel. Be prepared for that acceleration and ready to maximize where it takes you.
And never stop the business of connection and alignment. While you must connect then align then act to get underway, once in motion all three work in concert continuously. Like spinning plates, they must all be kept moving for the collaboration to succeed.
Top tip: When in the thick of action, continue to pay attention to connection and alignment. When things get tough, that will keep the wheels from falling off.
The next time you're facing a complex challenge that requires collaboration:
Resist the urge to jump straight to planning and action.
Invest time in finding and connecting with the right people.
Build alignment through deep, meaningful conversations.
Trust that an initial slower pace will lead to acceleration later.
Act with intent, principles, and a willingness to adapt.
In a world of accelerating complexity, the collaborative path - Connect, Align, Act - offers our best hope for tapping into our collective capacity to make meaningful progress on our toughest challenges.
Are you ready to go Beyond Individual Scale and unlock the abundance within our systems?
In this series, I share deeper dives into what it takes to go Beyond Individual Scale and activate collective impact.
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