I've seen countless job descriptions that state candidates "must be able to collaborate." It's listed right alongside technical skills and experience requirements, as if collaboration is a simple checkbox competency—something you either have or don't have.

But here's what we rarely discuss: most of what passes for collaboration in organizations isn't collaboration at all. It's coordination. It's cooperation. It's people working in parallel on adjacent tasks and calling it teamwork.

True collaboration moves us beyond competition and individualism toward something more powerful—collective achievement rooted in shared purpose. It's not simply a group of people working together on a project. It's when people work toward a shared vision, recognize each other's strengths, and understand that together they are stronger than any single individual.

When we leverage each other's strengths, recognize shared needs, support and lift each other toward success, and work toward collective outcomes—that's when true collaboration helps us achieve results impossible to reach alone. But here's what's essential to understand: collaboration doesn't exist in isolation. It's built on a foundation of connection—authentic relationships where people genuinely see and value each other—and curiosity—the willingness to explore different perspectives and learn from one another. Without these foundations, what we call collaboration is often just coordination in disguise.

In my last role, I discovered something that fundamentally changed how I understood collaboration: there was no way one person or one program could drive the momentum needed for full-scale inclusive culture transformation. It simply wasn't possible.

What was possible was building a network of champions. Experts contributing their unique skills. Partnerships with centers of excellence and business leaders. Each bringing different perspectives, different capabilities, different spheres of influence.

But here's what I learned about bringing people along on a journey of this magnitude: it required inspiring others to a shared vision while creating genuine opportunities for them to contribute to that vision in ways where their inputs were truly heard and considered.

I would bring ideas and initial strategy—but I had to be willing to modify and adjust based on others' inputs and expertise. This wasn't about compromise for the sake of consensus. It was about understanding what becomes possible when we leverage each other's strengths to get hard things done.

Sometimes this collaboration happened in small, focused groups working on specific initiatives. Other times it meant collaborating across entire organizations, connecting people who'd never worked together before. But whether the scale was intimate or expansive, the essence remained the same: creating environments where people work together toward a common vision and shared purpose.

The question that drove everything was: How do you create the conditions for people to work together toward that common purpose in an effort to make that vision a reality? Because collaboration doesn't just happen. It's built on a foundation of connection and curiosity—the willingness to genuinely connect with others and remain curious about what they know, what they need, and what they can contribute.

Many organizations suffer from what I call "collaboration theater"—the performance of teamwork without its substance.

It shows up in predictable ways:

• Endless meetings where everyone talks but nothing changes. We've all sat through those two-hour sessions where every stakeholder shares their perspective, someone takes dutiful notes, and then everyone returns to their desks and continues doing exactly what they were doing before.

• Forced consensus that papers over real disagreement. Someone proposes an approach. People have concerns but don't voice them. The facilitator asks, "Can everyone live with this?" People nod reluctantly. Implementation falters because the "consensus" was compliance, not collaboration.

• Competition disguised as collaboration. Teams are told to collaborate, but individual performance reviews reward solo achievement. People share just enough to appear collaborative while protecting their best ideas and competitive advantage.

• Shared documents without shared understanding. Everyone has access to the same folder, but people work in isolation, occasionally leaving comments that others don't respond to. There's no collective intelligence, no building on each other's thinking.

Collaboration isn't something you can simply mandate or purchase through the right technology platform. It emerges when specific conditions exist:

True shared purpose means every person can articulate not just what the goal is, but why it matters. Key indicators:

• People can explain how their specific contribution connects to the larger outcome

• Team members understand how others' work complements their own

• The language shifts from "I" to "we"—reflecting a reorientation from individual task completion to collective achievement

Real collaboration requires understanding what each person does well and what unique value they bring:

• Recognizing capabilities beyond job titles—like Maria's ability to explain complex financial concepts in accessible ways

• Understanding unique approaches—like James asking clarifying questions that prevent teams from building the wrong solution

• When teams genuinely recognize strengths, people stop competing and start leveraging their distinct capabilities

Perhaps the most critical condition—a fundamental orientation toward each other's success:

• Genuinely wanting colleagues to succeed—not because it reflects well on you, but because their success matters in itself

• Proactively helping others achieve their goals and sharing credit generously

• The question shifts from "How do I get recognized?" to "How do we all succeed together?"

Creating conditions for true collaboration requires intentional culture-building:

Surface what's often left unspoken:

• Create spaces for team members to share working styles, strengths, and growth areas

• Try the exercise: "I'm at my best when..." and "I struggle when..."

• This transparency builds the foundation for genuine collaboration

Examine your recognition systems:

• Do reviews assess how someone contributed to others' success?

• Do promotion criteria reward solo heroics or collaborative impact?

• Celebrate moments when someone helped a colleague succeed

Collaboration needs practical structures:

• Dedicated time for collaborative work (not just meetings)

• Clear processes for decision-making

• Tools that facilitate real-time collective work

• Projects designed with genuine interdependencies—where each person's work depends on and contributes to others' work

Leaders set the tone through actions:

• Genuinely seek input and be open about what you don't know

• Share credit generously and visibly support others' success

• Be vulnerable enough to admit when collaboration isn't happening and curious enough to understand why

When collaboration moves from theater to reality, the effects extend far beyond project outcomes:

• Teams become more resilient because they're not dependent on individual heroes

• Innovation increases because ideas build on each other rather than competing

• Trust deepens because people experience being supported and supporting others

• Job satisfaction improves because people feel part of something larger than themselves

• Colleagues transform from competitors or strangers into trusted partners

You don't need to transform your entire organization overnight. Begin with your immediate sphere of influence:

• Examine one project: Is this truly collaborative, or are we just coordinating individual work?

• Start small: Have each person share what success looks like for them personally

• Recognize collaboration: Explicitly acknowledge someone who helped a colleague succeed

• Redesign projects: Create genuine interdependencies rather than parallel workstreams

When we create these conditions—when we build cultures where people truly collaborate rather than simply coexist—we unlock human potential that can't be accessed any other way. We move beyond what any individual can achieve alone and discover what becomes possible when we're truly in it together.

• Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team model – Understanding what blocks collaboration

• Amy Edmondson's Psychological Safety work – Creating conditions where collaboration can flourish

• The Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model – Understanding team development and collaboration