Where Strategy Isn’t Born, Collaboration Dies
How I made a team out of a bunch of folks
Team coaching, motivational talks, and brainstorming sessions can only do so much.
They work only for groups who have already found their footing.
But if your team is just a motley crew, such team-bonding shenanigans will be as effective as adults giving advice to teens.
You need a strategy to make the team.
Spaghetti, marshmallow, and human nature
In what way are kindergarteners smarter than business school students?
Peter Skillman conducted an experiment. He assembled a series of four-person groups at Stanford, the University of California, the University of Tokyo, and many other places. He challenged groups to build the tallest possible structure using:
• twenty pieces of uncooked spaghetti
• one yard of transparent tape
• one yard of rope
• one standard-size marshmallow
Each team had 18 minutes to build the tower.
They couldn’t split the marshmallow into smaller pieces and had to put it on top.
Daniel Coyle mentioned the contest in his book The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. He notes: “The fascinating part of the experiment, however, had less to do with the task than with the participants. Some of the teams consisted of business school students. The others consisted of kindergarteners”.
Who do you think almost always built the taller structures? I bet you’ve already guessed.
Daniel Coyle explains:
"The business school students appear to be collaborating, but in fact they are engaged in a process psychologists call status management. They are figuring out where they fit into the larger picture: Who is in charge? Is it okay to criticize someone's idea? What are the rules here? … As a result, their first efforts often collapse, and they run out of time.”
Children play with toys. Adults play with statuses. But this is part of our nature, and we need a strategy to overcome the flaw.
A motley crew
In 2004, I became a CEO. My executives were smart, competent, and completely disconnected. They looked like a motley bunch, not a close-knit team.
The phrase of the year for our company in 2004 would definitely be, ‘This is not my area of responsibility.’
Everyone was willing to do their specific duties. No one was willing to cooperate on shared projects.
I spent a ton of money on coaches and team-building, but it was all for nothing. Every project turned into a series of conflicts, and I had to step in.
The problem spoiled my New Year holidays. Instead of enjoying time with my family, I was constantly thinking about my team—or whatever passed for a team.
Finally, I found a solution, but not where I was looking for it.
When in doubt, read a book
When I was just learning to read, my mom told me that I would find a lot of good advice in books. That winter, I thought once again how right she was.
I read in a psychology book that when people are scared or stressed because of high uncertainty, they tend to narrow their social circles to a minimum. They prefer to interact only with those they know very well.
In uncertainty, the familiar feels firm.
Life in big cities is stressful, that’s why people there often look unfriendly.
When the social climate in a country heats up, people tend to grow more distant from each other, trusting only a few.
If a company doesn’t have a strategy, it becomes siloed. Executives trust only their direct reports.
Conference room as a battlefield
A strategy is not a list of projects or decisions. It is a set of Central Principles that guide executives and middle managers in making daily decisions.
These principles don't dictate what to do but show how to figure it out.
For example, if a company focuses on high quality, any quality-oriented decision is correct.
If the company follows a low-cost strategy, any cost-cutting measure is welcome.
Without a strategy, meetings feel like an inquisition trial, and cross-functional projects—like a minefield.
Top managers ‘dig in’ within their departments not because they aren’t team players—that’s the only place they don’t feel like fish out of water.
I got my team involved in crafting a strategy, and they transformed. The same executives who avoided projects like the plague yesterday were now animatedly discussing the details.
When in doubt, craft a strategy.
If you have difficulties with crafting a strategy, check out my new book, Red and Yellow Strategies: Flip Your Strategic Thinking and Overcome Short-termism.
Business strategy, brief notes
A few more things:
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Read also: The Airline That Nosedived: Pitfalls of the low-price strategy
Thanks for this post Svyatoslav (the Peter Skillman experiment was fascinating!). It reinforces to me the need for leaders to focus on people first and fundamentally - and to create the space and conditions for conversations to thrive and shared understanding to develop. It's too easy for time pressures and the desire for quick answers and results to curtail this, to the longer-term detriment of the organisation's health and capabilities.
I've actually participated in a group setting with this task. It was interesting to see everyone around the room and how they handled it. Anyway unfortunately school and work drive the creativity right out of us in so many ways.