Hi everyone!

I've spent this weekend refining a talk I'm giving this week on how to be effective in a team. It’s called, "You're on a team. So, now what?"

Because my brain is kind of stuck on the topic, this week's brief is on the same — teamwork! Or, more precisely, collaboration!

“Collaboration”

I find it amusing how supposedly good teamwork is presented in media.

If it isn't astronauts walking in step – typically in slow-motion – it's the comradeship of beers after work, the locker room banter, the foosball marathons, and the office parties. They all focus almost exclusively on the "vibes" and not the output.

Most of what we are shown to be "good teamwork" is some kind of BS masquerading as teamwork, but maybe with some sausage rolls*.

But that's not what good collaboration looks like. 

Real collaboration is an entirely different beast. Real collaboration is never solely about the vibes. the hint is all in the name: collaborate, co-labour, together + working. 

Collaboration is actually far more about psychological safety, respect, and being open to challenge than it is about any vibes. To be fair, all of that is far harder to capture in a montage, and I suspect "thinking deeply and being vulnerable" makes for a bad slow-motion shot. But pretending teamwork is mostly about "fun" is annoyingly detrimental. 

It creates these weird expectations of what we're looking for in a good team. It makes us think that the most important thing is friendship, not shared objectives. And it encourages us to shy away from the bits of collaboration that are hard work.

And the bits where it's not vibes – where it is actually confronting because you're being challenged to think harder, justify your thoughts, and have a higher level of rigour – that's when you'll produce your best work.

When I think of my most productive professional relationships – the designers, the architects, the delivery folk with whom I produced the best output – I'm friends with only three of them today. Three. That's very few out of a long list of smart and excellent folk. And yes, partly that reflects that I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people once I leave a gig, but it's also that our professional collaboration was primarily focused on the work and less about the beers afterwards.

Plus, when you're looking for the "beers after work" vibes, you'll miss the chance for the "holy crap, we really nailed that" vibes. Which again, less cool in slow-motion but perhaps with more cake and high-fives than you'd expect.

And I know which vibes I'm looking for in my life. ✨

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this (or anything else), so do reply to this email, DM me on LinkedIn, or send me a letter via pigeon. 

I cannot tell you how much I like hearing from y'all!

And until next time, stay excellent! 💖
Hannah

1  *Context for anyone not NZ based:
Sausage rolls are arguably some of the most coveted office catering over here. Seriously, want to make a tech team happy in NZ? Order sausage rolls. Bonus points for having veggie options and double bonus points for providing tomato sauce. These are just facts.