Greater than the sum of our parts: the strategic case for collaboration

Collaboration is often talked about as a value. Something to aspire to or a nice idea that sits comfortably in mission statements and strategy decks.

But in my experience good collaboration is a question of capability. And capability has to be built, tested and actively maintained.

That perspective comes from working in environments where collaboration was not optional, including my role as Head of Communications and Collaboration for a joint venture delivering 80km of HS2, where multiple organisations had to work together under intense delivery, commercial and governance pressures.

As the challenges facing organisations grow more complex, stretching across political, operational, financial and reputational territory, the idea that any one organisation can tackle them alone starts to look increasingly unrealistic. The work now demands different perspectives, disciplines and forms of expertise. And in so many cases this means working together.

But this can be fraught with organisational red tape and commercial sensitivity. So how do we do it effectively, while making sure it works for everyone?

As ever, my approach is to start where you are, and work out where you’re going. You have to understand where you want to get to before you can map the journey.

Shared direction matters more than shared motivation

Most partnerships begin with good intentions. They also begin with difference – if you were the same, you wouldn’t need each other, right?

So. Each organisation arrives with its own pressures, priorities and reasons for being there. One may be focused on influence, another on delivery, another on assurance, resilience or reputation. Expecting everyone to be motivated by the same things is unrealistic. Trying to force it often creates tension rather than alignment. This is true from large-scale infrastructure delivery to building professional service partnerships, where alignment matters far more than uniformity of motivation.

But if we all want the same thing – even if its for different reasons – then it becomes about working out what our shared direction is.

When partners are clear about where the work is heading, different motivations stop being a problem. They become an asset. People can pursue what matters to them while still pulling in the same direction.

This clarity comes from early, structured conversations about success. Conversations that go beyond activity and outputs, and ask some more fundamental questions.

• Why are we doing this?
• What does “good” actually look like for you?
• What does each organisation need from this collaboration for it to be considered a success?

Clarifying objectives creates an aligned strategy

It seems pretty obvious to say that all collaboration needs goodwill and alignment to succeed. But in my experience, stating the obvious is critical. Without this, assumptions can be made that compound over time. The most effective partnerships I’ve worked on have been clear about those ‘obvious’ points of alignment being clear and explicit from the start, with objectives written down and understood.

This approach has been central to the partnerships I have helped establish, most recently a team of experts from Cratus Group, F3 and 31Ten to combine complementary experience in delivering Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). (For more information see www.lgrexperts.com)

In this partnership, we are clear about what success looks like for our clients as well as for each partner. We understand where objectives overlap, where they differ, and how those differences will be handled in practice.

This might sound on the face of it like rigidity, but in fact, it enables flexibility. When objectives are clear, decisions are easier to make, trade-offs are more transparent, and trust holds when things change. Without that clarity, collaboration can drift into compromise for its own sake, rather than purposeful progress.

Map the tasks and the benefits

One of the most practical ways to make collaboration work is also one of the simplest. Map the work.

Every meaningful task should be clear on two things.

• Who is responsible?
• Who benefits? (and how?)

When tasks are linked directly to mutual benefit, collaboration becomes tangible. It stops feeling like one organisation is “supporting” another and starts to feel like a shared system of value. This kind of clarity proves critical in complex joint ventures and multi-partner delivery models, where perceived imbalance can quickly undermine trust if it is not addressed early.

If one partner is carrying disproportionate effort for limited return, that tension will eventually show. Mapping tasks and benefits up front allows those issues to be addressed while there is still time and goodwill to do so.

Do the work up front

The strongest collaborations often feel effortless later on. Like many other examples, this is because the hard thinking and difficult conversations happened early. While I’m not in favour of trying to legislate for every eventuality, doing some early risk mapping or scenario testing will really pay dividends later down the line if things don’t work out as you expect. When pressure increases, as it always does, partnerships built this way adapt rather than fracture.

Being greater than the sum of our parts is not luck. It is the result of clear thinking, honest conversations and a shared commitment to direction rather than uniformity.

Collaboration done well is not about agreeing on everything. It is about understanding enough to move forward together, with purpose, clarity and confidence.