Beyond Category: Collaboration

So much of life looks like people do it alone. Individuals win awards, receive accolades, write books and articles, and give presentations and Ted Talks. The best and brightest get these honors and awards. They all say we did not do it alone, we did it through collaboration.  

As a musician, I have the responsibility to learn and play my part well.  But if I did just that and didn’t listen, fit in and collaborate with other musicians, I’d be thrown out.  For it’s when we grow and build with others that the sounds and music we produce are beautiful. It’s the same in any field.  Michael Jordan couldn’t win an NBA title by himself. Nor could Babe Ruth in baseball or Tom Brady in football.

Duke Ellington is well known for all his successful compositions, over 5000, and performances. But even he had a long-time collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, and together they produced fantastic tunes.   

Post-it brand is all about collaboration. There’s a reason people rarely work entirely alone. Here’s what they say on their website. “At Post-it? Brand, we believe that when we collaborate with other people, we can share ideas, get inspired and get rid of what doesn’t work – and it seems so much easier than when we are all on our own. Sometimes mutual passion can help create truly revolutionary work. We never know when the partnerships we form will spark ideas that go on to change the world.” 

Post-it identifies five collaborative pairs that they believe changed the world: the Wright Brothers (airplane), Francis Crick and James Watson (DNA), John Lennon and Paul McCartney (music), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google) and Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben and Jerry’s). Do you agree?  Who would you add?  

Management guru and executive coach Marshall Goldsmith attributes his success in part to collaboration. He first met Paul Hersey while a student and Paul immediately took to him and invited him to work together and facilitate programs. “It’s easy to look tall when you stand on the shoulders of a giant.”  Meeting Paul led to Marshall meeting Ken Blanchard and so many other management gurus, including Warren Bennis and Peter Drucker. Giants indeed!  And Marshall fits right in with them. 

Author and Harvard Professor John Kotter said that “Key players from my teens through my fifties were educators, starting with my debate coach in high school, homeroom teacher, school shows. They accepted me and gave me self-confidence.”

Sometimes you don’t find your collaborators, they find you. Author Ken Blanchard said “Sometimes they just find me. A lot of times I would find them. I met Don Shula’s lawyer and he put us in touch. He’s 88 and doing fine. We collaborated on the book “Everyone’s a Coach.”  I love to learn from people.”  

Nobel Prize winner Sir Fraser Stoddart said “Very collaborative with colleagues all over the world. First conferences in this specialty less than 100 came. Now over 500 attend. The area has blossomed and collaboration expanded.”  

Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Frances Hesselbein said that “People in our lives, events we live through these shape who we are and what we are supposed to do.”  

Who is in your life that impacts you? Who do you collaborate with? And who finds you? We don’t have to take this journey alone, and the more you can find the right people to collaborate, the better chances you have of doing great work, perhaps even beyond category!