The Collaboration Paradox

When Charles Darwin stood in the waters of a coral island in the Indian Ocean back in 1836, he was struggling to make sense of the many different lifeforms in the waters around him and the huge variety of ecological niches they were occupying given the general scarcity of nutrients in the ocean as a whole.? Scientists have called this ‘Darwin’s Paradox’, which as we now know went on to be one of the key foundations of his developing hypothesis manifest in ‘The Origin of Species’ some 30 years later.

Nature’s infinite variety

What lies at the heart of the coral reef’s success is not competition but a huge variety of collaborations creating an ecosystem from which all benefit, co-exist and survive.

Most fascinating is that, over time, different types of collaboration have evolved here and elsewhere in nature.

At one extreme you have examples of ‘Parasitism’ where one party benefits and the other is harmed, COVID19 being a good example, while at the other you have ‘Commensalism’ where one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped. For example, orchids grow on the branches of trees in tropical rainforests to access light, but the trees are not affected.?

In between these two you have ‘Mutualism’, a relationship where all species involved benefit from their interactions. There are tiny algae in the ocean who live in the coral’s tissue, feed on compounds that the algae need for photosynthesis and in return, provide the coral with oxygen and other products to sustain it and help it grow.

Even this type of collaboration, despite being complex, evolved further into two types of relationship. In some cases, the species are entirely dependent on each other (‘obligate mutualism’ - think bees and flowers) while, in others, they derive benefits from their relationship but could survive without each other (‘facultative mutualism’) such as the clown fish that hide among the deadly stinging tentacles of anemones, or clients and their agencies.

Time to seek out a collaborative advantage

Commentators such as Daniel Wahl, author of ‘Designing Regenerative Cultures’, pushes things even further by suggesting we need to move from a ‘win at all costs’ mentality of constantly searching for ‘competitive advantage’ to one where we seek out ‘collaborative advantage’ instead, especially if we want to create a world that works for all.

And when it comes to solving complex problems in Steven Johnson’s book ‘Where Good Ideas Come From’ he identifies that in the last 100 years more breakthrough ideas have emerged as a result of working in collaborative environments than from individuals working alone.?

Post the pandemic, we have somewhat ‘romanticised’ in the idea that a return to the office mandated by many companies will lead to better collaboration - like in the ‘good old days’. But don’t we actually need to design it more fundamentally into our ways of working rather than rely on physical proximity alone?

It’s not really working at the moment

My colleague Vicky Gillan , Relationship Management Lead Consultant, who helps marketers and agencies find ways to improve their performance has pulled out some worrying trends from our own research which seems to suggest that, despite the desire to work collaboratively, this is starting to be perceived as a negative rather than a positive by clients:

100% of agencies in pitches talk about being collaborative yet none explain in a way that differentiates.

90% of client: agency assessments ask for more collaboration yet, when probed, often really mean earlier co-operation.?

And perhaps most worrying:

80% of clients believe that increased collaboration will naturally mean more people being involved resulting in slower delivery and more cost.

Most agency teams may think they’re collaborating but at best they’re just doing the basics: telling the client what they need or being open about their scope to a client’s other partners.

Could this in part explain the rise in in-housing? Downward pressure on budgets? The rise in project work? The desire for new operating models?

This applies internally as well as externally of course, so when Caroline Johnson and others talk of the changes that need to be made in how agencies charge for their services and move to a more productised approach then embedded into that has to be ways of working that are efficient and effective for both parties.

Surely after all these years of ‘collaborating’ we would have developed not only the right conditions but also have evolved some essential variations in ways of working for different tasks in a similar way to those that exist in nature??

But as I stand in a sea of agency credentials expressing their collaborative principles, all the while just sitting there as a word, I’m moved to ask if we have arrived at our own ‘Collaboration Paradox’?

Creating the right conditions

It’s something that Lucy Kidd and Anni Townend , Co-founders of Collaboration Equation?, are making great progress in trying to solve. They passionately believe that we need to create the right conditions for collaboration to happen, regardless of location, very much like the ‘permaculture’ garden designer who works with, rather than against nature. An approach closer to mutualism than the parasitism we have perhaps been guilty of for too long.

Their approach is very much one of human-to-human leadership and, as such, they recognise that our natural ‘competitive streak’ is one that can serve us as human beings and drive us to do better. However, for us all to do better they argue we need to find our Collaborative Edge?.?

They intentionally chose the word ‘edge’ from nature, and specifically from the permaculture principle that the more ecosystem edges that meet the better, and that the most interesting, diverse and creative events happen at these edges. It is where there is more biodiversity, more creativity, more possibility, more opportunity. The permaculture gardener plans for creating edges in their design enabling biodiversity, growth and the unexpected!

These ‘edges’ are places and spaces where we exchange ideas, diversity of thought and feeling and, crucially, build upon inclusive dialogue. Just as the gardener designs in edges, prepares the ground, tends the soil, they suggest that as Agencies we need to create a safe environment, tend to our relationships, acknowledge our competitive streak, find our Collaborative Edges and work together in order to succeed, and to thrive.

We need greater variety in ways of working

They helpfully differentiate between coordination, cooperation, and collaboration suggesting that built into each of them there needs to be mutuality and trust, both of which can happen when the environment and conditions facilitate exchanges at the edges. How aware are your teams of their behaviours in these three scenarios??

When we find our Collaborative Edge? we seek to help each other to mutually benefit. Help rather than hinder or harm is key to mutuality and to supporting each other’s success. Lucy and Anni talk about a ‘commitment to one another’s success’ achieved through finding edges where we can exchange ideas, where ‘slow hunches’ can be nudged forward, given space to grow, and where we nourish them along the way and adapt as we go.

The challenge for us in our world of rapidly changing marketing ecosystems is to find our Collaborative Edge?, to create the conditions for mutuality, and a world which works for us all, in which we all thrive and succeed together. If we acknowledge our natural ‘competitive streak’ and use it in pursuit of better and help each other, we will all enjoy success.

How do we design better and more appropriate ways of working but especially collaboration, not only for internal teams but also for mutuality amongst agencies and how we work with clients, ensuring not only our survival but also enjoying greater success?

Let’s make collaboration more than a word in credentials and turn it into a showcase for how finding your collaborative edge will help you keep clients for longer, get to more innovative and original work and ensure your efforts are rewarded by the client across its ecosystem.