When collaboration becomes harder than the task itself

Most organizations consist of talented people who want to succeed in their work. Yet many teams find that collaboration sometimes becomes more demanding than the task itself.

Not because people don't want to cooperate. But because direction, responsibility, and decisions are not always entirely clear.

It rarely manifests itself as major conflicts. More often, it shows up as small signs in everyday life. Meetings where the conversation goes round in circles without anyone really knowing what needs to be decided. Projects where several teams work in parallel without fully knowing what the others are doing. Decisions that are postponed or made several times. And a quiet frustration that things could run more smoothly.

The interesting thing is that I rarely work with teams where cooperation has broken down. On the contrary, I most often encounter teams that already function quite well—but who want to take it to the next level. From okay to truly strong cooperation.

And that is precisely where collaboration suddenly becomes more important than the task itself. Because when the goals become more complex and solutions are no longer a given, people become dependent on each other in a new way.

I often see this in organizations where tasks are becoming more complex and where the direction can no longer be described in a single clear plan. Priorities shift, solutions must be found along the way, and this places greater demands on collaboration—while at the same time making it more difficult.

And the more complex the goals and tasks a team works with, the greater their need for transparency and trust. When no one can see the whole picture alone, you become dependent on others sharing their knowledge, doubts, and challenges openly. If that openness is lacking, collaboration quickly becomes more difficult than it needs to be.

In situations like this, I often work with teams based on a very simple idea: that teams, like people, develop in different stages.

Not as a truth or a model that fits everyone, but as a way to get the conversation started. Where are we as a team right now? And how does that align with the way we lead and collaborate?

It becomes particularly powerful when both the team and the leader look at it together. When you examine the collaboration together, it becomes clear that challenges rarely concern individual people, but rather patterns in the way you work together.

Simply having a common language for what happens in the collaboration often makes a big difference. Frustrations become less personal and more something that can be examined together.

The conversations often end with some fairly simple questions: Do we have clear goals? Do we know who is responsible for what? Do people feel comfortable expressing their opinions? Do we actually talk about what isn't working? And do we continuously learn from what we try?

It is rarely about major changes, but rather about strengthening some fundamental aspects: psychological security, clear roles, constructive feedback, and time for shared reflection and learning.

I rarely provide the answers. My role is more to create space for the conversations that groups otherwise don't get to have in their busy everyday lives. Once people start talking openly about how collaboration actually works, new opportunities to take it further almost always arise.

Cooperation rarely becomes difficult because people dislike each other. More often than not, it simply becomes more demanding as tasks become more complex and the need for common direction and coordination grows.

And often, it takes less than you think to take cooperation to the next level.