Why Collaboration Is Critical in Uncertain Times

A client of ours—let’s call her Mary, a senior executive in the technology industry—faced significant challenges managing a large organization amid economic uncertainty. Both her company and industry were experiencing tough times, resulting in budget cuts and a hiring freeze. Moreover, she was tasked with exceeding her annual revenue goals to compensate for the underperformance of a struggling business line, which was beyond her direct control. Before these challenges arose, Mary had been known for her collaboration, flexibility, and openness to experimentation to drive top-line revenue. As she experienced this additional pressure, however, her mindset changed. In the face of abundant business challenges and scarce resources to address them, her natural instinct shifted to pulling back and adopting a protective stance. Mary isn’t alone in her struggle. During the Covid-19 crisis and subsequent economic uncertainty, McKinsey research revealed that only 21% of executives expressed confidence in capturing new growth opportunities. This suggests that when resources become limited, many business leaders’ inclinations are to become risk-averse and protect their own interests, fostering a culture of conservatism and prioritizing stability over innovation. In such circumstances, the emphasis often shifts toward preserving existing assets, reducing expenditures, and maintaining the status quo, which can hinder the organization’s ability to adapt, pivot, and thrive in a competitive environment. However, it’s precisely during these challenging times that the untapped potential of collaboration can be a game-changer. As executive coaches and consultants to high-performing executives and their teams, we see this frequently: Successful, growth-minded leaders—normally risk-takers—retract during times of uncertainty and shift away from their collaborative and innovative way of working. If you’re a leader struggling with risk-taking, here are four strategies to make the mindset and behavior shifts to become more collaborative and unlock growth. Redefine the Meaning of Scarcity The primary obstacle to realizing the potential of collaboration lies in what’s known as the scarcity mindset, a term used in 2017 by researchers testing the hypothesis that poverty impedes cognitive function. Scarcity, or a lack of necessary resources, causes a mental shift where an individual only has the mental energy to spend on the immediate problem and nothing else. In the workplace, this can cause leaders to be driven by their fear of vulnerability and an increased sense of competitiveness, leading to a hesitancy to share knowledge, people, and resources. The focus on self-preservation and risk mitigation often prevents them from making good decisions or taking long-term bets on the business. This leads to decreased collaboration, creative thinking, and innovation, resulting in suboptimal team structures and a lack of synergy. According to neuroscientist and New York University faculty member Wendy Suzuki, innovation and creativity are influenced by the parts of the brain that control memory and emotions like fear. When a person feels fearful, such as during a time of uncertainty, their ability to be creative is compromised. This is when the “anxious” mindset to save oneself takes over and stops the “curious” brain from looking for opportunities to innovate, learn, and grow. The antidote to this phenomenon is an attitude of abundance and gratitude, which can reduce fear and boost creativity. Thus, establishing a collaborative and abundant mindset on your team—even when resources are scarce—can promote creativity on the individual and collective levels. Mary, responsible for a team of five direct reports and overseeing a group of 25, found herself at this crossroads. Through coaching, she recognized the only path to achieving the team’s business goals was to break her own self-imposed rules to unlock the power of her team to collaborate, innovate, and adapt to their new circumstances. She empowered her team members to collaborate internally with cross-functional partners and externally with synergistic organizations that shared the same values and customer targets. This allowed her team to do more with less and had tangible and intangible impacts as her people felt more supported and confident in their decision-making and problem-solving abilities. The approach improved morale as well as the team’s effectiveness and ability to drive better KPIs and show progress toward their goals. Experiment with Options By partnering with others, teams automatically gain access to a broader resource pool, diverse knowledge bases, and a wealth of life and professional experiences. Knowing that you can pursue multiple options opens your mindset to possibilities and allows you to brainstorm multiple solutions and paths. Optionality allows you to be more strategic, long term-focused, and abundant in your thinking, including about risk management and scenario planning. This “both-and” approach allows you to assess multiple solutions and ways to solve a problem. Recognizing the luxury and peace of mind of having a plan B, Mary encouraged her team to diversify their approaches to projects. Instead of putting all their efforts into a single strategy, they explored multiple avenues simultaneously. This mitigated risks and opened up unforeseen opportunities for collaboration and innovation. Flip the Script on Innovation The key to unlocking the potential of collaboration lies in reframing how organizations approach innovation. It’s not a drain on resources, but a bet on a bigger return in the future. Rather than solely focusing on maintaining the “core” business, leaders should actively pursue innovation and cultivate new revenue streams, products, consumers, occasions, etc. Numerous tools and platforms facilitate collaboration and innovative thinking to help identify these opportunities. For example, the Business Model Canvas is a versatile tool that encourages innovative thinking and co-creation. By embracing such creative strategies, organizations can foster a collaborative environment that transcends physical boundaries. For Mary, this new script included innovating in areas she had never even considered before, like “sweating the assets,” or extracting more value from existing resources. This enabled her to determine what else could be produced in the company’s existing manufacturing infrastructure, bring agency work back in-house to minimize external costs and unlock revenue to reinvest in the business, and leverage external partnerships and licensing to scale the business faster. Amid adversity, she identified short- and long-term growth opportunities across the business. Coach Your Team Toward a Collaborative Mindset Recognizing the importance of a collaborative mindset, coaching becomes a powerful tool for transformation. Self-awareness is the first step toward breaking down collaboration barriers. Ask your team the following coaching questions to foster a sense of shared purpose, create conditions conducive to collaboration, and help them overcome fears: What strengths and advantages do we have as a business and team? How can we unlock these to grow the business? What would reframe these challenges as opportunities? What needs to be true for us to grow as a business? How have collaboration and creativity helped us and the business in the past? What worked and can be replicated in this situation? For Mary, she took this opportunity to lead her team to break down silos and embrace a collaborative mindset. She achieved this by holding a working session with her direct reports to explore what this transition entailed for them. Mary approached the meeting as a collaborator and encouraged everyone to contribute their insights and suggestions with the following questions, creating a space for them to share their thoughts and build on each other: Picture a scenario where our team has fully embraced a collaborative mindset. What does success look like in this scenario? What metrics will we use to measure our progress? What actions can we agree on as a team to get one step closer to what “success” looks like? . . . Contrary to conventional wisdom, difficult moments are precisely when a collaborative mindset is most valuable. Challenging times are an opportunity to pivot, innovate, and grow. As the saying goes, “Don’t let a crisis go to waste.” The hidden potential of collaboration serves as a beacon of hope during times of uncertainty. By recognizing and overcoming the barriers presented by a scarcity mindset, business leaders can navigate economic storms and flourish in the face of adversity. Thus, when you need to reassess your business strategy during uncertain times, remember that the key is to view collaboration not as a nice-to-have but as an indispensable asset on your growth journey. Collaboration has the ability to empower your teams, unleash innovation, and transform challenges into opportunities.

Why Collaboration Is Critical in Uncertain Times

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