Business Fit Magazine August 2017 Issue 1 | Page 38

36 Article
Excellence through
collaboration
Part1: Core Principles
C
ollaboration in the workplace is nothing new but is becoming increasingly important in the modern
world. As good collaboration positively impacts the bottom line, every organization should have a
close eye on this topic.
In the recent McKinsey Quarterly article “Mapping the value of employee collaboration”, the authors
highlight e.g. that by making joint Sales calls in a global Consulting Company, the top 5 partners that
collaborated best, were responsible for 38% of the revenue. Why is collaboration such a challenge if the
benefits of collaboration are so significant?
When we are growing up we are getting focused on our individual performance. Parents are supporting
and measuring the performance of their children by their individual contributions. This is certainly needed
to ensure the development of skills and experience of the child but does not nurture their innate ability
for collaboration. The ideal education system for a traditional capitalist economy promoted competition
between children. So the schooling system reinforces competitive learning through educational
methodologies as well as its grading systems. As the importance of collaboration has significantly increased
in our modern world, schools are slowly starting to adjust their education methodologies. Meanwhile
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