“The problem for nature is the foundation of societies which are structured with high complexity and at the same time unspecialised.” — Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality There are moments when language must change before anything else can. The way we speak about the Great Barrier Reef, […]
We tend to think a thank you is always harmless. In teams, it might be the quietest killer of collaboration.
Why? Because in flat, peer-led projects, the person who says “Thanks everyone, great job” often does more than express gratitude — they assume the role of evaluator. Recognition flows down, not across. Without meaning to, they create hierarchy where none was intended.
Collaboration depends on fairness, psychological safety, and shared ownership. A misplaced thank you can erode all three.
Gratitude isn’t the problem, but the way we structure it is. In my latest Roadmender blog, I explore how recognition can either strengthen or sabotage collaboration, and what simple governance tools can fix it.
An anthropologist learns early to resist the lure of the “now” as the only reality worth studying. Cultures carry their past within them. Patterns of thought, the metaphors that shape our stories, the values that determine what we ignore and what we celebrate. These change far more slowly than market conditions. The same is true in organisations. Beneath the fresh branding and the new strategic frameworks, much of the underlying thinking is amazingly persistent. What changes most is the language in which it is dressed.
This blog introduces the Open Shift Protocol—a simple yet profound method for enhancing collaborative thinking and decision-making. By encouraging individuals and teams to iteratively adopt and emotionally inhabit opposing perspectives, the method loosens rigid thought patterns and fosters deeper, more creative insight. Drawing on principles from emotional intelligence, dialectical reasoning, and creativity research, it offers a unique and structured approach to co-creation that transcends conventional brainstorming or debate, making space for innovation to emerge from complexity and discomfort.
The long-standing assumption that complexity arises from simplicity is intuitive, but possibly incorrect. Our tendency to see simple components giving rise to complex systems is shaped not by reality itself, but by the limits of our observation. A seed becomes a tree. Molecules form proteins. Words form languages. All of these give the appearance of complexity emerging from simplicity. But this is not necessarily how complexity works.
Strategy doesn’t begin with answers. It begins with orientation and orientation begins with perception. The Groundwork Model invites us to slow down and prepare the ground before acting, so that strategy becomes an emergent response to complexity not a reflex to anxiety. It’s about creating the conditions for clarity, not forcing clarity too soon.
Organisations, like molecules, can become locked into a particular configuration. Old routines. Entrenched identities. Layers of habit that make change feel uphill. Conventional thinking tells us to overcome these barriers, kick off another reform, realign the structure, or roll out a new “change management” strategy.
But what if the most interesting changes don’t start that way?
By Jelenko Dragisic and Dr Keith Noble At a recent gathering of urban and regional planning professionals, we introduced the concept of the Reef Economic Zone. As part of our session, we ran a short, informal survey designed to offer a glimpse into how this professional cohort views […]
People aren’t apps, and motivation isn’t something you can install. Unlike money or tech, human beings can’t be managed—they choose, adapt, protect, or engage depending on the culture around them. Enterprise roadmending is about spotting the quiet cracks before they break the whole system. It’s not about control, but conditions. You don’t engineer trust or performance—you make them possible. In the digital age, real leadership means tending the soil, not writing the code.
The choice of dialogue is also a matter of strategy. In business that choice can add competitive advantage to enterprises willing to collaborate.
When discussing collaboration, it’s crucial to differentiate it from cooperation. While often used interchangeably, their distinctions are significant. Cooperation involves individual responsibilities, while collaboration entails a broader, interconnected approach. The mindset also differs, with cooperation focusing on individual tasks and collaboration emphasizing collective contribution and innovation, essential for workplace success and effective leadership.
“We know that workplace productivity is linked not only to person’s skills but also to their sense of identity and esteem.” – Jelenko Dragisic, Author of ‘The Collaboration Instinct‘ Small selection of collaboration insights to help managers improve their team performance with simple culture shift towards real collaboration.
Urban agriculture as one of the oldest activities in human history, has experienced a renaissance in the past two decades. Predictions made only a decade ago that UA will become a global reality as much as global necessity have proved to be accurate. Those predictions are reflected in […]
On the surface everyone is a collaborator, and every team is a collaborating team. That is the ‘sell’ in contemporary workplaces. Businesses invest in collaboration as a part of their business strategy for a variety of reasons; improving organisational culture, trust, productivity, competitiveness or even, more imaginatively, to […]
While collaboration has often been praised and promoted as a cure all, endorsing it in this way borders on irresponsible. In business there are no easy, fail-safe ways of finding good business solutions to complex problems, designing winning strategies or delivering results that meet everyone’s expectations. The appeal […]
It’s time to wrest the subtle art of collaboration from the jaws of everyday spin. The famous co-founder of once widely popular start-up WeWork claimed that the majority (70%) of those who paid to use the WeWork shared space collaborated. This always seemed like a possibility given that […]
We’re nearly at the 2-year mark since COVID 19 disrupted our universe. Businesses have learnt many lessons, and many have embraced new strategies such as collaboration, even with competitors. In fact, competitors tend to embrace collaboration with each other more often than is recognised. This is not surprising […]
The most influential photographers in the history of the medium (almost 200 years) created pictures, iconic pictures in fact, with cameras and technology that were well below the standard of cameras one can buy today. Nowadays, everyone can access cameras that are superior to, for example, that used […]
Listen to this article (5 mins) “I think the next century will be the century of complexity.” That was the response Stephen Hawking gave to a journalist at the dawn of this century in January 2000. One fifth of the century in and we have seen plenty of […]
A recent business survey found that businesses which merely manage to survive tend to be stuck in going it alone, while those that are highly collaborative are more likely to see revenue growth. Increasingly, businesses are clear on the role of collaboration as a strategy of growth through […]
People in the contemporary workplace (read: high performing, highly motivated, competitive and resilient) expect to be given three things: meaningful work, appropriate reward and ample opportunities to collaborate. That last bit often gets neglected by executive decision makers, who in many instances ascended to those positions via old […]
Every now and then collaboration can be frustrating. Invariably it gets people wondering if it is worth the effort and in particular if collaboration is really possible given that humans are prone to both competition and collaboration. How to reconcile the drivers? In my first book (The Collaboration […]
2018 saw collaboration as a business strategy march towards mainstream practice. The proliferation of new research and material on the subject of collaboration is a clear indication that the value of good collaboration is a major ingredient of a sustainable and resilient business. This latest selection of recommended […]
.ROADMENDER 