In an office environment, it’s always been obvious when there’s a major production problem. You’ll see everyone standing around a single desk; everyone working together on the same problem at the same time. If there’s a blocker to what they’re doing, one or more people in the group will immediately do something to remove that obstacle, to ensure that the main work continues uninterrupted.
Everyone is hyper-focused on completing the single task in front of them and all distractions are ignored or removed.
Then when the emergency is over, we all drift away, back to our regular desks to work in isolation again. Typically scattering our focus across many different things, and now significantly less effective than we had been. The pressure is off so we revert to our familiar routine.
The above tells us that we all know how to work in a highly collaborative environment. We do know how to work together and we do it instinctively when the stakes are high, and it’s really important to get the work done quickly and correctly.
We already know how to work in a really effective way, even though we rarely do.
So why don’t we work that way all the time?
First, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that some teams do work this way every day, and they get amazing results. They’re just not the majority. See teams that do ensemble work or pairing.
So why don’t we?
It’s not rewarded: We’re not rewarded for focusing on a single thing until it’s finished. We’re rewarded instead for starting things. We’re rewarded for juggling many things at the same time. We’re rewarded for being busy, rather than effective. Worse, we’re often rewarded for putting out fires but not for preventing them.
It’s comfortable: Working by ourselves has no social pressure. We’re not concerned about others judging how we work or what we do. As long as we look busy, we’re left alone. It’s a simple routine and routines make us feel calmer and safer.
It’s the standard: Nobody will ask us to justify why we choose to work by ourselves; that’s the default. They might ask us to justify why we would work any other way, even when the default approach is less effective.
We already know how to work better. Perhaps it’s time to start doing that.