Entrusting and Empowering

The theme for this post is very much about alignment of interests. How do we get a "seemingly" disparage group of collaborators to work for the common good..... Individuals are by nature competitive. How can we allow the competitive spirit thrives and yet not ending in a zero-sum game?

We should mute the instinct to go it alone and have the best for ourselves to the detriment of the group.

Much energy is lost when we jostle for the same scarce resource. The idea is to expand the reach so that we can optimise on the return to the group.

So what happens when an individual does not play ball? He jeopardises the group harmony and sows the first seed of mistrust. Once that creeps in, people begin to hedge. That will slow down the wheel of enterprise.

When such a culture takes root, it will result in the disintegration of the collaborating hub.


To avoid such pitfalls, a person must possess the confidence that an open-source form of collaboration will bring more ideas on the table and the end result is an uplifting experience for all. You need to let a person do his things otherwise you will end up having him sidelined.

And you end up holding the fort or worse you become the roadblock to the infusion of innovation and creativity. Very soon you stagnate and or be overtaken by competition.

There must be a spirit of give and take. There must be a recognition of the good performed by others and be willing to give credit where it is due.

Paying lip service may be good for buying time but sooner or later such insincerity is bound to surface and a backlash will entail.

Trust has to be built to sustain a long lasting relationship. Trust once broken is very difficult to mend.

Once we have the project implemented successfully, how do we sustain it? How can it be continously be invigorated and energised?

First and foremost, there must be ownership and it cannot be coercive. Hence we must device a system where we can meet these conditions.

There must be a system of reward and recognition. This has to be institutionalised. For instance we can have a team of evangelists who will not be marginalised once this is out of flavour. To recognise them for their efforts, they must be given tangible rewards. Like any value creating activities, the rewards must commensurate with the efforts exerted and results achieved. The project undertaken must address the core strategic issues of the business model, and even if the project tank, valuable lessons learned must be portable to another initiatives and likewise intellectual capital should not be wasted away.

Hence we need to create starfish instead of spiders in an organisation so that such innovation and creativity can have the best chance of survival.



Keywords: quality, value systems,
trust, domain knowledge, technology, networking, maven traps, speed of trust,

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