The world of business is complicated at the best of times and it seems pretty clear to me that we are not in the best of times at the moment. I was thinking about how we work together  – as individuals, employees and businesses and I wanted to share this story with you.

In my portfolio of work I coach groups of young people on Space Unlimited projects. Since September 4 schools have been  working on a question set by their client – Historic Scotland -  and on Wednesday of this week  they came together to report their findings and ideas.   I was responsible for coaching 2 of the 4 school groups and one of the questions I was asked right at the start was “Is this a competition”.  When I answered that it wasn’t one of the young people joked, saying ”We’ll be the best anyway!”

As time went on each of my schools asked how the other were doing. There was no reason why they shouldn’t contact each other but in practical terms – particularly in the time available in school – it was not possible. So when they came together on Wednesday they were not only making their presentations to the client ( and the Minister for Culture   – who spent ages asking them questions)  but to each other.  They were now mingling freely as one big group of young people brought together for a common purpose.

The ideas and suggestions presented by each school group had similar threads  – which was interesting bearing in mind that they had worked in isolation from each other.  And it became clear that a blend of those ideas might be attractive to the client who asked if they would be willing to chat with her when it comes to developing them further. There was an overwhelming positive response to that.

So in working on this project these groups had considered and were possibly driven by  the competition element ( despite what I said!), saw how their work could complement the work of the others and have an invitation to collaborate in future developments.

Many people work this way intuitively, others have woken up to the potential and are trying it out. I am wondering how we might reach those who are still to be convinced? I think that not only would the business world benefit  – but the world in general.