In today’s densely interconnected workplaces, working with others—globally and productively—drives organizational and personal effectiveness. Employees work in teams formed to tackle projects, in virtual teams with colleagues and clients, or in ad hoc combinations. Whatever the provenance of the teams in your workplace, your organization depends on them.

For five years I examined collaborative working practices at companies such as Nokia, Linux, Goldman Sachs and British Petroleum. I found that while almost all managers and companies recognize teamwork’s critical value, many actually encourage behaviors that undermine cooperation.

A gap exists between the rhetoric of cooperation and the reality of competition. How can companies close this gap? My research uncovered four crucial practices:

1. Hire for cooperation. Companies in which a cooperative mindset flourishes seek to attract cooperative people and discourage highly competitive people. At investment bank Goldman Sachs, candidates interview with as many as 60 senior members. Interviews are not about intelligence or focus; they are simply about whether the candidate’s talent and ambition are married to a willingness to work collaboratively.

Established and highly profitable, Goldman Sachs has the resources to engage in multiple interviews and discussions. But even companies with limited resources can implement these practices:

§          Review the competencies used to judge candidates. Do they include proven abilities to work in teams, deal with conflict and share knowledge?

§          Involve collaborative people in the hiring process. (Research shows that managers are likely to recruit candidates in their own image.)

§          Present real-life work scenarios to candidates. Ask them how they would respond.

2. Institute onboarding practices that foster collaboration. In the first few weeks after starting a new job or joining a new company, new employees are particularly sensitive to cultural and behavioral norms. Implement onboarding procedures emphasizing collaboration.

In a newcomer’s first weeks at Finnish mobile phone company Nokia, for instance, his supervisor introduces him to at least six members of their team and six people outside their team.

This promotes the development of critical working relationships and encourages people to cooperate both with immediate colleagues and with those beyond their team.

To determine what your organization can do in its onboarding process to encourage collaboration:

§          Think about the newcomer’s first weeks on the job. Whom should she meet? Charge someone with the responsibility of helping her establish those relationships.

§          If a new hire is expected to work collaboratively, make sure that those most responsible for onboarding that person demonstrate cooperativeness.

3. Support mentoring. Of all the human-resources practices I studied, the one most strongly associated with highly cooperative people and teams was that of mentoring. Mentoring is most powerful when both parties volunteer for it and when senior executives are mentors.

To make mentoring a driver of cooperation in your company:

§          Promote mentoring and train people to be good mentors, but make participation of both parties voluntary.

§          Encourage senior executives to mentor less experienced members of their team and members of other teams. This sends a strong message that this capability is valued.

4. Ensure that performance management rewards collaboration. For performance management to foster a culture of cooperation, the process has to be collaborative itself and measure collaborative behavior. An example is BP’s Peer Challenge program.

BP’s more than 100 business units are divided into groups of about 12. Unit heads in each group meet to discuss the previous assessment period. Those who excelled at meeting a target share with peers what actions allowed the unit to reach the goal. They then begin coaching conversations with colleagues who struggled to meet the same target. Finally, the business-unit heads in each peer group develop a set of performance goals for each business unit, which the unit head then takes to his own boss for approval.

At the end of the following assessment period, each business unit is measured according to its performance and that of the other units in its peer group. What does this accomplish? Group accountability.

To assess how well your company’s performance-management process encourages collaboration, ask yourself:

§          Does the performance-management process allow peers to discuss performance and learn from one another, or is it a hierarchical process?

§          What follow-up is built into the process? Is this follow-up collaborative?

§          What proportion of recognition and reward is doled out for individual or unit accomplishment, and what proportion is given over to recognizing and rewarding intraunit team effort and cross-unit collaboration?

                None of these practices is an instant fix. But together they can turn collaboration into a reality. 

Lynda Gratton is professor of management practice at London Business School. She is the author, most recently, of Hot Spots: Why Some Teams, Workplaces and Organizations Buzz with Energy—and Others Don’t.

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