Think or Sink: A Parable of Collaboration

Think or Sink is a cautionary tale about what can go wrong when people don’t work together effectively, and a hopeful one about what they can accomplish when they do. Think or Sink sets a stage that may occur multiple times every day in companies and organizations around the world. The headquarters of a major corporation sends a request for proposal to three of its regional branch managers. The company has won a major contract, and one branch will get the new business, while the other two will be downsized. Each regional management team has six months to prepare a presentation that will determine the next chapter of their careers. The teams in Phoenix, Atlanta and Indianapolis illustrate that the quality of the ideas we generate, and the buy-in we build for those ideas, is rooted in the way we think and work together. Think or Sink provides an opportunity to consider, compare, and choose a leadership style very likely to help you achieve sustainable gains over the long term – a leadership style driven by good thinking. Dysfunction is an all-too-often used word to describe social and political speed bumps and road blocks in the workplace. It means a thing not functioning properly, or not functioning in a way that would achieve its purpose. Dysfunction in the work place is waste. Think or Sink presents structured, deliberate collaboration as the primary strategy to reduce/eliminate dysfunction. Collaboration can be so much more than just assembling as a team to do work. Think or Sink is intended to be a rallying cry for better collaborators, better leaders, and better employees. The goal of Think or Sink, and the rest of my Good Thinking series to be completed by early 2011, is to provide the approach and tools to help minimize the waste/dysfunction in workplaces. I am hoping Think or Sink will serve as a call to action for many employees and leaders who really want to improve their workplaces.