Collaboration is widely recognised as a key to organisational success — and at times, it's touted as something more miraculous. It's not uncommon to hear about collaboration's almost magical ability to solve any project problem, in any context, and perhaps even rescue the world from impending doom. In many cases, collaboration is indeed a powerful, indispensable tool. Yet the praise it receives tend to come from a theoretical perspective, or from experience in small-scale projects and simpler organisations. Collaboration is also frequently championed by consultants who apply it in large companies, but only within specific, less complex "bubbles" of operation.
My experience has led me to some critical reflections on the applicability of collaboration in highly complex (and complicated) organisations, particularly when projects have far-reaching structural implications for the organisation itself. From those reflections comes the "Alignment-Competition" model: a simple framework for understanding when and how collaboration can be most effective.
The costs of collaboration
The benefits of collaboration are well known. Its costs are discussed far less often:
- Time — collaborative processes such as workshops and group reviews are time-consuming, and they affect the overall project timeline.
- Control — collaboration requires committing to group decisions, reducing the autonomy of project leaders and their ability to decide unilaterally.
- Agility — once a group achieves alignment, introducing changes becomes challenging. Alignment is sticky: it resists course corrections.
The Alignment-Competition model
The model assesses the potential for collaboration along two axes:
- Alignment — how aligned the organisation is around the need for a project and on how it should be executed. It reflects the capacity to create shared objectives.
- Competition — the level of contention over the project's ownership. High competition means intense competition among stakeholders for control and recognition.
The four quadrants
The Relay Race — high alignment, low competition (ideal)
Unified objectives and minimal competition: there is consensus that the project is necessary, but no one is rushing to claim ownership. Collaboration flows naturally, without contention over leadership.
The Picnic — low alignment, low competition (manageable)
Objectives are misaligned — the organisation is uncertain about the project's importance — but there is no competition for control. Collaboration here requires an investment in consensus-building, and that investment usually pays off.
The Cross-Country Race — high alignment, high competition (hard)
Everyone agrees on the goals, and precisely for that reason multiple parties vie for control. Conflict emerges despite the shared objectives. Navigating this quadrant means balancing aligned goals with competitive dynamics that undermine cooperation.
The Tug of War — low alignment, high competition (very hard)
Misaligned goals and intense competition for ownership. The most treacherous scenario: efforts here require addressing fundamental disagreements on direction while managing a competitive climate. In practice, workshops fill up with people rowing against you.
What the axes mean for leaders
The two axes are not equally movable — and this is the practical heart of the model:
Conclusions
- Collaboration thrives with high alignment on goals and low competition for ownership.
- Adjusting alignment is possible; influencing competition rarely is.
- In the "hard" and "very hard" quadrants, the cost-benefit ratio of collaboration may be unfavorable — and pretending otherwise wastes everyone's time.
Even though collaboration is extremely useful, and in some cases indispensable, it's not always the ideal approach. The Alignment-Competition model — rooted in real-world experience in large organisations — is a pragmatic guide for assessing its viability, and, in a slightly ironic nod to this article's opening, perhaps a way to temper the perception of collaboration as an all-powerful solution.
For a field application of the model — a case where collaboration did work, and why — see the story of Sirio, INPS's design system.