Jan
26
OVERRATED: Teamwork
Teamwork by Gavin Llewellyn. The England cricket team celebrate a third successive victory against India at Edgbaston to secure their place as the world's number one Test team.
Well, it’s not all bad… but does everything have to be done in a team? “Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all,” write sociologist Susan Cain in The New York Times. “Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.”
But there’s a problem with this view. Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They’re not joiners by nature.
Solitude has long been associated with creativity and transcendence. “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible,” Picasso said.
Sure, obviously some things are best done as a team. Playing cricket, for example. And I thought that ending the Cold War required teamwork… but then I read that Ronald Reagan did it all by himself, so I must have been wrong!
Interesting post, Mark. And a on subject that that’s been on my mind for a while now.
I really enjoy collaborating with other people, whether it be with like-minded individuals or others with contrasting views and opinions.I get a lot out of creative meetings where, as a group, we can share our thoughts, indulge in discussion and bounce ideas off one anther.
However, I completely agree that in order to do good work we often need time alone to create. If we’re constantly forced to collaborate and discuss with others it will stymie our efforts and prevent us from achieving our potential.
Of course, much of this is dependent on the type of people we are (I’m sure there are individuals at both ends of the spectrum: those who hate collaboration in any form and those that like working with others nearly all the time). But in the end I think it’s all about finding the right balance.
Thanks for your thoughts, Gavin. As a writer, I’m the sort who likes to write alone (like most of us)… though of course, I wouldn’t mind having other people do my pitching, contracting, promoting, and all those other things that writers are supposed to do. (OK, “teamwork” isn’t all bad!)
Always wonderful to read your posts Mark. And I agree with Picasso. Sometimes collaborations become a good excuse to socialize…
Hi Nina – thanks for the kind words. Most great works of art, music and literature (whether Picasso or Beethoven or… I won’t name Shakespeare, as I don’t know for sure) were the work of individuals, working alone. Of course, there have been some terrific collaborations, but these were people who were able to fuse together, work as one mind. A problem with modern workplaces is that they assume everyone can just naturally work like this with everyone else. Not the case! Just let everyone do their own thing…