Essential Soft Skills for Career Success, Part 5A

Collaboration:  the Crucial Soft Skill needed in the Future

There aren’t too many industries where people work all alone or in which their work does not impact or involve anyone else.  Industries where individuals typically work independently — without a significant need for cooperation, coordination, or teamwork include data entry, janitorial services, security guarding, truck driving, freelance writing, certain aspects of manufacturing (like machine operation), medical coding, and some forms of technical maintenance where tasks can be completed mostly autonomously. 

The key characteristics of these industries are that they involve repetitive and/or autonomous tasks; tasks that must be done again and again and can be performed by an individual with minimal or no interaction with others.  Performance for these jobs is primarily measured by individual output, not group results.  People doing these jobs don’t have to be liked by others or adjust their work based on feedback from others. But, while necessary, these jobs are not the wave of the future. 

Most jobs today — and more so in the future — require some amount of cooperation, coordination and teamwork.  Many even require collaboration.  To many, these terms mean the same thing.  But they don’t.  These are all different skills.  To understand the nuances of these soft skills, we start with a quote by Halford E. Luccock, “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.”

Cooperation is a soft skill that can set a person apart as a potential leader. If someone is cooperative, that person is generally working or acting together with others for a common purpose or benefit.  It is passive understanding.  That person is well-liked and a good member of the group.  A cooperative person understands and empathizes with others.  It’s a skill that’s difficult to quantify but crucial for positive dynamics within a group and for the group to gel and move forward.  People working for the same company should cooperate with coworkers, even if they don’t work in the same department or on the same projects.  But they share the overall goal of making the company successful. 

Referring back to the symphony, it would be the equivalent of a piano and violin playing different parts of a particular piece of music.  They both sound good and there is no dissonance but neither depends on the other to play their part and the shared experience is passive.

Coordination, on the other hand, is a soft skill that involves organization to align different elements and people toward a shared goal, rather than a specific technical ability.  Coordinating effectively requires understanding and managing the contributions of different individuals within the group.  In addition to solid communication skills, coordination often involves adaptability; adjusting plans and actions based on changing circumstances or feedback from others. 

When it comes to a symphony, the coordination is delivered by the Conductor.  Without that, it would be difficult for all the instruments to keep pace, time and not drown each other out.  The conductor delivers coordination so that the music by multiple contributors is adjusted based on the specific skills of the musicians.

Then there’s Teamwork.  Teamwork refers to a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. It is similar to cooperation but teamwork is more structured and organized.  Both involve people working together to achieve a goal such as meeting the objectives of a department.  While teamwork combines the individual efforts of all team members to achieve a goal, they aren’t necessarily trying to complete a project, innovate a product or expand business to a new region collectively. 

In the symphony analogy, teamwork by all members of the Strings section and all members of the Woodwinds is required so that there is harmony.  This ensures that all sections can play the piece together in a way that is pleasing and intended.  But how do you differentiate a mediocre symphony from a great one?

That’s where collaboration steps in.  Collaboration delivers a more structured process and specific goal than teamwork.  In collaboration, individuals with different expertise come together to solve a problem or create something new, often involving active communication, ideas, and shared decision-making to achieve a better outcome than working alone.  Collaboration sparks creativity and collaboration is essential for innovation and creating something new and exceptional.  It is a specific type of teamwork with a focus on combining and leveraging the knowledge and skills of a specific group for a specific end product. 

In the case of a symphony, a world-renowned orchestra can play a piece of music better than average orchestras due to a combination of factors including exceptional individual musicianship, a high level of ensemble cohesion, a shared musical vision under a renowned conductor, consistent practice and refinement, deep understanding of the music, and the ability to create a nuanced and emotionally impactful performance.  Essentially, the top orchestras excel not just in individual skill, but also in their ability to blend seamlessly and interpret the music with a collective artistic voice.   This is what separates and elevates collaboration above teamwork, cooperation and coordination.  It leverages the whole, making it exponentially better than the sum of its parts.

While cooperation, coordination and teamwork are all very important soft skills that companies need every employee to have, collaboration is the most important soft skill in this bucket because it allows for the pooling of diverse perspectives, knowledge, and expertise, leading to more innovative solutions, improved problem-solving, increased productivity, and a more adaptable workforce in a rapidly changing world.  It is where complex challenges — that often require diverse input and teamwork to overcome them – can be overcome by working together to generate better outcomes than working alone. 

Why Collaboration is the Most Crucial Skill for the Future

Collaboration is crucial in the future of work.  That’s because collaboration identifies connections and synergies in teams and leverages such teamwork to the fullest, multiplying its benefits exponentially in multiple ways, including:

1. Innovation and Creativity – By bringing together different ideas and viewpoints, collaboration fosters creativity and the ability to develop more innovative solutions to problems. 

2. Complex Problem-Solving – In today’s intricate business landscape, tackling complex issues often requires a multi-faceted approach.  Collaboration facilitates this through diverse perspectives coupled with focused expertise.  

Case in point: Sharklet.  The development of Sharklet, an anti-microbial product inspired by shark skin, exemplified the complex problem-solving that arises only through collaboration.   Initially, the US Navy needed help to tackle the serious problem of biofouling on ships and submarines, where microorganisms like algae and barnacles accumulate on the bottom and sides of ships causing drag and damage.  After 100+ years of dealing with this problem by dry-docking ships, they sought help from the University of Florida.  First, they needed to understand the underlying mechanism causing the problem.  The team at the University of Florida, led by materials science and engineering professor Anthony Brennan, looked for anything that lives in the ocean that naturally resists biofouling.  They found that shark skin resists biofouling due to its unique texture, but needed to understand the science behind the phenomenon in order to replicate it. To tackle this complex issue, they used a multi-faceted approach, drawing on expertise from:

• Materials Science to analyze the composition and structure of shark skin and develop materials that could mimic its texture.
• Engineering to design and fabricate the micro-patterned surfaces with precision.
• Biology to study the interactions between microorganisms and the Sharklet surface and understand how it inhibits colonization.
• Medicine to evaluate the effectiveness of Sharklet in preventing infections in healthcare settings.

Collaboration was crucial throughout the process. Researchers from different disciplines brought their unique perspectives and expertise to the table, fostering innovation and problem-solving. This included collaboration with biologists, engineers, and medical professionals; people who normally don’t work together on projects or in departments.

This led to the broader issue of microbial colonization on various surfaces, including medical devices, where it leads to infections such as on catheters.  The challenge was not only to understand the science behind this texture but also to translate it into practical, scalable solutions.  That involved developing manufacturing processes to create Sharklet surfaces on various materials and ensuring their durability and effectiveness. 

In time, besides delivering a solution for US Navy ships, they were able to address the broader, real-world problem of infections, particularly in healthcare settings. This required rigorous testing and validation of Sharklet’s efficacy and safety.  This collaboration resulted in the creation of a product that is now poised to not only reduce killer infections globally but save millions of lives at risk from antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

3. Adaptability and Agility – Collaborative teams can readily adjust to changing circumstances and new information, allowing for a faster response to market demands.  Consider the creation and use of DeepSeek.  AI software DeepSeek was initially developed by a Chinese hedge fund, High-Flyer, for the purpose of creating and using AI trading algorithms.  Founded by Liang Wenfeng in 2019, High-Flyer aimed to leverage artificial intelligence to gain an edge in financial markets and it was successful doing that.  By 2021, High-Flyer exclusively used AI in its trading operations.  But in 2023, the company pivoted to a new purpose and use for its AI technology. Recognizing the broader potential of their AI model, they established DeepSeek, a company dedicated to developing and releasing open-source large language models (LLMs). They did this because the growing trend of open-source AI development presented an opportunity to contribute to the AI community, accelerate innovation and offer efficient training methods and hardware optimization that were more accessible and affordable to develop.  They could only have done this through the global collaboration that happened in developing AI in the first place. 

4. Improved Productivity – By sharing workloads and leveraging individual strengths, collaboration can lead to increased efficiency and better project outcomes. 

5. Employee Engagement and Morale – A collaborative work environment can boost employee morale and satisfaction by fostering a sense of belonging and shared purpose.  While personality quirks and individual differences could lead to dissention and friction in teams, the focus on a raison d’être, as the French say, or a shared reason for being/doing generally overrides such conflict.

6. Knowledge Sharing – Collaboration allows for the seamless exchange of knowledge and learning across teams, improving individual skillsets and overall organizational understanding. 

Collaboration really is the king of soft skills for mid-sized and large organizations, where it can be a game-changer.  Next week, we’ll explore why collaboration – the most important skill needed in the future – is also a skill that is not being taught or reinforced by colleges or businesses and what can be done about it.  Stay tuned.

Quote of the Week

“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

© 2025, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.

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