More on Principles & Dangers

• Your aim is not just grudging compliance, but active joint working and genuine collaborative efforts.
• Cooperation cannot be forced but it can be induced by appeals to duty and effective handling of people and situations.
• Cooperation is most likely to be forthcoming if all group members benefit in some way from their work together.

• Organizations are divided into departments and divisions, functions and working-parties. Each has its focus and its values. However, many outcomes require contributions and performance from diverse elements despite their differences.
• You will miss the rapid decision-making of the power-centred mode and the excited unanimity and conviction of the cause-centred mode.
• Unity of thought is impossible, so decisions will sometimes need to go in accord with the majority opinion, rather than with your preference.

• You have to accept that you are dependent on each member of the group following through, however much formal authority or informal power you may think you possess.
• You may think you know what each should do, but you cannot possibly envisage their specialist contribution or know more than they do about what they can or will in fact do.
• Diverse responsibilities and cultural differences impede mutual understanding. To get intelligent joint working, you must provide time and space for discussion and debate so that people can reach a consensus on both the goal and the strategy.

• Zero-sum situations increase inequalities and generate strife and bitterness.
• Emphasize that the organization can only do well if all parts of it do well.
• Cohesion requires that wins of some sort must accrue to all sides in disputes, or perhaps some alternation of winning is necessary.
• A win here for individuals may be for their position, but this is also seen as a gain for their department or in-group and its goals
• Accepting and valuing of professional standards of all disciplines is important.
  

• Find opportunities to assist individuals and their departments, and always be aware of sensitivities: unilaterally taking a seemingly trivial decision or uttering an inappropriate phrase can all too easily alienate.
• Be helpful, even where you are under no obligation, because reciprocity is a natural response for most people.
  

• Perfect people do not exist, so you need to tolerate certain habits, or even faults, that are not central to your goals.
• Incompetence, corruption and temperamental unsuitability should be dealt with firmly, but you have to resist being too critical.
• Nothing will happen as quickly or as sensibly as you would like.
• Provide work-related personal attention and expressions of appreciation.

• Recognize mistakes will be made.
• When things go wrong, when projects run into the sand, when targets are out of reach, your group needs to reflect together.
• Failure activates blame, guilt and other painful states, and so some sensible ventilation of feelings may be useful to clear the air.
• Keep the group activated and committed as they work out new goals or new means.

Cooperation cannot be forced and group members cannot escape from each other, so there is a common and natural tendency to avoid conflict or issues which might activate conflict. A focus on what everybody agrees about gets nowhere.

Achievement is the property of the group as a whole, so it can be difficult to avoid free-riders who get credit (or claim it) despite having done little.

Consensus, even in the most productive groups, can be time-consuming and you may miss opportunities or have to settle for mediocre, lowest-common-denominator results.

Win-win in distributing work and rewards may produce dissatisfaction, because no-one ever feels they get enough, or that their efforts are appreciated enough. You may end up with a stalemate.

Being of service and providing individual attention to group members has the potential to drain energy and diffuse effort, while often making people more unhappy.

Accepting people as they are can be an exercise in frustration and you end up desperate for a better bunch.

Maintaining morale can be draining and time-consuming.