The co-……. hype
You can’t read any article without finding the co-word. New ones are defined every day. Here are
some examples:
- co-authoring
- co-branding
- co-creation
- co-designing
- co-owning
- co-parenting
- co-producer
- co-……. etcetera
In essence, this is what co means:
co- |kəʊ|
prefix
1 (forming nouns) joint; mutual; common: coeducation.
2 (forming adjectives) jointly; mutually: coequal.
3 (forming verbs) together with another or others: coproduce |
co-own.
While most challenges clearly do need a team approach, adding the co-word
is not a magic recipe for success.
Working together (from two to n- people) is in itself not easy. Especially
when you bring a group of freelancers or entrepreneurs together. They are all
their own bosses and have their own agendas. This is a bit easier when you
build teams of employees.
There is a huge amount of literature about how to build great performing
teams and what the various roles should be.
What is missing is that (as a condition sine qua non) you need to make sure
that the proposed team members share the same motivation, priorities and
ambition. In other words, why are you willing to be part of this team, how
important is this teamwork to you and what goals do you have? If you don’t
align these requirements upfront, you will always face a lot of wasteful
difficulties in the team.
What are you doing to effectively co-work with each other?
Enthusiasm drives Excellence!
