Collaborative autonomy

It sounds like an oxymoron but collaborative autonomy is best described as ‘empowering self-sufficiency through connection’. In essence, it is giving people what they need to self-organise and work productively while remaining intrinsically aligned and connected with each other through a shared purpose.

The challenge is threefold: part structural, part operational and part values driven. It requires leaders to ... lead.

By this I mean step up and clearly communicate what you stand for, because in order for people to feel truly connected and engaged with an organisation’s purpose they need to feel and experience it directly. Your people want to belong to something bigger.

A higher-order purpose diffuses the tension of organisational change by making it an aspirational and co-created quest. It is the glue that creates cohesion to strategy and aligns intention through a common set of goals that serve the betterment of the community. By connecting employees and stakeholders with a higher-purpose strategy, everyone can be authentically engaged and a vibrant culture can be co-created.

A select group of individuals identifying an organisation’s purpose in isolation from the majority of its stakeholders, and then announcing this purpose to everyone as a ‘set’ directive is not an effective way to lead change. While this can work in small teams and niche communities, in a broader cultural context experts have proven that when people have a sense of ownership in an organisation’s purpose, change is more likely to be sustainable.

So the bigger question is, how do we do that? How do we start to communicate, connect and co-create, and what happens when we do so? Part III unpacks these questions, providing real guidance for you and your business.