A big obstacle for intra-team cooperation is having on your team the type of guy (sorry guys, but it’s usually a guy) who takes everything as a dominance contest. -- You have a good idea? Sorry, it’s not his idea, so we are not going to do it that way. You found a tiny mistake he made? Unless you want to spend the rest of the day arguing loudly about it, better pretend you didn’t notice anything.
Problem is, some of these guys can actually become quite competent at what they do. (Not as great as they believe themselves to be, but still good.) Which is how they get into your team. And then things start going slowly downhill, but the cause is not obvious.
But if you want to have the spirit of egalitarianism while actually getting things done, you have to check people’s competence before they join the team.
A big obstacle for intra-team cooperation is having on your team the type of guy (sorry guys, but it’s usually a guy) who takes everything as a dominance contest. -- You have a good idea? Sorry, it’s not his idea, so we are not going to do it that way. You found a tiny mistake he made? Unless you want to spend the rest of the day arguing loudly about it, better pretend you didn’t notice anything.
Problem is, some of these guys can actually become quite competent at what they do. (Not as great as they believe themselves to be, but still good.) Which is how they get into your team. And then things start going slowly downhill, but the cause is not obvious.
But if you want to have the spirit of egalitarianism while actually getting things done, you have to check people’s competence before they join the team.