urious opportunity to free ride, to commend the ideas of others as “really great” while quietly wondering whether the lasagna in the fridge would be quite nice for supper. In the context of collaborative work, this vice includes the daily temptations to under-prepare for meetings, to fail to listen properly to colleagues, or to share a draft of work when it’s still half-baked— hoping that our teammate or manager will take on the heavy lifting required to finish it off properly.


But while some loafing results from a deficiency in motivation, the deeper reason why we put in less effort than we could is, more often than not, because we are not quite sure what we are meant to be doing, or because we’re so rushed off our feet that we haven’t had time to work out what we really think about a project.


When we are unsure what role to play on a project, are vague about what a client really wants, or have simply had little time to get a sense of our own view, what might have been simple tasks can feel like over- whelming muddles. This lack of clarity inhibits us from voicing suggestions or working in an area we fear may be someone else’s territory. In these cases, having separate and distinct responsibilities for each team member, and communicating them to everyone clearly, is crucial.


This is also a major reason collaborative brainstorming often fails—partly because our own fragile trains of thought are so regularly derailed by the interjections of


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