Without wanting to sound like Elliot Moose, we all do better when we work together.
Having endured the odd episode of this Canadian children's programme (when visiting friends with toddlers), the moral of every story seems to be that trying to do everything on your own is hard work and you
often fail. However, if you work with your friends, you can achieve almost anything.
This is a message drilled into us as children - we need to share and we must play nice with others. But it is one we often forget as we get older and the pressure mounts to keep up with the Joneses, maintain our public image and rack up achievements for our CV.
Our lead story on page 9 shows how even simple collaborations, such as sharing business space, can benefit all concerned. The businesses and organisations we spoke to formed sometimes unlikely alliances to split rental costs, share customer bases, focus on their own area of expertise or add value to clients' experiences.
Whatever their reasons, these instances of working together are providing more benefits than anticipated. Businesses looking to reduce their rental bill have found new customers, who are drawn in by their co-business' products or services. Others set out to make more economic use of space and have ended up with industry networks that provide inspiration and fresh perspectives.
Even within individual workplaces, sharing ideas and working with other departments can produce a shared vision or collaborative initiatives that increase effectiveness and/or productivity and provide a better service or product to customers.
Too often, the race to get credit for the next big idea gets in the way of actually coming up with it or developing it.
Kids know riding a see-saw is not much cop on your own, so why do adults spend so much time pushing ourselves up, only to fall because we lack a counterbalance?
Synergy is an overused word and an underutilised concept.
- Julie Taylor is the business editor at The Daily Post
