Several years ago, 12 members of the Wild Boars soccer team, and their coach, were released from the hospital in Thailand after spending weeks trapped in a flooded cave. The dramatic rescue mission moved into its final phase: getting the Thai boys, their coach, and the rescuers back home.

The remarkable rescue involving hundreds of individuals, teams, NGOs and companies, along with traditional and innovative technology captured the attention of the world, and for good reason.

What set this ultimately successful mission apart was the deep collaboration. A international, cross-discipline group specifically; cave experts, experienced rescuers, military personnel, Thais, Americans, Australians, and Brits, came together around a single, formidable goal. Getting a dozen boys, and their coach, who could not swim out of a mile-long cave that had been flooded by monsoon rains. This required listening, trusting, and collaborating both physically and intellectually. Even though the teams were trained to operate within their own team, they all had to stretch and work with strangers to make the rescue mission a success. It couldn’t have been easy but they did it, and this mission proves that amazing things can happen across borders, nationalities, political beliefs and professions.

For many years collaboration, and how to achieve it, has been the focus in the agency world. The concept— when everyone in the room collaborates, everyone is heard, more ideas are included, brain storms are productive, and the results is better work. But is collaboration really the key or is it co-operation?

I’ve observed a range of approaches to achieve collaboration across teams, cultures, and management styles. Most frequently, I have seen groups that claim to “collaborate” while in fact they want nothing to do with one another. What made the Thai cave rescue so incredible was the level of trust that the teams and individuals built with each other and so quickly. The focused listening and trust was crucial to the rescue’s success and it got me thinking. Why is it that some teams don’t collaborate, and what’s gone wrong to make it ok not to do so.

Yves Morieux, a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. has an interesting point of view and one that I agree with. In his Ted Talk he discusses the importance of cooperation. "The whole is worth more than the sum of the parts. This is not poetry, this is not philosophy—this is maths" he goes on to say "we need to create organizations that make it individually useful for individuals to cooperate." Think about that for a minute. What he knows to be true is the importance to make it compelling for an individual to cooperate. When one cooperates with a colleague it comes from a place of authenticity. It’s sincere, honest, and earnest, and it includes collaboration but encompasses so much more. Imagine if everyone within a company cooperated a hundred percent of the time. All of the corporate politics is gone and doing the right thing for the client’s business becomes the focus. But as we are all human cooperation takes work. It has to be a top down effort. If a few people cooperate and others don’t the chain is broken, and the measure of strength is the weakest link.  The lack of cooperation is why projects big and small fail and it’s the only essential ingredient that matters.

When we truly commit to cooperating with others, we learn, we value ideas, and we work together, across departments, across teams, and across levels of seniority. When we cooperate, nothing gets in the way of good ideas.

Photo credit: U.S. Air Force Capt. Jessica Tait 353rd Special Operations Group Public Affairs

Yves Morieux at Ted