For the team sport of collaboration to work effectively, upskilling and re-skilling are required at the Individual level. Organizations are expected to respond to change by retraining the workforce. Whether the change is a technology revolution (like GenAI) or new AI regulation or a process evolution (DevOps, Data Ops, ML Ops) the adaptation is required at both individual and the organization levels. A recent study in Organization Science (Elad N. Sherf, Subra Tangirala, Alex Ning Li) suggests that there may be significant benefits to prioritizing individual reskilling while focusing on the whole team.
When a new rule of “the goalkeepers shouldn’t use hands to pick up balls that were kicked back by the defenders” was introduced in the early 1990s, the teams needed to adapt to the fundamental change. The initial approach of retraining the handoffs between the goalkeepers and defenders didn’t improve the coordination. Eventually, the two-phased approach of improving their individual proficiencies in dribbling and passing skills first and then having them coordinate their defense and offense in new ways, hit the desired goals.
It’s not a bad idea for the individual team members and consultants to re-skill and up-skill through continuous education and training without waiting for a rule to come from the top.
For organizational leaders, this may be another way to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts!