Common Learning Portal

Overview

Remember the Tina Turner song, “We Don’t Need Another Hero”? Well, apparently there’s some truth to that song title. In this TED Talk, Lorna Davis, a global ambassador for the B Corp movement, asserts that, instead of heroes, we need radical interdependence. In other words, to achieve lofty goals, we need each other.

The Learning Upshot  

  After completing the work on this page, you will be able to:   

• See your work as part of something larger
• Practice 3 things that non-heroic leaders do
• Comprehend the power of working together    

Watch the Video

Lorna Davis: A guide to collaborative leadership | TED Talk  

Make It Actionable    

Now it’s time to personalize it. Give this concept some momentum in the workplace and your own life by completing the following:   

1. Envision your work as a stream. What is upstream? What is downstream? How do all of these pieces comprise the larger picture? Draw a picture of what this looks like.
2. Name one task of your job. Identify all of the people involved who help make that task happen and/or who are affected by this work. How do you ensure their time is valued?
3. Practice the 3 elements of a non-heroic leader:
   1. Identify a lofty work goal, one that is impossible to achieve alone.
   2. Share your lofty work goal with at least one other person (before you have a plan).
   3. Identify all of the people needed to bring your lofty work goal to life.
4. Reflect on this experience.
   1. How would your lofty goal benefit NPS? How would it benefit the other parties involved?
   2. What might be any negative effects of your lofty goal?
   3. How did it feel to identify a lofty goal like this, without a plan and needing other people to make it happen?
   4. What about this experience might influence the way you work?
   5. How would you go about starting to implement your lofty goal?
5. Bonus (optional): Share your lofty goal with 2-3 other people. Take one step toward implementing your lofty goal. In other words, begin to initiate your lofty goal.
6. After you have completed this challenge (initiating your lofty goal, not necessarily completing it), reflect on these questions: 
   1. How easy or difficult was this challenge for you?
   2. What did you discover about yourself?
   3. What did you try that you are going to keep doing?
   4. What did others notice about you trying new things? If it’s not obvious, ask them.   

Want More?     

Dig deeper on this topic with the following resources:   

• Don’t Base Business Partnerships on Personal Chemistry | HBR article
• Delivering on the Promise of Private-Public Partnerships | HBR article
• Creating High-Impact Coalitions | HBR article
• How Companies, Governments, and Nonprofits Can Create Social Change Together | HBR article
• 7 Strategies for Promoting Collaboration in a Crisis | HBR article
• Six Techniques for Sustained Collaboration | HBR article
• Why Trying to Make People Collaborate Freaks Them Out | HBR article
• Collaborate Across Teams, Silos, and Even Companies | HBR article
• Getting Your Stars to Collaborate | HBR article
• The Rules of Co-opetition | HBR article
• The Power of Community Partnerships | TED Talk
• The New Power of Collaboration | TED Talk
• Partnerships for Change | TED Talk
• The Power of Collaboration | TED Talk
• Partnering: Forge the Deep Connections That Make Great Things Happen by Jean Oelwang | book
• IMR Partnerships – Home | SharePoint site
• Partnering to Inspire Webinar Series | NPS Common Learning Portal

Note: Harvard Business Review (HBR) has a limit of 2 articles per month for guest users and 4 articles per month for users who register their email. Subscribers have unlimited access.