When Collaboration Culture in a Company Can Lift You to the Top…

Once upon a time, or maybe not so long ago… far away, or perhaps closer than we think… today I will tell a fairy tale.

A certain organization (let’s call it an Institution, a Company, or a Team) had a long, remarkably rich history. It went through more than one storm, merger, and market shift. Rich in experience, it had every right to consider itself strong. What’s more-on paper, everything looked practically ideal. Sales were moving forward, employee turnover was low, and financial liquidity allowed the board to sleep peacefully. Perhaps not yet a business Eldorado, but a well-prospering farm.

Underneath this shiny surface of success, however, inside the structures, a process began that slowly but extraordinarily effectively eroded the foundations of this business home. The scenario you are about to read is unfortunately not literary fiction. It is a universal mechanism that triggers in organizations when strategic vigilance is lulled to sleep by overly good financial results.

Chapter I: A Grand Dowry and the Whining Syndrome

Our fairy-tale company had a rich history. There were family successions, professional management teams, and-as life goes-political cliques. It survived mergers, divisions, and acquisitions. Not all were peaceful, and not all were accompanied by due care for the cultural differences of the joined worlds. It even reached a point where, for a time, its logo completely vanished from registries. Fortunately, the people and management got their act together in time and fought shoulder to shoulder to save their business home.

In a situation of real threat, this organization could perform miracles. A collaboration culture in a company formed overnight on its own, built on shared values and goals. When the ground burned under their feet, there was no obstacle the organization couldn’t overcome. Everyone acted together-regardless of which company’s dowry and ingrained habits they historically brought in. Even the most complex, market-breakthrough organizational culture transformation became possible to execute. The company could deploy projects that sparked genuine admiration and envy from competitors.

However, a specific cultural syndrome emerged. Inside the organization, no one was able to truly appreciate this success. Instead of drawing lessons from won battles and building team pride upon them, people preferred… to simply whine. Success became invisible, and daily complaining became a safe ritual.

Chapter II: The Hidden Prosperity Tax. Collaboration Culture in a Company Won’t Work on Its Own

And here we arrive at the core trouble of this story. Lulled by inspiring numbers in reports, the company completely stopped preparing for tougher times-neither internally nor externally. Instead of using golden years to implement systemic, bold change management in a company and secure the future, the organization’s energy was redirected elsewhere.

When things are too good in the market, demons often breed within structures. Because there is no need to fight for clients-after all, they come on their own. Petty internal cliques and silos, instead of playing the market game, chose internal infighting among employees. Into their private power games, they ruthlessly dragged contractors, clients, and even investors.

Because paradoxically, it is precisely in times of prosperity that the truth about leaders’ intentions fully reveals itself. That is when it turns out whether those who decide the company’s future and security think about the good of the entire organization or solely about their personal gain and gratifying their own ego. In such conditions, loyalty vanishes, and the firm’s massive trust capital in a company melts at an alarming rate, giving way to a hidden, heavy tax of suspicion. The collaboration culture in a company ceases to exist.

Chapter III: Not the Same Game. Not the Same Goalpost. Not the Same Team

The history of this organization comes full circle. The company stands once again before a historic, monumental opportunity. It has solid financial resources. It has smart, intelligent people on board. It has strong market arguments. It could play for a significantly higher stake and competitive position than ever before in its history without blinking an eye.

Except what good is that when the fundamental collaboration culture in a company is flat on its back? Executive and middle management simply haven’t matured enough for teamwork. The rest of the employees are either participating in behind-the-scenes maneuvering or becoming its helpless victims. The worst kind of paralysis has struck the structure: people and individual departments stopped playing the same game long ago. Each of them defines the business goalpost-which everyone is allegedly playing toward-completely differently today.

When a company lacks a unified conceptual framework and managers cannot play toward that single, right goalpost, every operational process suffers. In such an environment, even clear and transparent delegation of responsibility in a team becomes impossible. Employees prefer avoiding decisions because they know that in a feudalized, divided structure, any autonomy can be weaponized against them in internal clique wars. The rational business goal dissolves, replaced by a battle for survival. A collaboration culture in a company doesn’t exist-even though it once did.

The Moral: What Can We Propose to Our Shared Company?

This is where our fairy tale ends, leaving us with an open question: So what wise proposal can we offer to our shared company so it doesn’t waste its historic opportunity?

I regularly visit organizations trapped in such toxic loops of success. This situation cannot be cured merely by swapping out people, introducing a new compensation system, or hosting a teambuilding workshop. What is needed here is a deep, systemic intervention driven by mature leadership. What is worth reaching for?

1. Force standing in front of the mirror: The board and key decision-makers must go through a painful process of radical honesty and call conflicts by their names. The phase of pretending that “if the numbers add up, everything is fine” comes to an end. And this is not an easy topic until a shock occurs-from the owner, employees, the market, or the state.
2. Redefine and unify the goalpost: The company’s strategic goals must be redefined, and managers must be held accountable not only for individual KPIs, but for achieving shared objectives. Build systemic mechanisms that reward expected behaviors while explicitly penalizing undesirable ones. A collaboration culture in a company needs systemic support.
3. Disband cliques and break down silos: Leaders must enforce consequences against individuals who prioritize personal gain and political maneuvering over the organization’s well-being and growth. Leadership is responsibility for the whole, not for one’s private fiefdom. The problem arises when this applies to top executives who lack the will to shift their approach. And we return to point one—perhaps without a massive shock, this won’t happen. Let’s hope everyone doesn’t end up paying for the ego and greed of a chosen few.

A complex business environment has taught me that the hardest time to manage an organization is not during a crisis, but during prosperity-what I call the risk of getting stuck on a relaxing sandbar. Success is the ultimate maturity test for managers. If your company currently has resources, great people, and market arguments, but you feel internal wars are eating away at your potential—don’t wait for the market to brutally call your bluff. Managing paradoxes in a company and building antifragility requires the courage to act while the sun is shining. Because neglecting wise cultural moves today is a direct path to history repeating itself in the least pleasant way.