I just sat down to write this blog post. I’m in my home office. It’s a beautiful sunny September day
here in Utrecht, the Netherlands. It’s Saturday morning. I’m relaxed. Got the laptop open. Got a hot,
dark, strong coffee. Just been running, so my head is full of ideas about what to write. I’ve got 30
minutes or so until another appointment. Must be enough time to get some of my thinking down on
paper about the mission of this Skillful Collaboration initiative.
“Hey, Dad!” from outside the room. The door opens, in walks my middle son (age 19). “Last night I
had such a strange dream.” And off he goes, telling me about his dream…
How to respond?
I was really ready to get into my writing.
I was quite irritated with the interruption.
The clock is ticking towards my appointment time.
“Take a breath… your son wants some time with you. It’s ok,” says my inner voice.
So I listen. We have a short conversation about his dream, hypothesize about what it might mean,
and how he feels about it. Two minutes later he says, “Right, I’m off, see you later.”
He leaves the room and doesn’t close the door.
“Hey, close the door!”
“Ah, sorry, Dad.”
He closes the door.
Sometimes I work together with my son. Of course, I’m his dad so I’m biased—but he is AMAZING!
Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, he has dived into the world of AI and now consults businesses
about automating their processes using AI tools. He’s also helping me set up and automate the
business processes behind Skillful Collaboration.
We work together as a team.
Our Mission is: Helping teams everywhere grow the human skills of collaboration.
This two-minute interaction is part of our mission.
This week, I worked with three cross-functional business development teams from different
countries at a large multinational organization. Most of the people were together in a conference
room, and some joined online. We were unpacking how they collaborate in their individual teams,
across teams, and with their functional leaders who sit on the board.
That one-day workshop is also part of our mission.
Collaboration simply means working together. Our focus is on teams because we believe it is teams
that get the real work done in organizations around the world.
To help teams get their work done, we help them grow their human skills.
We have this mission for our clients everywhere—and we have this mission for ourselves.
Ok, time for my next appointment.
I hope to collaborate with you on our mission soon.
