ONCE upon a time, in a small city, there was an empty storybook. The book looked great, with an impressive cover, but all its pages were blank.
Children and grown-ups would pick up the book with anticipation, but finding no stories inside, they would cast the book aside.
Not far from there, a lovely inkwell had been full of ink for years. Its owner had forgotten about it and left it away in some corner. The inkwell and the storybook cursed their bad luck, and so they spent their days.
Fortune had it that one time when the book was thrown away it ended up next to the inkwell. For days and days the two of them exchanged stories about their bad luck.
They could have carried on for years, if an elegant swan feather had not floated down and landed next to them. Having fallen from his swan, the feather felt lonely and abandoned for the first time in his life. He cried and cried, and the book and the inkwell joined in, letting out all their sadness at the years of neglect.
However, unlike his companions, the feather soon tired of crying and he resolved to improve the situation. Drying his tears and leaving his complaints behind, he clearly saw how the three of them, working together, could achieve a lot more than just suffering.
He convinced his friends to write a story. The storybook opened up his best pages, the inkwell didn’t spill even a drop, and the feather contributed great ingenuity and beautiful writing. Together they managed to write a lovely story about three friends who helped each other to improve their lives.
All you hear people talking about these days (myself included) is how tough things are and the terrible state of the economy. If you listen carefully though, you will find that if people combined their resources and efforts, we could better our situations. The story above illustrates perfectly how people could collaborate for success (l can attest to that).
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Bulawayo is such a small market maybe it is time people learnt to collaborate. True collaboration has its disadvantages. However, the advantages outweigh the challenges. Some of the advantages include;
Faster production time,
Better brainstorming and input,
Learn more: Collaborating propels your firm to become a learning organisation.
Sometimes things do not work out well when you collaborate with others, no matter how hard you try.
However, one marketing consultant (Brian Honigman) states: “Collaboration is the fuel of any business, whether it is between employees, partners or customers.
It is a driving force for continued efficiency among everyday tasks and a necessity for improving the outcomes of many business activities.”
Nonto Masuku is a partner of an image and reputation management firm
