Collaboration appears on countless corporate values statements. But its importance becomes considerably easier to understand when the business has nine to 12 months to deliver a gigawatt-scale solar project.
For Milmil Das, CHRO, Jakson Green, collaboration in such an environment is not simply about creating a more harmonious workplace. It is fundamental to execution.
Speaking at the HRKatha Inner Circle, held in partnership with Culturelytics, Das described the demands of delivering large-scale renewable-energy projects against tight timelines.
“We have to deliver within nine to 12 months, which is very tough,” he said.
That kind of deadline leaves little room for functions or businesses to operate in isolation. Engineering, procurement, project teams and other parts of the organisation may have different responsibilities, but the outcome depends on how effectively they work across those boundaries.
“Without active collaboration, we could not function and deliver on time,” Das said.
The test of collaboration, therefore, is not whether employees say they value teamwork. It is whether different parts of the organisation can work together well enough to deliver a complex project on schedule, within budget and effectively.
That distinction matters when organisations try to understand the relationship between culture and performance.
Behaviours such as collaboration can sound intangible when discussed in isolation. But once they are connected to a specific business outcome, their value becomes much more concrete. A breakdown in collaboration is no longer merely a cultural problem. It can become a delivery problem, a cost problem and ultimately a business-performance problem.
At the HRKatha Inner Circle on the Culture–Performance Equation, Das’s example brought that relationship into sharp focus. Sometimes culture does not sit alongside execution.
It is part of the machinery that makes execution possible.
Watch Milmil Das explain why collaboration becomes an operating requirement when the clock is already running.
