You Don’t Have to Carry This Alone

Quick question: Why do we believe in collaboration for projects… but insist on handling our own overwhelm alone?

Workplaces are very into collaboration. Cross-functional teams. Working groups. Brainstorms with Post-its in colours that imply innovation is imminent.

We know - know - that better outcomes happen when we combine brains.

And yet.

In the middle of a tricky project, a political meeting, a stretch deadline or a life-admin spiral that starts with a minor tech glitch and ends in questioning civilisation… We go solo.

Not because help isn’t available, but because we decide we should be able to handle it. We stop asking for input. We rewrite emails seventeen times instead of calling someone. We carry the emotional equivalent of a bookcase up the stairs and label it “competence.”

It’s fascinating, really.

At work, we wouldn’t launch something significant without shared thinking, whiteboard markers and snacks. In our own heads? Full restructure. No team. Snack-free.

Collaboration isn’t just a professional skill. It’s a human one.

Sometimes you don’t need a taskforce but just someone holding the other end of the bookcase - and suggest you take the books out first.