Why Collaboration and Innovation are the Best Way Out of a Crisis
Why Thriving Through Crisis Requires More Than Resilience: Embracing Collaboration and Innovation to Drive Sustainable Growth
By Simon Doble
With crises piling up—from climate change to supply chain breakdowns—businesses are facing relentless instability. But mere resilience won’t cut it anymore; navigating today’s ‘Permacrisis’ demands a mindset shift from scarcity to abundance. This article explores how collaboration and innovation can transform crisis into opportunity. By adopting ecosystem thinking, leaders can move beyond survival mode, building powerful partnerships that drive sustainable growth and lasting impact. Discover strategies to foster collaboration and unlock resilience through a connected, purpose-driven approach to overcoming today’s biggest challenges.
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Turn on the news or scroll through your feed—it feels like we’re living in a constant state of crisis. The climate emergency, extreme weather, war, migration, pandemics, supply chain breakdowns—the list goes on.
Some call this the "Permacrisis"—the idea that we’re living through a period of perpetual instability. Businesses are caught in this turmoil, struggling to adapt and survive. But here's the truth: to navigate these storms, we need more than resilience. We need a fundamental shift in mindset. Collaboration, innovation, and ecosystem thinking are not just optional—they’re essential.
At Barefoot Citizens, we have put collaboration at the centre of what we do. We use the collaborative mindset to engage a diverse range of stakeholders and inspire a sustainable global movement in order to help people and the planet.
That’s why we have decided to put the spotlight on collaboration. Over the next four weeks, I will share crucial insights about collaboration—externally with different stakeholders but also internally, within our own teams—both with the goal of delivering better solutions, helping companies build resilience, and solving the biggest problems of our times.
This week on how and why to collaborate and innovate even in uncertain times.
The Myth of the Lone Wolf
For decades, business success was defined by lone-wolf leaders—bold, charismatic visionaries who led their teams to war on the markets. This mindset, popularised by Milton Friedman’s shareholder value theory in the 1980s, treated business as a zero-sum game. If one company won, another had to lose. Competitors were seen as enemies, and market dominance was the goal.
But this model is outdated. We live in open systems now—complex, interconnected networks where challenges like climate change, economic inequality, and global health crises can’t be solved by one company or leader alone.
In uncertain times, fear is our first response—but it shouldn’t be our last.
When the rules are fuzzy and the goals are constantly shifting, you can’t win by shutting others out. You win by keeping the game going. Think of it like a relationship: if your only aim is to win an argument, you both lose. The goal is to figure out a solution that works for both sides.
The Shift from Scarcity to Abundance
So why do so many leaders still cling to the lone-wolf mentality when it’s clear that collaboration is the path forward? It’s because of fear.
As a leader, it takes skill and dedication to develop a collaborative mindset and to relentlessly promote openness and innovation. But still, we are talking about the “good times”—when business is going well and everyone is inclined to expand.
When a crisis hits, our natural instinct is to retreat, to protect what we have, to isolate. We slip from what’s known as an abundance mindset—where we see opportunities and possibilities—into a scarcity mindset, where we focus on self-preservation. We stop collaborating and pull back on innovation. We go into survival mode.
Renewable energy, battery technologies, mRNA vaccines, and cryptocurrencies. They were all born out of periods of disruption.
This response is understandable. Research shows that scarcity triggers a mental shift, narrowing our focus to the immediate problem and draining our capacity to think creatively.
For example, a 2017 study published in the prestigious Science journal looked at how poverty affects cognitive function. They found that scarcity, or a lack of necessary resources, causes a mental shift where an individual only has the mental energy to spend on the immediate problem and nothing else.
Chronic stress, like the kind caused by prolonged crises, can even rewire our brains, making it harder to collaborate or innovate.
But in times of crisis, this defensive stance only makes things worse.
Collaboration in Crisis: A Hard but Necessary Choice
During the COVID-19 pandemic, McKinsey found that only 21% of executives felt confident enough to pursue new growth opportunities. Most were focused on simply keeping the lights on. And that’s what self-preservation looks like: cutting ties, halting partnerships, and freezing innovation.
But here’s the paradox: the more we isolate during crises, the more vulnerable we become. To survive and thrive in uncertain times, we have to lean into collaboration, not pull away from it. What might help is re-framing what crisis actually means.
McKinsey & Company. Innovation in a crisis: Why it is more critical than ever. June 17, 2020.
Philosophers have long argued that crisis isn’t just a period of difficulty—it’s also a moment of opportunity. Just look at the history of science: the shift from Newtonian to Einsteinian physics or the discovery of germ theory—those were all born from a crisis of the existing scientific paradigms that gave rise to better explanations.
Similarly, the rise of renewable energy and improved battery technologies in response to the climate crisis, the rapid advancements in mRNA vaccines and digitalisation of healthcare in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, or the blockchain and cryptocurrency boom in response to the 2008 financial crisis.
All were born out of periods of disruption.
Taking the First Step: Embrace Uncertainty
So, where do we start?
First, leaders need to recognise that in uncertain times, fear is our first response—but it shouldn’t be our last. When we feel threatened, our instinct is to focus on what we might lose. But what if we shifted our focus to what we could build?
At Barefoot Citizens, collaboration is central to what we do. We need everyday disruptors, visionary leaders, and innovative thinkers to step up and join us.
That’s why we’re launching a series over the next four weeks focused on actionable strategies for embracing collaboration. Because to solve the world’s biggest problems, we need every player on the field, working together towards shared goals. Next week, we will look at strategies and exercises leaders can do to build up the collaboration muscle.
Collaboration is not just a buzzword; it’s the way forward. If we can break free from the old mindset of “every company for itself” and embrace a more connected, purpose-driven approach, we can create real, lasting change. And that goes especially for solving the climate crisis and contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
But we can’t do it alone. We need everyday disruptors, visionary leaders, and innovative thinkers to step up and join us.
Are you ready to take action? If so, reach out to me here or at www.barefootcitizens.com/contact-barefoot-citizens
Together, we can turn this crisis into a turning point for the better.
- Simon