Cooperation is the essence of people doing something together. If you are responsible for cooperation in leadership, then these five points can help:

• Listen to other people out of interest and not because of response.
• Help other people to listen, not just talk.
• Train employees to practice empathy.
• Ensure that employees are familiar with feedback.
• Provide clarity in their language.

Collaboration comes from the Latin co-“mit-“, laborare “to work”) and describes the cooperation between persons or groups of persons. The word has negative connotations from the past. It stood for collaboration with the enemy during the occupation.

This is probably one of the reasons why cooperation is so difficult. The more cooperation, the more time has to be spent on talking. Only those who know themselves and their counterparts well can work well together. Maybe it helps to visualize a conversation every now and then.