Lions, ants, the Dallas Mavericks and Mumbai's lunch-box delivery men all know how to work together

WHAT can we learn from lions, ants, the Dallas Mavericks and Mumbai's lunch-box delivery men? Mehrdad Baghai says they all know how to work as one.

Mumbai's dabbawallas

IT'S the Holy Grail in sport, the corporate world, the public service, you name it. CEOs who pull it off are paid millions. Sporting coaches who inspire it are highly sought after. It's the secret of how to get people working together as one.

It's no secret, says Mehrdad Baghai.

"It's actually the way we want to be naturally. It's humans at their best. Things just get in the way like ego and competitiveness and survival of the fittest," he says.

Several years ago, business consultant Baghai met James Quigley, the global CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, in Sydney.

"We started chatting and the chat lasted for four hours," Baghai says. The result is the book they have co-authored, As One, which explores human collaboration, individual action and collective power. Put simply, it looks at how you can get 10, 100, 1000 or even 100,000 people working as one.

As One identifies eight archetypes of leaders and followers, such as a Conductor and Orchestra, with highly scripted and clearly defined roles that focus on precision and efficiency in execution as defined by the conductor. The archetype Community Organiser and Volunteers works from a bottom-up model, while Captain and Sports Team has minimal hierarchy and is highly adaptable to a rapidly changing situation, as would be found on a playing field. Each model has a case study. The Landlord and Tenants model is highlighted by Apple's App Store experience and Cirque du Soleil is a study for the Producer and Creative Team method.

One of the more fascinating archetypes is the dabbawallas, the mostly illiterate lunch-box delivery men of Mumbai, who deliver more than 200,000 hot meals a day in an operation of mind-blowing precision.

Of every six million deliveries, only one fails to arrive on time. It's a strike rate delivery companies around the world would kill for. It stems from their sense of pride in their work and culture of mutual support.

Quigley's formidable challenge was getting all 170,000 of his company's staff working for the collective good of the organisation.

In the book, they observe that it was only six years ago that the Deloitte Australian firm was considered the sick puppy of the accountancy services sector, behind its three big rivals, Ernst and Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Today, they say, with a changed culture in line with As One research, it has become a growth leader.

Baghai says leaders need to ask themselves three questions: 1. What are you doing to make people feel like they belong? 2. What are you doing to help people realise they matter? 3. How are you helping people work together?

Baghai, whose family fled Iran seeking religious freedom in Toronto, Canada, now lives in Sydney with his wife and son.

He is managing director of Alchemy Growth Partners, a boutique advisory and venture firm based in Sydney, and was previously an executive director of the CSIRO, Australia's national science agency.

He sees some interesting characteristics in the Australian culture that aid and abet working as one.

"I believe there is a concept of mateship here that is much stronger than elsewhere in the world. There is also strong individual thinking that challenges any spin," he says.

He says that at its best, collaboration is magical.

"Not in a sense that it's a standard so unbelievably high. It's amazing we don't see it more often because this is our natural state. We are a collaborative species."

Baghai uses a recent real-life example from the sports world.

"A couple of hours ago, the Dallas Mavericks just finished off (two-time defending champions) the LA Lakers, knocking them out of the NBA playoffs," he says.

"Now, the Lakers are an amazing, decorated team of stars yet Dallas beat them with an amazing team game.

"When we are able to overcome ego and communication challenges and make something work right, it is magical."

As One
Mehrdad Baghai and James Quigley
Penguin, $55

Mehrdad Baghai will appear at the Brisbane Ideas Festival at noon on Friday at the State Library of Queensland. Details and bookings at www.ideasfestival.com.au