Systematize Your Teamwork
Are you comfortable with operational flow? Are you satisfied that people work together effectively? Does your company fit well in its ecosystem?
#3 Coordination & Cooperation
My previous newsletter discussed distributed teamwork’s first two key pillars—Culture and Connection and Communication and Collaboration—which found and facilitate the environment and exchanges that are effective for multi-location, fast-paced modern work.
The third pillar focuses on and frames the sustainable, scalable work system that enables distributed teams to excel—Coordination and Cooperation:
- Coordination – how work is defined, designed, and refined.
- Cooperation – how people align, adapt, and assist each other.
Activating this pillar requires recognizing the evolution and current characteristics of modern work—particularly knowledge work—and how these affect AI integration and workers’ necessary adjustments.
“Task uncertainty, process invisibility, and architectural ambiguity" are key aspects of knowledge work as described by Staats, Brunner, and Upton in the Journal of Operations Management, 2010.
Coordinating Chaos into Clarity
Knowledge work is "not well-defined" even though knowledge workers who "create, analyse, and share information" make up 19-30% of global employment and almost 1/3 to 1/2 of jobs in Europe, the Americas, and Central Asia [ILO, 2023].
Knowledge work continues to evolve without clear frames, form, and flows and little intentional design. However, AI doesn't just automate work—it requires that work be defined, broken into discrete tasks, and skills requirements understood in order to identify where and what AI can be applied.
How is uncoordinated work experienced now?
- 48% of employees and 52% of leaders report their work feels chaotic and fragmented.
- 30% of meetings span many time zones, increasing 8% since 2021.
- 60% of meetings are not scheduled [Microsoft 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report].
The benefits of coordinated work (AI-assisted?):
- 21% want AI to help cut time in meetings by half. 26% of employees want AI to help better allocate their time [MS 2023 Work Trend Index].
- 93% of power users get AI help to focus on the most important work.
- 92% of power users use AI to better manage overwhelming workloads.
- 66% more likelihood of AI power users redesigning business processes and workflows with AI [2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, MS].
- 62% of AI's value for outperforming AI leaders is focused on core businesses processes (+ support functions) [AI Adoption in 2024, BCG].
"41% of leaders who are extremely familiar with AI expect to redesign business process from the ground up with AI." [2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, Microsoft].
Coordination Hacks - POM-thinking
Much knowledge work now is an opaque patchwork of ad hoc workflows. The first reframe is to recognize your business’s operations as a system of evolving and important interdependencies. You must understand how elements connect and influence each other before intentionally updating key/all processes.
The next coordination hack is applying concepts of Production and Operations Management (POM)—developed for manufacturing and service inputs/outputs, process flows, capacity and continuous improvement—to knowledge work. Try using one or two to better coordinate workflows impacting business growth:
Facilitating Coordination
- DEFINE WORK inputs, transformations, and outputs: What knowledge enters a task? Who adds what value bringing what skills? What are the visible deliverables?
- VISUALIZE FLOW with workflow boards and task networks: Map knowledge work as a factory floor is mapped for material movement replacing email exchanges, slack updates, and verbal check-ins.
- TRACK FLOW, bottlenecks and rework: Turn invisible processes into trackable flows using tools such as Notion, and Trello, and Asana.
Coordination with intention for more effective and measurable processes.
Cooperation Hack - Design-thinking
Coordination gives distributed work the necessary frame, function, and flow, while cooperation handles the human-centered dimension—how we adapt to and support one another in more dynamic, interdependent environments.
Team experiences can use design thinking—used to build user-centric products and services—to foster better cooperation. Design thinking is built on empathy, prototyping, and iteration—the same qualities cooperative teams need to thrive.
- Empathize: Share work styles, comms preferences and constraints.
- Define: Co-create goals and identify pain points—what’s not working?
- Test: Pilot new meeting formats, async habits, and peer-based checkins.
- Iterate: Debrief regularly to refine team experiences for evolving needs.
Fostering Cooperation
- Mutual mental models: Establish a shared understanding of goals, timelines, and interdependencies to reduce conflict and increase alignment among team members.
- Co-ownership rituals: Create space for team reflection, joint problem-solving, and asynchronous collaboration reviews. These moments of connection stimulate shared momentum.
- Empathetic ecosystem: Think well beyond any singular team—build cooperative flow across departments, partners, suppliers, and customers. This is vital in our distributed ecosystems.
Cooperation by design for more resilient, innovative, and committed teams.
Digital DNA
Human-centric workforce innovation in the age of AI
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Generational EQ
Coordination & Cooperation in Action
Brian Elliott speaks about his experiences working at Google and Slack—as work became more distributed, designing work, and creating team agreements in my interview with him - "Designing Forward for the Future of Work."
"JJ" Jessica Reeder shares her expertise from Airbnb and Upwork adapting to distributed teamwork, coordinating and cooperating including asynchronous methods - "Thriving in Distributed Work: Self-managed and Digital First."
Helen Lee Kupp discusses her insights navigating AI adoption, hybrid work, and creating flexible human-centric frameworks that empower people and processes - "Co-Creating High-Tech Human-Centric Flexible Systems."
Chase Warrington describes his leadership of remote teams at Doist and how to work well asynchronously with a foundation of a culture of documentation - "The Art and Craft of Work: Intentional Connection and Documentation."
Distributed Works
Coordination & Cooperation 90-day Plan
Goal: Clarify what work is happening system-wide, by whom, and how it flows.
Coordination Actions:
- Map Inputs & Outputs: Identify the main deliverables your team is responsible for and document inputs required to produce them including clarifying expectations, handoffs, and dependencies across roles.
- Observe Processes: Interview team members to uncover informal workflows, manual workarounds, or duplicative steps that may not be documented. Look for where tasks originate, where they bottleneck, and where responsibilities are ambiguous.
- Capture Tasks: Use tools like Notion, Asana, Trello, or Miro to document repeatable tasks, map process steps, and visualize who’s doing what. Begin building a living process map that the whole team can reference.
Cooperation Integration:
- Build Mutual Awareness: Have team members share “a day in the life” snapshots to understand each other’s work rhythms, time zones, and constraints.
- Empathy Mapping: Use design thinking tools to explore how different team members experience current workflows and communication patterns—what works well and does not, and where support is needed.
Outcome: A shared, visual understanding of current team responsibilities, workflows, and pain points—laying the groundwork for systemic improvement.
Goal: Frame the work system aligning task flow with shared logic and feedback.
Coordination Actions:
- Sequence Activities: Take the process insights gathered in Month 1 and turn them into workflows using Kanban-style boards or flow diagrams to reveal inefficiencies, unclear ownership, or overloaded contributors.
- Identify Bottlenecks: Analyze where delays, friction, or duplicative work occur. Look for approvals that take too long, tasks with no clear owner, or gaps between tools and processes.
- Assign Capacity: Estimate effort for key recurring tasks and allocate bandwidth accordingly. Use time-tracking or rough workload estimation to avoid overcommitting or mis-assigning roles.
Cooperation Integration:
- Run Co-Design Sessions: Invite team members to actively participate in shaping workflows, defining handoff points, and suggesting asynchronous rituals that reflect how they work best in action.
- Establish Shared Norms: Define clear behavioral expectations—e.g., how quickly people should respond to async requests, how progress is communicated, and how to handle task updates and changes.
Outcome: Co-created workflows that reflect real work patterns and align roles, responsibilities, and communication habits across the team.
Goal: Implement the new coordination system as the team’s distributed operating model.
Coordination Actions:
- Implement Feedback Loops: Use async retrospectives, short pulse surveys, or weekly reflection prompts to get team feedback on what's working and where the new system needs refinement.
- Iterate on Flows: Adjust task ownership, update process steps, and revise coordination cadences as needed. Refine based on what’s proving useful versus what’s getting ignored or creating friction.
- Track Metrics: Monitor basic coordination health indicators such as time-to-complete, frequency of dropped handoffs, number of tasks reassigned due to overload, or subjective “clarity ratings” from team members.
Cooperation Integration:
- Share Success Stories: Celebrate early examples of smoother handoffs, improved efficiency, or better communication. Normalize this new way of working with stories and reflection.
- Cross-Train for Flexibility: Offer opportunities for team members to learn more about each other’s roles or shadow different workflows. This deepens empathy and builds functional redundancy for resilience.
Outcome: A coordinated, adaptive, and human-centered workflow system that boosts clarity, accountability, and collective momentum—designed with and for the people doing the work. Your company system is now equipped for AI enhancements and integration.
Empowering High-Performing Teams
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Culture & Connection. Communication & Collaboration.
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Scaling Skills-first
Coordination & Cooperation 90-day Plan
Human-centric Leadership Audit
News & Muse
📘 GOAL: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by E. Goldratt and J. Cox.
🗞️ The GitLab Handbook - The handbook IS the process.
🛠️ Notion, Trello, Asana - Useful work coordination tools.
🎶 Smooth Operator by Sade as coordinated, cooperative teams flow.
Coordination & Cooperation 90-day Plan
Coordination & Cooperation 90-day Plan
Ready to elevate your team’s cultural baseline or communication cadence to improve results? I share crucial insights to enable effective distributed work transformations with human-centric team practices. Click here to book a 30-minute session.
See you again next week.
Sophie
P.S. Don't forget to try my NEW course!! Based on what 630,000+ learners have loved—now designed for you and your team leaders.
Scalable strategies. Tactical talk. Workforce transformation.
Human-centric workforce innovation in the age of AI
workforce and scale your business, navigating the fast-paced
unpredictable marketplace.