10 Reasons Why Teams Struggle to Collaborate (Despite Good Intentions)

Collaboration is a favorite theme in strategy decks and leadership keynotes. Leaders say it’s essential for innovation, agility, empowerment, and execution. But if you’ve worked in or with large organizations, you’ll know something feels off:

Teams want to collaborate and not just within their own team, but across functions and silos, and even with partners or external experts.

The problem is that most organizations aren’t set up for this.

I often argue that many organizational issues start at the top. Leaders talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. And when collaboration is reduced to a value on a poster - or buried under broken structures - teams are left to figure it out in an environment working against them.

So I’ve created this ranked list of reasons why collaboration fails. It’s not to point fingers at teams but to spotlight the real barriers that leaders and organizations need to address.

1. They promote teamwork, yet reward individual KPIs.

You can’t expect collaboration when success is defined individually. When people are measured and rewarded for their solo achievements, they will naturally prioritize their own goals - even when it works against the team.

2. They push for cross-functional alignment, yet still operate in silos.

True collaboration requires more than cross-functional task forces, it demands integrated ways of working. But when organizational structures and incentives are siloed, collaboration becomes optional, not foundational.

2. They push for cross-functional alignment, yet still operate in silos.

Collaboration isn’t just within teams. It depends on how well teams work across functions, departments, and even with external partners. Without integrated goals and decision rights, silos quietly win.

3. They encourage knowledge-sharing, yet overload teams with competing priorities.

Collaboration takes time. When teams are juggling too much, knowledge-sharing becomes a luxury. People protect their time and focus, not because they don’t care, but because they’re trying to survive the chaos.

4. They say collaboration matters, yet measure success in isolation.

If KPIs and OKRs don’t reflect shared goals, collaboration will always take a back seat. People follow the metrics. And when those metrics are narrow or individual, so is the behavior.

5. They ask for collective ownership, yet assign accountability to a single function.

You can’t expect teams to own outcomes together if only one person or team is held accountable when things go wrong. This creates fear, finger-pointing, and passive involvement from others.

6. They talk about shared goals, yet lack clear alignment across teams.

“Shared goals” sound good, but if each team interprets them differently, you end up with misalignment, duplication, or conflicting efforts. Collaboration without alignment leads to confusion, not impact.

7. They encourage open dialogue, yet don’t create psychological safety to speak up.

Without safety, people stay silent. They avoid saying what needs to be said, and collaboration becomes shallow. Open dialogue is only possible when people trust they won’t be punished for honesty or vulnerability.

8. They expect faster execution, yet require too many approvals to move forward.

Even well-aligned, collaborative teams can lose momentum when bogged down in bureaucracy. Endless approvals signal a lack of trust and slow down the very agility leaders are asking for.

9. They want proactive teams, yet reward those who play it safe and stay in their lane.

Proactivity means taking initiative, stepping into grey zones, and owning outcomes. But when the system rewards safety and punishes stretch behavior, people stay in their box - and so does the organization.

10. They invest in collaboration tools, yet don’t invest in team dynamics or leadership behaviors.

Slack, Miro, Teams, Asana. Tools are helpful, but they don’t create trust, alignment, or clarity. Collaboration starts with people, not platforms.

The Bottom Line

Collaboration isn’t broken - what’s broken is the system surrounding it.

People want to work together. Most teams are willing, capable, and motivated. But collaboration fails when leadership behaviors, organizational structures, and incentives quietly undermine it.

So the question isn’t:

“Why don’t our teams collaborate better?”

It’s:

“What’s making it harder for them to collaborate in the first place?”

Fix the system. Collaboration will follow.