Some of the clients I work with have a very collaborative culture. Decisions are always run past all interested parties and buy-in is required from everyone.

The people in charge set the general direction but not how to do it.

I prefer to work for (and with) companies that are like that because, well, my opinion counts! Having the people who know the work the best make the decisions makes the most sense. People appreciate the autonomy and the trust that management place in them.

If there’s a downside it’s that these cultures can suffer from something like the Bystander Effect. If you’re not familiar with it, the idea is that if you have an accident in a busy area, you’re much less likely to get the help you need than if you have the same accident when there’s only one other person near by. In a crowd, we can reasonably assume that someone else will step in. If we’re the only person near by, there is no ambiguity.

Hopefully you’re not regularly having accidents at work!

There are always going to be bugs and challenges implementing changes. So you send an email to the team, identifying the problem. Everyone reads it, acknowledges it, and assumes that someone else will intervene. I might know something about it, but – surely – someone else knows more than me.

It’s not a conscious thing. No one deliberately waits for someone else to step in. But that’s what happens. Everyone is busy, so you don’t press the issue immediately. Maybe you don’t get around to mentioning it in the next team meeting.

Before you know it, two weeks have passed and you’ve not got a response, much less an answer.

The challenge is noticing that this is what’s happening.

The temptation is to keep asking the team. Emailing reminders, asking generally in the team meeting. These might work eventually.

Once you notice, the solution is actually pretty easy, and it’s the same as for the Bystander Effect. Rather than ask people for an answer, ask an individual. If you have an accident in a crowd, ask for help from the guy with a black hair, a beard, blue jeans and a red t-shirt, yes, you. Similarly, in these collaborative environments, ask the most likely individual. They might not know the answer, but they will know who does, or at least where to go next.