Collaboration theatre…saying we’re collaborating, labelling it, everyone pretending we’re collaborating but we’re all just doing our own thing.

L&D sees collaboration theatre more clearly than most. We sit across teams and see where work joins up and where it doesn’t. Worst of all, we’re often asked to “support collaboration” without anyone changing the conditions required for it.

There are four levels I’ve spoken about before that show up fast.

Competition dressed as collaboration
You’re asked to fix “cross-team behaviour” while leaders defend their own priorities. You see departments fighting for headcount, budget, and visibility. You’re asked for training on teamwork when the incentives reward individual delivery. Every workshop becomes a sticking plaster over a competitive system.

Coordination dressed as collaboration
You’re pulled into meetings so people can say L&D is involved. You see shared calendars, joint comms plans, aligned milestones. It looks organised, but every team still owns its own outcomes. L&D becomes the meeting facilitator, not the performance lever. L&D’s role is to stop people colliding.

Cooperation dressed as collaboration
People are nice; they show up, give input, “feed in” their needs and you’re thanked for supporting. But nothing is shared, no team is willing to redesign workflow, shift decision rights, or integrate capability. L&D becomes the helpful extra pair of hands, not a strategic partner.

Collaboration in name only
You’re asked to run collaboration sessions, co-design days, innovation sprints. The language is perfect and the Miro boards and flip charts are colourful. The artefacts from the day appear collaborative…until everyone returns to their old patterns because the system wasn’t moved. L&D gets blamed for the lack of follow-through, even though the conditions were never there.

What real collaboration looks like for L&D
Shared performance outcomes L&D is accountable with others for
Shared risks and constraints
Shared change in performance workflow or process
Shared ownership of behaviour and performance
Shared measures that sit across teams, not just inside L&D

Collaboration only works when the system makes solo delivery impossible. Many organisations don’t want that – just the optics.

Through the L&D lens, collaboration theatre isn’t just visible, it’s predictable. Unless L&D names the level the organisation is actually operating at, you’ll be asked to keep performing the role long after the curtain should have closed.