Podcast: How to Design Collaboration in Workplaces Where 40% of People Prefer Working Individually over Teams

When we feel that there is a lack of teamwork, we tend to think of increasing meetings, encouraging small talk, or gathering everyone together.

However, in workplaces where many people prefer to work individually, that prescription can disrupt focus and actually make it harder to get work done.

In today's podcast, using the Persol Research and Consulting's 'Survey on Working and Growth 2026 for 10,000 Workers' as a guide, we will consider how to design collaboration that keeps work moving while protecting individual discretion.

The most interesting part this time

The most interesting point this time is that 'wanting to work alone' is not treated as a lack of cooperativeness.

In the survey, 40.7% of respondents said they 'prefer work that can be done individually rather than in a team.' This figure is not a declaration that the value of teamwork has decreased. It must also include the desire to focus deeply, have discretion, and demonstrate expertise.

What we should be asking is not how to force everyone into the same way of working. It is how to create a work system where people can connect without hesitation when necessary, while still protecting the time they spend working individually.

What is happening?

Respecting individual focus is different from isolating work within individuals. If work proceeds without clear boundaries of responsibility or reasons for decisions, bottlenecks only become visible when help is needed, leading to delays in handovers and customer responses.

The first point is not to confuse individual orientation with isolation orientation.

What people who prefer to work alone are looking for may not be constant synchronization, but rather focus and discretion. HR and managers need to prepare entry points where people can reliably connect when necessary, rather than trying to correct that preference.

The second point is that the quality of collaboration is not determined by the amount of meetings.

Who decides what? At what point should you consult others? Where do you record progress and decisions? If these handovers remain ambiguous, increasing meetings will not reduce friction in coordination.

The third point is not to make personalization a problem of the individual's personality.

The fact that information gathers in one person and the reasons for decisions are not shared does not necessarily mean that someone is uncooperative. In some cases, the lack of design for where to hand over work, the conditions for consultation, and the recording of decisions is what creates personalization.

Why is this important?

If you view collaboration only in terms of 'getting along well,' individual focus and team coordination will appear to be a trade-off.

However, in reality, the more you set up connection points with a select few, the more compatible they can be. Instead of consulting everyone at all times, decide what to complete alone and where to get confirmation from others. This actually makes it faster to ask for help.

The first point is that the role of managers will change.

Managers are not people who involve everyone with the same intensity. They are people who articulate which tasks can be completed individually and which tasks should be checked across departments early on, creating an environment where asking for advice is not seen as a 'weakness'.

The second point is that the metrics HR looks at will also change.

Participation rates in team-building initiatives alone do not indicate whether collaboration is functioning. By observing where work stalls, where rework occurs, delays in handovers, and waiting times for decision-making, you can identify the connection points that need fixing.

The third point is the ability to balance discretion with common rules.

There is no need to uniformly control how work is carried out. However, if there are minimal common rules—such as who has the final say, the entry point for consultation, and how decisions are recorded—individual freedom becomes not an invisible burden, but discretion that leads to results.

If you are looking at this on the ground

Before discussing relationships at tomorrow's team meeting, it would be good to verify the following three things.

The first is who is allowed to decide what, and to what extent, on their own regarding this work.

Articulate not just the scope of responsibility, but also the scope of what they are allowed to decide. If you can see the boundaries where confirmation from others is needed along the way, you can reduce both unnecessary checks and consultations that come too late.

The second is whether the conditions for when it is okay to consult are visible.

Just saying "consult me if you're in trouble" does not serve as an entry point. Specify the conditions under which one should consult, such as when a deadline is likely to shift, when a promise to a customer is affected, or when there is insufficient information to make a decision.

The third is whether what has been decided remains in a form that can be passed on to the next person.

Collaboration cannot continue if the state of affairs is only understood by those who attended the meeting. Briefly record the conclusion, the reason, and the next person in charge, and place it where those who need it can find it. Even just doing that will change the quality of handovers.

Takeaways for today

There is one takeaway for today.

Collaboration is not about making everyone work in the same way. It is about designing the places where work is handed over, the conditions for consultation, and the methods for recording decisions, all while protecting individual focus.

There is no need to assume that having people who want to work individually is a headwind for the team. Rather, because you can respect the time they need to focus, value is created by clarifying the moments when they should connect.

What is necessary for collaboration is not constant connection, but necessary connection.

So tomorrow, start by taking one task and try to articulate as a team, "Who decides what to what extent, and when, to whom, and what should be passed on to move things forward."

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