Better Together | How Collaboration Drives Real Impact and Social Change

This inspiring piece by MumAbroad founding partner Carrie Frais was originally delivered as an impactful speech at a Maresme Toastmasters event held at No20 in Vilassar de Mar. In it, she explores the power of collaboration—how true achievement is rarely a solo pursuit, but rather the result of collective effort, trust, and shared purpose.

What do you think your greatest achievement has been? Now ask yourself: did you do it alone?  Possibly. Well done if so.  But most likely not. Few of us would ever say that their success is all about ‘me me me’! It’s more often about us, you (single or plural) and me. 

We’re all aware that the world is becoming increasingly divided and for me, one of the most concerning divisions is between those who are on a solo path to success, who want all the glory and recognition, a society that champions individualism and ‘take as much as you can get -ism’, those who will elbow people out of the way so that their face (and only their face) is in the spotlight and those who want to be part of a collective or a community or a movement – to take shared responsibility and collaborate.

Let’s face it. Most of life’s biggest successes aren’t solo missions—they happen when people come together. And there have been other amazing global collaborations such as the Paris climate agreement, the moon landing, the human genome project or the eradication of Polio. These incredible milestones all came from scientists, organizations and countries coming together, leading to greater innovation, progress and success. 

And then of course there was the Covid pandemic.   If it hadn’t been for the collaboration of tens of thousands of experts and volunteers, we may never have found a vaccine and the death toll could have been much worse.  But what the pandemic also told us is that collaboration creates human connection, essential for our wellbeing. The stories of how we all helped each other during this time of crisis touched our hearts and it was for me, by far the best lesson that came out of this dark period. 

But what I personally am really passionate about is how many collaborations start small and then grow to become global movements. The hashtag movements. The plastic free movement started in 2008 when a UK-based group (in Cornwall) called Surfers Against Sewage launched a small campaign to reduce single-use plastics in coastal towns. They were outraged at the stage of the ocean, seeing sewage in the water, causing swimmers to get ill. They saw marine life suffering from plastic waste and chemicals which had been carelessly let into the sea.
 
They called on local communities to start banning plastic bags and organizing beach clean-ups. Then the UK government took note and went on to ban many single use plastics. The EU followed suit in 2018 passing legislation to eliminate many single-use plastics.  This all inspired by grassroots activism. Big businesses like Starbucks, McDonald’s and Unilever committed to reducing their plastic waste.

Real impact which had started small. Things that start out as an experiment can also turn out to be incredible collaborations. One of my favourite stories is how Wikipedia grew in 2001 from just a handful of contributors on a few specific subjects to now millions of volunteer contributors to create the largest knowledge sharing platform on the internet. This shows how collaborative efforts can create something much bigger than any individual effort. Then there are other collaborations that started small and became hashtag movements #MeToo, #Pride, #Black Lives Matter, #Fridays For Future and many more. 

And for me personally, anyone that knows me will know that I’m all for collaboration, pretty much in every aspect of my life.  I’ve worked on numerous collaborative projects bringing together people from different disciplines and those have always been the most rewarding of anything I’ve done in the work space. I run a coworking space (No20) in Barcelona where I’ve collaborated on both work and personal projects to bring people together to simply spread a bit of harmony and joy. 4Voices is a movement formed through collaborations with other like-minded individuals to help teenagers find their voice and speak with confidence. #SpeakUp

But collaboration is not always easy.  We can have differences in ideas, communication styles and egos can get in the way.  Much of collaboration is also built on trust – trust that the others within the group will give as much as you give and have the same values. But what is also important is that we don’ t avoid challenges but instead we learn how to navigate them. And that is sometimes where the difficult conversations come in. 

So how can we all become better collaborators?

1. Listen more. Talk less. Great teams thrive on understanding
2. Embrace different perspectives- that’s how innovation happens.

So I would ask you all, have a think who you could collaborate with to create something really special, something innovative and something which ignites the fire in your belly. What could you build together that you couldn`t alone?  There is no limit to what we can accomplish. We truly are better together.

What will your #movement be?

About Toastmasters Maresme: The Maresme Toastmasters Club provides residents of the region access to a safe, friendly, and constructive environment with resources to help you develop your communication, public speaking and presentation skills. For more details visit the Maresme Toastmasters website.

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