12. Stronger together – eight principles for collaboration in student companies and teachers’ teams

If you’ve ever tried to run a company, successfully achieve results at a school, or solve the climate crisis, you know how tough it can be to do it alone. Being alone is not being strong. We need to collaborate. Economist Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 2009 for her discoveries of what makes cooperation around natural resources last for hundreds of years. The same principles can also be applied to smaller collaborations: in student-run businesses (like student companies), work teams, or between teachers in different countries. In the book How to cure an egoist : eight principles for sustainable teams, Ostrom’s principles are combined with insights from over a hundred psychological studies on teams and organisations. The result is a scientifically grounded framework for creating sustainable and successful teams, groups, and collaborations. This lecture is based on the book and provides an overview of the eight principles. Once you've started building a sustainable collaboration in your own team, maybe you are ready to take on larger and larger cooperative challenges?

The lecture is held by Oskar Henrikson, licensed psychologist, CEO and founder of Psykologifabriken, who wants team development to become a habit. Oskar has received the Alumni of the Year award from Linköping University for his work in bringing positive psychology into society, and he's somewhat known for doing this in various ways – including by creating the habit of outdoor swimming for a year. Oskar is a popular speaker, as seen in his TEDx talk, and he has created measurable behavioral change and a positive work environment in organizations such as Systembolaget and Jämtkraft.