Chief Change Officer
#236 From Disney Magic to Real-World Teamwork: Tricia & Edward’s Guide to Collaboration That Works – Part One
Sat, 15 Mar 2025
We live in a world where “connections” are made with a click, but real collaboration takes more than a follow and a like. How do we build relationships that actually last?In Part One, I sit down with Tricia Cerrone and Edward J. van Luinen, two former Disney colleagues who turned workplace synergy into a decade-long friendship and a thriving business partnership. Now, they’re co-authoring a book to help others master the art of collaboration.In Part Two, we’ll break down their framework—five key behaviors and a “noble purpose” approach that makes teamwork more than just a buzzword.Key Highlights of Our Interview:Why Telling People to ‘Collaborate’ Doesn’t Actually Work“Think you can just tell your team to collaborate and expect magic? Think again. Collaboration isn’t one action—it’s a mix of behaviors, and it starts with the individual, not fancy tools or technologies.”Why Collaboration Equals Innovation“Collaboration boosts innovation exponentially. It’s not about wasting time competing with colleagues; it’s about working together to solve problems and deliver innovative solutions that make your company stand out.”Noble Purpose: More Than Just Vision and Mission“Leaders need to remind their teams of the noble purpose behind their work. Whether it’s delivering diapers or developing apps, connecting individuals to the bigger impact they have on customers is key to motivation and collaboration.”The Hidden Barriers to Teamwork: Why Collaboration Fails“From egos to insecurities, collaboration struggles often stem from within. True teamwork begins by addressing these internal challenges, transforming both ourselves and our workplace relationships.”Why Gratitude and Generosity Aren’t Just Nice-to-Haves“Generosity creates safety, resourcefulness unlocks solutions, and gratitude gives teams the chance to rest and recover. Together, these behaviors make collaboration more than a buzzword—they make it work.”______________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guests: Tricia Cerrone and Edward J. Van Luinen______________________--Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.10 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.130,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today. --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Why is collaboration important in today's workplace?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist humility for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Don't burn bridges. Keep up with business connections and personal relationships.
Because you never know when that connection or person could become your collaborator, business partner, or referral to a great opportunity. That's how I landed five job offers within three months after leaving a role that led to mental depression years ago. Today, though, it's so easy to burn and build bridges. You can add a friend in quotation in one second. and just as easily delete them.
This user-friendly, in quotation, UI UX experience has seeped into our modern mindset, making it effortless to kick people out of our own circles or lives. But without sustainable connections, How can we collaborate, build stronger teams, and create outcomes that benefit everyone?
Chapter 2: How did Tricia and Edward's collaboration journey begin?
In today's episode, I sit down with two guests, Edward Van Duden and Tricia Strong, to talk about connection and collaboration. Yesterday, Edward and Tricia reflected on their own collaborative journey, which started 10 years ago at Disley. They turned a positive work relationship into a sustainable personal friendship that has now grown into a business partnership.
and a co-authoring collaboration on a book about collaboration. Today, part two will dive into the vision and framework for collaboration centered on a noble purpose and five key behaviors. What are these behaviors? How can we practice them? And why is collaboration so challenging today? I assure you, the method isn't just another software solution.
It's far more human-centered than what we're used to seeing. Let's start collaborating. Before we dive into the five principles in your book and the noble purpose behind it, I want to ask, why does this book matter? On the flip side, what is the problem you're trying to solve with the book? From what you've shared with me so far, you believe collaboration
is the solution to many of the biggest workplace challenges. So if collaboration is the key, that means there are a lot of issues in the workplace today. What are those problems?
as you see them, but we see collaboration as two or more people working toward a common goal where they are using all their knowledge, skills, resources, and potential to achieve it. And that's important because they have to feel like they're also uniquely contributing. Like you were Vince in that job where you were so excited to get out of bed. So it's important that they feel that.
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Chapter 3: What are the common barriers to effective teamwork?
I think also then the problem when people say collaborate, I'll back up. In 2014, there were a couple different studies that said collaboration was the cause for 86% of workplace failures, and that was Salesforce. And there was another study done that they were looking at Australia, and if they could just solve the problem of collaboration, they would make another $46 billion a year.
And Australia is a fairly small economy compared to some other countries, and that's a significant amount of money.
And as we look at these statistics of people measuring problems in the workplace of not being engaged and quiet quitting and having stress, like the youngest generation coming into the workforce, 91% of them experience at least one kind of stress, which is basically saying everyone is stressed. We do think collaboration is the solution.
Chapter 4: How do the five key behaviors enhance collaboration?
Because the way we have designed it, you can design it into yourself and into your team and into your company. We're saying that you should design meaning and purpose, which is the noble purpose for the company and for the individuals. And we're saying you should always be leveling up yourself to in these behaviors of generosity and resourcefulness and co-creation and action and gratitude.
Because all five of those, we pick them for certain reasons because they interact and support each other and build on each other. And they actually impact our brain in different and similar ways that help us to think better, to be more resilient, to be more confident, to be happier and all these other things.
But we also had seen that people say, oh, go collaborate, but they don't understand what that means. What we have discovered in our work or what we believe from the work that we've done is that people just simply don't understand what collaboration is, and they're spending billions of dollars on a problem they don't understand. Two issues with that.
People think that the core unit of collaboration is teams or tools or technologies, but we're saying no, the core unit of collaboration is the individual. And so we all have to work on our individual skills first, or we won't be able to collaborate with anyone. There's this other piece of collaboration is not one action. It's a collection of actions or behaviors.
So you need, that's why we said these five behaviors. If you have these, you will be collaborative and your team will be collaborative. And so those misunderstandings, it's like... People say go collaborate when they say go ride a bike. You didn't learn how to ride a bike by doing one thing. You had to learn how to pedal the wheels and balance and use the handlebars.
And there's all these other things. So it's actually a slightly more complex activity. But once you get it, we believe that you will become an incredibly high performer and develop a high performance team.
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more, Trish. I believe the problem that we solve with collaboration is radically increasing innovation. Every CEO, every C-suite leader, every middle manager is trying to increase innovation. That's the problem that collaboration solves is we deliver innovation.
Not only in leadership and building teams, but using the five behaviors, as Tricia says, to be more efficient, to drive career growth, to drive better solutions because they're collaborative decisions and solutions. In a virtual world where running a business has never been more difficult. So the why is expanding innovation. And we reflect that in our book title, which is Collaborate to Compete.
Let's not compete with our colleagues. Wasted effort, waste of time. We collaborate so we as a company can innovate and compete better with others outside the company. So it's really the focus of what we want to do is collaborate. And the why, Vince, with your excellent question, is to increase innovation exponentially.
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Chapter 5: What is the role of a 'Noble Purpose' in collaboration?
Yes. But don't become a competitor. Use the same to your excellent earlier question, Vin. And Trish, as we're all talking about, use the behaviors. Use the noble purpose outside as well. Don't turn into a different person once you're outside the company. You're a collaborative leader. You've built a collaborative team.
Extend those behaviors and noble purpose and process and roadmap that Trish was describing to your life. That's the true, we feel, innovation here.
So tell me more about this noble purpose. How do you define it?
Noble Purpose is really a combination of vision and mission. But it's more than that. So you have your company vision and mission, but then you might have a team who is doing a project within the company. And so you want to take that noble purpose for the company.
Let's say the noble purpose for the company is we make diapers and deliver them 24 hours a day to serve families at the messiest time in their life. And so that's an important thing. You're literally saving some mother's sanity and some little baby from diaper rash. That's the big emotional noble purpose of it.
So there's like what you are physically doing and the customer, the value and the change and the impact that you're having on their lives. Now that can get lost when you're just a little person on a team, maybe developing a new app for the company. You're the person programming and you can lose sight of the noble purpose for the company.
And so we always ask the leaders that you have to take that noble purpose and explain it to your team, the importance of this app for you. your end customer, right? Not just for the company ROI. This app is going to now be accessible to the mother or father for them to access and order diapers to be delivered within eight hours. Then with that programmer, you also want to let them know, look,
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Chapter 6: How does Disney's Imagineering embody collaboration?
This app wouldn't happen without your unique skills, and our team wouldn't even function that if you didn't have that sense of levity in your work and the outgoing curiosity that you have.
so a leader wants to bring that noble purpose to the individual in a very specific and unique way so that person feels seen and valued for everything that they're bringing to the job and to the company and to the people they are serving in the bigger world we don't spend enough time
First of all, articulating what the noble purpose is and the why. So link that, Vince, to your earlier question about you being motivated to want to go to work at one of your past workplaces. What happens? We are in back-to-back meetings for 10 hours a day.
We're just trying to get tasks done, but we need to spend time, as Trish says, sharing what is the noble purpose with the team and with each individual to ensure they understand the why and tie it back to Vince, what you said, so that I do feel like I want to get my head off the pillow and go to work, which I did at Disney. because the noble purpose is incredibly motivating at Disney.
to create things every day so tie the noble purpose explaining the why making sure it resonates and is real for the team member so that they want to get their head off the pillow and want to go to work and also at the end of the day have a dinner conversation that's exciting oh this happened at work today oh this team member did this our leader shared this information with me
Those are the deeply human metrics that drive collaboration. And I think we were able to do that.
Edward and I were both at Walt Disney Imagineering. So we were working to design the theme parks and experiences around the world. And one of my very first attractions that I did was in Epcot. And it was a small little attraction where you design a robot and then you race on a dance pan. You have these different winners. Opening week, there was this family that came in to play.
It was a father and mother, a very annoyed, cynical-looking teenage boy and a little girl. They start playing the game. They're looking, and then they start getting a little competitive with each other. Then they race, and when they left... The attraction, they were literally walking off the dance pads and the son and the father high-fived each other.
And the son's face was so transformed, like he had had fun and laughter. And their engagement while they were playing, it created a different space for them to engage. How they looked at each other was different and how they experienced each other was different. The dad put his arm around his son as they were walking out. And I literally almost started crying.
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