My good friend Fred has been going to write a book for years on the principle of mutual advantage, but since he hasn't done so, I feel a strong desire to share this universal principle with you. Maybe it will inspire him to get the book written so we can all benefit.

I heard the ideas came out of my mouth last week while proposing a consulting solution to an executive in charge of eCommerce for a financial services giant (you'd recognize the name of the company in just a few letters). He asked me to describe the core philosophy and approach of TeamWisdom, and of Partnerwerks seminars and consulting, and here's what I said.

1. First is the individual perspective. Even though most don't realize so, it is in every individual's best interest to take personal responsibility for the productivity of every team, partnership and collaboration in which she serves, or she should refuse to serve. Why? Simple. Because her personal performance and thus her eventual compensation and future reward depends on how the team performs. Managers and consultants have done a lousy job of educating individuals to this fact. Instead, we tell individuals that they should subordinate their own self-interest for the good of the team (yeah, right!).

That leads me to the organizational perspective.

2. There are two points to the organizational perspective. The first is this: Individuals will always act in their own self-interest. That's the way our nervous systems are designed. Whether we are driven by logic (most of us, some of the time) or emotion (most of us, most of the time), our actions are always in concert with our own perceived outcomes. For an cool perspective and graphic depicting how we pursue our outcomes in relation to others, see the model on page 154 of "Teamwork Is An Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done When Sharing Responsibility." If you don''t have a copy yet, see the links below to order it from Amazon or Partnerwerks.

Here''s the second point in the organizational perspective: Organizationally speaking, nothing happens unless there is mutual advantage. Think about it. How can you bring a team or organization to a standstill? Just make sure that the interests of the members are at odds with each other. In large-scale organizations, sometimes we refer to this condition as "bureaucracy" (though in essence bureaucracy is not a negative word and only refers to compartmentalization -- like your "bureau" in your bedroom, socks in one drawer, t-shirts in another). And how do you get a team or organization to move fast? Get all the interests aligned.

Want a few more examples? How do you move a negotiation forward? Easy, see how many of each party's "interests" can be easily met. How do you resolve a conflict? Simple - find a joint interest that is larger than each party''s individual interest.

Got the point? Then apply the universal principle of mutual advantage to lubricate every one of your relationships at work.