Sverre Tyrhaug, who has led the law practice Thommessen for the past eight years, has methodically worked towards building a team-centric culture as opposed to solely recognizing individual performance. One reason for a renewed focus on the team, Sverre explained, is that “the world is multi-disciplinary, and to thrive you must be able to collaborate.” To illustrate this point, he used an analogy that resonated well with Norwegians; “we cannot be individual cross-country skiers.  Instead, we must collaborate in teams.” Across his team, Sverre is instilling a sense of concern for the success of fellow colleagues in order for the team to perform well – as a unit. Besides the function of preforming well, teams offer the opportunity to share successes and celebrate victories together.

Within the competitive field of law, the industry standard has long been, and to a strong degree still is, to promote individual achievements – “the cost of changing nothing has not been high enough.” High profits have acted as a barrier to the introduction of a shift in culture, though that sentiment is changing as Thommessen is ensuring the culture is promoted from the leadership level, which in turn affects the team, ultimately creating a firm wide change in the culture. By designing a team that prioritizes trust, support and open discussions, the firm corrects dysfunctions before they disrupt. Serre’s last piece of advice was to ask colleagues new questions, as they will lead to new conversations with unexpected and useful gains.