Sunday, September 21, 2014
Collaboration
This past week in Open we focused on another tenet of the program, collaboration. Imagine making a decision that was based solely on your opinion. Now imagine having to make that same decision, but you have make it as a group of people all with different opinions. Sounds like chaos right? Well, that's exactly what we had to do last week. In our activity we were given a list of thirteen people and told to pick six that were being sent to another planet that could support life before the Earth was destroyed. It was pretty simple until we had to pick the six as a group. Mostly because we all knew what we wanted our six to be, and we weren't very open to other people's opinions. There was a lot of yelling and bitter feelings. At the end of the activity, even though we had picked six people, no one was happy with the decisions. Then we discussed successful steps to collaboration and were given the chance to try again. The second time there was no yelling, everyone was happy or at least satisfied with the decision, and it took half the time of the first attempt. The difference? Structure. When you collaborate someone needs to step forward, take charge, and make a system of how things are going to get done. This skill is really important for me to learn because currently I am very bad at it. I would rather to almost alway work independently given the choice, but some day that won't be an option. For example, when I have job there will probably be plenty of times where I have to work with others to complete a project. So its important I know how to do it correctly and successfully. If you are looking for more collaboration tips check out the links below. The first link defines four key steps for collaboration. The second has seven tips to help you master collaboration.
http://www.fieldstonealliance.org/client/articles/article-4_key_collab_success.cfm
http://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/how-smart-people-collaborate-for-success.html
Question of the day: What's the best collaboration experience you've ever had?
Let me know down in the comments!
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Hello! I found your blog through my brother, Mr. Sitze. I loved your thoughts about collaboration, and appreciate your honesty in saying you don't think you're good at it. I have a question for you: Why do you think you're not good at collaboration? Are you more reserved and don't want to speak up, so it's easier to do it yourself so you get it done the right way without having to assert your point of view? Or is it more a speed thing... wanting to get it done fast without endless discussions? Or something else?
ReplyDeleteI work as a magazine editor, and collaboration is what I love most about my job. For example, I might write a story for the magazine, and then the art director (who's responsible for the layout and choosing photos/illustrations) makes it come alive on the page. Maybe she thinks a certain photo is gorgeous, and I agree but feel it doesn't convey the same feeling or intent as the words, so I tell her that--and then it's back to the drawing board to find a photo that is visually appealing AND matches what the story is about. Sometimes this happens right away and sometimes there are two or three go-arounds before we're both happy. Sometimes there are arguments and/or hurt feelings. But we both know that it always ends up being a much better product that either of us could achieve on our own, so we have learned to put any hard feelings behind us and move on.
Well, I think I don't enjoy collaboration as much as working independently because I have had a lot of experience of having to to do all of the work of a project by my self. Also, from problems in past collaborations, when people haven't pulled their weight or followed through on commitments, I have this fear that not everything will get done or get done correctly. Finally, I probably have a problem with collaboration because I can be very arrogant about my own ideas, and I forget that I'm not always right and that some people's ideas could be better than mine. Though, recently I have gotten a lot better about trusting people and keeping my arrogance in check, so hopefully my collaboration skills are on the rise!
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