Working Together
Collaboration has become a hot topic lately, and a recent IBM global study of CEOs revealed that collaboration is key to innovation success, especially when collaboration occurs beyond company walls.
Collaboration can be a challenge depending on the culture of an organization. As Meg Wheatley said to me in an interview for Orchestrating Collaboration at Work: "In North American culture, we have so conditioned people to be competitive and to look out for themselves that teamwork has become a problem. Yet working together is a more natural state for humans than working in isolation, and teamwork is a natural tendency. The arts, and sports as well, provide people with the experience of what it's like to work together."
From Experience
I recently teamed up a with a colleague on a book publishing project. When Arthur VanGundy asked me to write a book with him about the arts in business, the first thing I asked was, "Will my name be on the acknowledgements page under "Thanks a lot Linda," or will it be on the front cover?
It's good to get this sort of thing clear right away to avoid misunderstanding. Andy told me my name would be on the front cover, but he would be the lead author.
Complimentary Expertise
The next thing we talked about was the vision for the book -to create an activity book for corporate trainers based on the arts to provide new ways to learn about creativity, collaboration and leadership.
Our book would represent a revolution in training exercise books, and help create a new relationship between the worlds of art and business. Exciting stuff! I felt I was on a mission to change the world, that I could actually help people make life and work a work of art.
Collaboration makes sense when you have complimentary expertise. In our case, Andy has expertise as an author and educator, and I have international experience in applying art to enhance creative thinking in corporate environments. Neither one of us could have done the project without the other. That is the beauty of collaboration.
Establishing The Partnership
Before moving ahead, we needed to establish rules of engagement: I would do most of the work, but that was okay, because it was an opportunity to be published. I asked him what deliverables he expected from me: 20 activities for the book. What? I'd only ever devised three! He said, "Linda, I know you have it within you to do this." That gave me confidence. I felt that if I had problems, he would help me. I was also in charge of conducting the interviews and coordinating all the contributors.
Andy's job was to create activities as well, do preliminary editing and liaise with the publisher. Another important agreement was to answer requests within 48 hours, to at least inform each other when we could expect a decision or a completed task.
We only spoke on the phone about six times throughout the nine month project, because we live thousands of miles apart, but we exchanged about 6,000 emails.
Our relationship was built on mutual respect, empathy and trust that our intentions were for the greater good of the project, not our egos. We trusted each other enough to feel free to be crabby at times, without negative repercussions.
We never became competitive, nor did we fight about territory, because our roles were clearly defined, and so were the deliverables. We did a lot of brainstorming by email, and because of the nature of our relationship, it was fun to build on each other's ideas, tell jokes and sometimes be a little mischievous. Keeping a sense of humour in the face of obstacles made the work more enjoyable.
That's not to say we didn't have arguments. In retrospect, we should have spoken on the phone when there was a problem, and not waste time and energy drowning in misinterpreted email.
Finding The Title To The Book
One argument was over the title of the book. It was more of a heated discussion really. We debated for three days by email, before sending our choice of titles to the editor. She chose a title of her own, which I abhorred. I insisted we send our list of titles, to a listserv of peers to vote on.
We sent the results to our editor and she came up with yet another title, "Orchestrating Collaboration at Work" Miraculously we all liked it. It was our editor who noticed that many of the activities we sent in for review were in fact about collaboration.
So midway through our contract, back in 2003, our book turned out to be a collaborative project about collaboration.
Energy and focus - critical to the project - were maintained by a strong sense of purpose and due dates. We had a publishing contract before we had even written the book, and were given nine months to complete the manuscript. That definitely put pressure on us.
Sum Up
In conclusion my advice for creative collaboration is to team up with someone you trust, whose talent complements your own. Make sure you have a compelling vision and purpose for your project, one that really inspires and motivates you. You'll need it when the going gets rough.
Establish rules of engagement about how you will work together, who is responsible for what, and what you will deliver. Set due dates to stay focused, add humour to the mix, and celebrate successes along the way.
Here are my top 8 tips for successful collaboration:
1. Healthy relationships are at the heart of collaboration. Appreciating others, engaging in purposeful conversations and the ability to resolve conflicts are essential ingredients for collaboration. Find ways for the team to get to know each other not just as professionals, but as human beings, to build trust and provide occasions for informal social interaction.
2. A guiding vision and clarity of purpose are key to collaboration. Warren Bennis said "Great Groups think they are on a mission from God… Their clear, collective purpose makes everything they do seem meaningful and valuable."
3. Provide a clear mission objective. Team members jointly prepare a written purpose statement for their collaboration, and define rules of engagement which include goals, roles, responsibilities and deliverables. Communicate how decisions are made.
4. Create an atmosphere of safety, trust and respect. Encourage multiple perspectives, diverse viewpoints and creativity. Keep members energised through stimulating, quality discussions around cutting edge issues.
5. Provide great leadership. Nurture the brilliance of your people and do everything you can to remove barriers to high performance. Avoid being too autocratic and allow time for the team to weigh in on decisions.
6. Great work is its own reward. Give credit where credit is due and recognize team performance as well as individual achievements.
7. Use coaching to reinforce a collaborative culture. Coaching can improve teamwork and help with difficult conversations.
8. Add zest factors. Make collaboration fun. Celebrate completions before moving on.
References:
Orchestrating Collaboration at Work, by Arthur VanGundy and Linda Naiman
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, by Don Tapscott, and Anthony D. Williams
Wisdom at Work: Wake me up when the data is over, by Linda Naiman
Mastering the Art of Creative Collaboration by Robert Hargrove
Organizing Genius, by Warren Bennis