Stumble It!

perhaps but it won't help you produce it in your team!

Wikipedia makes an attempt at defining “Collaboration”. It comes from the Latin 'co' meaning 'with' and 'labore' meaning 'to work' and means 'to work together'.

Trying to define collaboration

However wikipedia neatly sidesteps the questıon by suggesting that more research ıs required to answer questions like:

• How does collaboration differ from cooperation?


• What qualifies as a collaboration?


• What are the defining principals or elements of this process?

One of the barriers to collaboration is the very word itself - in many places, such as France, the UK and Ireland, the word is loaded with negativity from its wartime meanıng of "traitorous cooperation with the enemy".

So it seems to me that a definitional approach to collaboration is unlikely to help us much in trying to produce good collaboration in our teams.

What about good and bad collaboration?

Perhaps it is more useful to identify what is good and what is bad collaboration.

In another article, When collaboration goes bad, I review work by Harvard Professor David Perkins on his idea of 'organisational intelligence' which when lacking in a team or group leads to 'coblaboration' instead of collaboration.

Perkins also suggests three tests for coblaboration.

It is sometimes easier to see the symptoms of collaboration

Another approach is to try and understand collaboration by looking at contrasts in a number of domains:

At one end of the spectrum how do things look if collaboration is absent?

And at the opposite end of the spectrum how does the situation look if collaboration is present?

1. Doing Things
   Absent: Solo with collaboration on review
   Present: Group scoping and development
2. New Ideas & Innovation
   Absent: Linear and Incremental approach
   Present: Non-linear and Quantum
3. Conflict Resolution
   Absent: Formal, slow and late to be spotted
   Present: Informal, fast and raised early
4. Problem Solving
   Absent: Symptoms only addressed for quick resolution
   Present: Causes examined even if disruptive
5. Conversations and Communication
   Absent: Non-disclosive and safe
   Present: Disclosive but risky and messy
6. Opportunities and Business Development
   Absent: Narrow focus/ direct-interest only
   Present: Broad focus / mutual reciprocity

So its perhaps better not to try and define collaboration but to ask yourself to what extent you see evidence of its fruits in these (and other) domains of your team's operation.

If you assign numeric scores to each of these six domains you can easily create a quick 'collaboration signature' for your team.

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Bioteams Books Reviews

Could cell phones destroy civilisation

July 20, 2006 | article by Ken Thompson in Book Reviews (37)

"Cell", the new novel by horror writer Stephen King, paints an all too plausible scenario where our addiction to cell phones enables a malicious virus to be pulsed to every phone in the world turning all who take the call into a flock of murderously mad zombies.

Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK

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