collaboration on collaboration
DESCRIPTION
An introduction to collaboration concepts used at University of Chicago Booth School of Business Chicago alumni event at launch of effort to engage with collaborationTRANSCRIPT
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Collaboration on CollaborationNovember 4, 2009 +
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Collaboration is about a common goal
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Our goal
• To open up a conversation about collaboration
• To see if there’s interest in pursuing some topics (or several topics) together
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Discussion groups
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We can think about many topics
Personal skill
The Boss
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3
Operational approach
Corporate strategy/definition
Group 3Group
2
Group 1
Group n
Inter-organizational approach
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Human element critical to collaboration
Usually what the designer has in mind
Often not thought about explicitly
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Collaboration process promises benefits
• Better solutions due to cognitive diversity
• More commitment to the results, because we were part of creating them
Diverse perspectives and expertise
Methods for:
•Integrating diverse views
•Managing the human elements
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Individual skills for collaboration
• Bilateral– Have a shared
goal (prerequisite)
– Right attitudes– Necessary skills
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Individual skills for collaboration
• Teams– Know and
enforce team basics
– Right attitudes
– Right skills
Picture by Allan Edwards, Flickr
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A way of working within organizations
• Cross functional collaboration to achieve a goal (Hansen)– What are the benefits?– What are the costs?
• “Large group processes”, e.g., Open Space
• Collaborative workspaces• Enterprise 2.0 ideas
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Ideas from Hansen
• Need to compare the value derived from collaboration against the cost
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Hansen’s pitfalls
• Wrong culture/wrong setup• Wrong barriers (maybe its not
collaboration that’s needed, but finding info)
• Over-collaborating• Expecting more synergies across
boundaries than are realistic• Underestimating the
costs/difficulties
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Barriers to collaboration (Hansen)
• Not invented here – people don’t want to reach out
• Hoarding – people don’t want to help
• Search – people not able to find what they are looking for (or who – DF)
• Transfer – people not able to work with people they don’t know well
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Solutions (Hansen)
• Unifying goal• Cultivate t-
shaped managers
• Build nimble networks
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Collaborative leadership (Hansen)
• Redefine success – from narrow agendas to bigger goals
• Involve others• Being
accountable – take responsibility (don’t blame others)
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Open Space
Source: Kevin Hayes, Flickr
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How Open Space works
Self-organizing collaboration
• Invited• Group
members generate questions that are basis for meetings
• Group members lead meetings (and may report out)
• New groups organized
Law of two feet (Personal Mobility)
• Identify issues
• Connect, mobilize and energize people
• Prioritize• Set action
steps• Launch of
circle of invitation to bring more people into the process
• If you’re not contributing or getting something, move somewhere else.
Principles• Whoever comes
are the right people
• Whenever it starts is the right time
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
• When it’s over, it’s over
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Enterprise 2.0
• Taking blogs, social networks, microblogging, wikis, GoogleDocs inside the organization on an easy platform– Tap information
people have– Tap social
relationships of people– Provide collaborative
workspaces
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Some interesting E 2.0 examples
• A – Space• IBM (Bowling Online)
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Some interesting questions
• Business only vs. social + business
• Focused on specific issues vs. wherever people take it
• Bonding vs. bridging vs. both
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90-10-1
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Examples of collective intelligence
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Malone’s questions collective intelligence
• Who?• What?• Why?• How?
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Who and how?
Create (who)
Decide (who, how)
Crowd Crowd by voting
Crowd Hierarchy
Crowd Crowd/individual about what to watch
Crowd Crowd by consensus
Crowd Hierarchy
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Why?
Money !!
Glory !!
Love !!
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What (and more on how)?
Independent Dependent
Create Collection (like YouTube or contests)
Collaboration (like Linux)
Group (bound) Individually
Decide •Voting•Consensus•Averaging•Prediction markets
•Markets•Social networks
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Collaboration guidelines
Source: Adapted from Trebor Scholz, The participatory challenge
Culture Develop trust and mutual respect
Goals Outline clear and attainable short-term and long-term goalsDefine needs/ self-interests well
Process Pay attention to scale (4-5 people is great)Get everybody involved in the processDevelop a clear process including self-reflexive loops Combine online with face-to-face to speed up the processStick to initially made commitmentsUse facilitators for larger groups
Attitude Take a dose of humilityDevelop a long-term viewLearn when to let go
Communication skills
Give reasons behind your thinkingBe concise, patient and persistentDevelop good listening skillsPut a stop to domineering interruptions and put-downsCommunicate frequently, clearly and openlyAcknowledge upcoming problems
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Next steps – Dinner !!
Source: Avlxyz, Jorge_11, Bev(sugarbloom cupcakes) on Flickr
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Rest of the evening
Dinner• Some structured
discussion• Chatting• Eating!!
After dinner• Structured
discussion• Information
assembly• Decisions on
next steps
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First 10 minutes – one on one
• Two rounds – one listening, one talking
• Different partners for each
• 5 minutes each
• What challenges do you face in your work/ or in your life?
• How could a group of people help you succeed with those challenges?
• What are the barriers to:– Assembling that group
of people?– Getting that group of
people to work with you well?
– Expanding that group of people?
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Next 20 minutes (or as long as you want)
• As you eat –– What aspects of collaboration are
most interesting to you to explore, to work on.
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Next steps… are up to us!!