Keys to Collaboration
This started as an answer to a Quora question, and I’ve started another running list similar to The Work of Playing, which can also apply to design thinking/innovation in groups. The question relates to business-related contexts, but still apply because the same dynamics are at play.
A good book on famous collaborations is Powers of Two. After re-reading the part about Lennon and McCartney, I realized the list is mostly all McCartney in spirit. I would imagine the differences between them are archetypal: McCartney, organized and industrious against the more languorous Lennon.
Creative collaborations and teams in business are different in that the latter is more clearly top-down in most cases. Steve Jobs was initially creative in the way the Beatles were creative and perhaps inspired by them. The early days of the computer industry were just as trippy as the music industry. What is now so oppressively embedded in our lives once had the ethereality of a Beatles recording session in 1966.
Obviously, collaborations are Zoomed now, and change the dynamics again. Peace and love was a good foundation for creativity in the 60s, but is not on anyone's mind now--at least a zeitgeist. Another one could be "Open to the ideas of John Cage", a separate list.
On No. 2:
“Eric would ask B.B.: What do you think of that?’ And B.B. would say: ‘If you like it, I like it.’ It was a really close mutual admiration they had for each other — both giving the other guy a big, wide, musical lane to function in — extreme reverence.
“There was definitely a feeling of mutual respect between them. And, obviously, they each honored the other one’s ideas. It was kind of funny, because they were so kind and gentle bouncing ideas off each other that it was almost laughable. One of them would say: ‘Well, however you want to do this is good with me.’ And the other would say: ‘Well, however you want to do it is good with me’.”
- A shared vision and a commitment to uphold it;
- Mutual respect/love;
- Acceptance that not all contributions require the same effort (some get off easy);
- Eccentric ideas accepted and seriously reasoned;
- Frequent diversion to diffuse conflict (changing the subject temporarily);
- Parity of skill in at least one area;
- Ability to "co-produce"
- Clear communication (not vague signals or mind games);
- Lower tolerance for self-promotion (not completely dismissed);
- More shared interests than less (ratio no less than 1:1 and not more than 3:1);
- Empathy for individual roles (knowing the feeling of being in someone else's shoes);
- Openness to learning (not intransigence or stubbornness);
- Individual explorations tangential to collaboration appreciated (bringing something to the table in the spirit of contribution);
- Willingness to sacrifice individuality for the serving of higher goals;
- Continuous defining/redefining “higher” goals (knowing why);
- Time to argue for positions, instead of being quickly dismissed (everything left on the table);
- Open to “third persons”;
- The ability to scrap initial plans for a new group vision
John Cage's 10 Rules for Students and Teachers:
- Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for a while.
- General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.
- General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students.
- Consider everything an experiment.
- Be self-disciplined: this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way
- Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.
- The only rule is work. If you want it to lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work.
- Do not try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.
- Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.
- We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.
Comments