Collaboration empowers people.
Collaboration is a great force for empowering people. But what does it empower?
First thought, participation. It’s pretty tough to have collaboration without participation, but as I mentioned in the last post on Sparkplugs, it takes someone to spark that participation. Then, a little like a flywheel, our ability to participate and to feel safe when we participate accelerates and creates its own momentum. We all feel more comfortable speaking up in a room where we’re familiar with the group and the dynamic than when we first show up. I maintain that the confidence you build in one collaborative room carries forward to the next time you collaborate.
It empowers creativity. Give a group of people a problem to solve and it’s amazing the ideas that will bubble to the surface. I’m reminded of the high-pressure improvisation needed on the Apollo 13 flight to adapt critical equipment for absorbing carbon dioxide in the module being used to get the astronauts back to earth. I like this example because it basically asks, “how do we take what we have and do what we need?”
Collaboration empowers critical thinking. We’ve all heard the quip “everybody’s a critic!”, but critical thinking is how we take creative ideas into the realm of the possible. Examining the data, looking at assumptions, challenging ideas, looking for missing aspects, and more all allow us to ‘tune’ our collaborative ideas so they might work. In collaboration, participants will often shift back and forth between creative and critical thinking throughout the discussion.
Collaboration empowers leadership, although it looks different from what we typically envision when we talk about leadership. Leadership within a collaboration is dynamic; shifting among people depending on the course of the conversation and how well that part of the conversation aligns with a person’s ideas and thoughts. I’ve heard this likened to the way the lead changes in a jazz ensemble, passing from musician to musician. Some may see this as simple participation, but I think of it as a step beyond, because the person is directing the conversation for a time.
Designed well and done well, collaboration can empower many more things as well. Belonging, accomplishment, even happiness.
Share your thoughts. I’d like to know what kinds of empowerment you think comes from collaboration. Email me at scott.millar@collaboration-dynamics.com
Happy Collaborating.
Scott Millar, through Collaboration Dynamics, often works as a "peacemaker" by gathering people with different experiences and values and helping them navigate beyond their differences to tackle complex problems together. As the host of the Cool Collaborations podcast where he explores fun stories and insights of successful collaboration with guests from around the world, and then dives into what made them work. Cool Collaborations is currently available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.
