Lizandra Barbuto
2 de mai. de 2024
"What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean," Isaac Newton
The topic of collaboration is currently the most innovative and has been gaining strength in the last 15 years, being increasingly accepted, even by more traditional organizations. It is clear that there are challenges and much confusion regarding the practice of collaborating, because for collaboration to be effective and achieve expected results such as project success, it is necessary to go far beyond collecting opinions on a topic. For an effective collaborative process that generates ideas and results, it is necessary to use specific methods, as well as personal attitudes.
The quote that opens this article brings a reflection that also concerns this construction. When coming together in a group, as each person knows a drop, what each one also brings to the collective is an unknown ocean. An interesting attitude to be available for a real collaborative process is to allow yourself to be in the process, as it brings out the direction towards what you are looking for. However, to open the process, you must use appropriate methods for each project or context.
Both at the beginning and during the process, many challenges will emerge that impede or block the potential of collaboration. For example:
Not having clarity about the group's purpose;
Needs for recognition greater than the willingness to collaborate;
Retained and limited information;
Mistrust among people in the group.
Have you ever experienced this?
I think that, when confrontation happens as an opportune part of the process, challenges can generate many satisfactory results. Once egocentric views are overcome and common sense is created towards a single goal, it is possible to work with a broader vision and knowledge base, creating complete perspectives: expanding connections, similarities, and differences in understanding.
The practice of collaborating is, above all, an interactive process that broadens the vision of the whole by making one see the contributions of each other in a shared context. This is a benefit of joint realization.
How to practice? From the beginning
There are countless techniques, platforms, and ways to put collaborative processes into practice. The choice depends on the objective you want to achieve, the context of the group, and the time available. Below, I list some ways of doing it that can be useful in any context as good practices for a collaborative process.
Check-in or round: "Check-in" is a common name in the context of facilitations. "Round" is more common in the therapeutic context. Inspired by traditional groups, some people have used the term "Arrival."
One of the most important aspects of collaboration is considering the people involved. In this way, in a check-in, the group has the opportunity to understand the emotional state or some situation that the person is experiencing and that could compromise or contribute to the group's process. In the check-in, you can use creativity and express yourself through a word or something fun - for example, using a metaphor to describe the current mood. Thus, it is possible to have clarity about individual behaviors in that group.
In teams that work together, meeting several times in a day, you can have a check-in at the beginning of the day and a check-out at the end. This is because I realize that, if there are frequent meetings in a short space of time, the activity loses strength.
Create space for contradictory perceptions to emerge: this action is essential to generate ideas. The first step towards a common understanding of what is being dealt with. However, it is only possible when there is no external and, mainly, internal judgment. When there is no need to have an immediate solution and no concern about knowing how to put it into practice.
Being faced with apparently contradictory ideas helps to expand capacity and exercise creativity, since, as William Plomer said, "it is the function of creative people to perceive and to connect the seemingly unconnected."
Ways to develop
A villain called judgment. A solution called brainstorming
The mechanistic model since the 16th century has stimulated a mental model that prioritizes the mind. This, in turn, is the cradle of judgment. This mental model is one of the biggest villains for the good use of the potential of collaboration. Therefore, it is necessary to be attentive to yourself so as not to fall into this trap of limiting the creative process, since it requires a mind that’s open and available to create ideas and connect them in an innovative way.
The sense of urgency and immediate resolution, little patience either to listen to the other or to apply some method are visible behaviors that are born from judgment, limiting the openness to expand ideas and resolutions.
There are methods that organize contradictory ideas and document processes to help build common intent and understanding. Brainstorming is one of them. The technique was developed by North-American Alex Faickney Osborn, in 1939, when he realized that his employees had difficulty creating creative campaigns for their clients.
Thus, he created this process of stimulating the generation of ideas. The method aims to collect and analyze the greatest possible number of options for a given situation.
After brainstorming, it is necessary to use new techniques to put ideas into action, as materializing ideas and monitoring results is what generates satisfaction and motivation towards success.
Dream Circle
Dream Circle is a technique developed by Australian John Croft for the Dragon Dreaming method. It can be used independently of the entire method.
Unlike brainstorming, the Dream Circle has an order of collecting the intentions, which are usually referred to as the "dreams" of the participants towards a specific project or solution. At the end, individual dreams are transformed into a collective dream when they are read in the past, generating a sense of accomplishment. This is a process of opening up to what emerges. Just as in brainstorming, it is necessary to put aside judgment or denial of what the others bring.
The technique is performed in a circle, following the sequence so that everyone has the same opportunity to express themselves. It is necessary to record everyone's dream in a simple document, handwritten or digital, in a clear and organized way, as follows: "NAME: DREAM/INTENTION OF THE PARTICIPANT". The listening process continues until everyone feels satisfied. The file will be valuable for project follow-up in all phases.
The principles are:
Do not deny the other's dream even if it seems contradictory or impossible;
Say one dream at a time at each round;
Do not justify the dream, as the group is building relationships of trust. Therefore, it is important to trust that all contributions are relevant to the process. The justification emerges when there is not enough trust, being necessary to explain the reason behind that particular dream;
Be careful to keep the group's energy and attention.
In addition, it is important to have visually clear to all participants what is being said, especially when there are many people. To this end, a good practice is to document in a clear and visual way: to build lists, color, draw in a way that everyone follows is a way to integrate the information that emerges and enable understanding for everyone. Graphic facilitators use this strategy because, when you start sketching an idea, the process becomes clear, the content materializes, stimulating new ideas, adjustments, and refinement of the original understanding. The sketches, the visualization of ideas in words or drawings, integrate imaginative perception and concrete possibilities.
Having the ideas and suggestions visually clear and exposed to everyone creates engagement. When what emerges in a meeting is visually exposed, and more than that, is part of something created in collaboration, such as a drawing or a document, people relate better to the space, to ideas, and judgment decreases, enhancing creativity.
These techniques mentioned above focus on creating a common purpose, which creates a sense of ownership and belonging. When people collaborate, it helps to create something together: there is tangible evidence of their contribution, improving the commitment to support execution, as everyone is part of it.
There is a simple story that exemplifies the sense of purpose that generates motivation.
There were three people cutting rocks. A person passing by asked these cutters what they were doing.
The first replied:
– I am cutting rocks.
The second:
– I'm here to earn money, pay the bills and support my family.
And the third:
– I'm here building a cathedral.
Although everyone was doing the same thing, they had different perspectives on their work.
It is clear that the third cutter enjoyed his activities more and performed better because they chose to see the overall purpose of their tasks and their impact on the social context, as they considered a greater purpose, such as the benefit to the faithful who would have a place to pray.
Theory U
Theory U is a social technology, so I differentiate it from collaborative creation methods that propose specific techniques for planning, information gathering, testing, process monitoring, and review. It's about personal leadership and a different way of thinking.
Otto Scharmer, author of Theory U, proposes through this journey to lead people to dissociate themselves from their usual way of thinking so that they can contribute with possible solutions in tune with the needs of the social context.
A strong concept in this methodology is Presence, which means that the realization of future potential depends entirely on all individuals together. In this way, it values individual potential for collaboration. For this, the person has to open their mind to new ideas and, at the same time, not obstruct emotions.
Listening, in turn, is the prerequisite for a good Presence, the way in which we are able to listen. Scharmer divided Listening into four levels:
Downloading: It is transferring known information, just listening to reconfirm what you already know.
Factual listening: Paying attention, noticing when the information is different from what is known. This new information is added to the already known.
Empathic listening: Seeing through the eyes of another person, the ability to understand and respect.
Generative listening: Going beyond one's own personality by connecting one's own intuition with the environment. Explore pure ideas and thoughts.
In practice, this approach has shown positive effects in encouraging employees to deal with certain situations differently and to have an open mind towards new and different thoughts.
The Power of Energy
The body is a key element in the processes of creation and execution of any nature. And, regardless of the chosen methodology, to maintain motivation in the group, it is important to have internal energy. This allows you to maintain attention to processes, whether individual or collaborative, in addition to preventing diseases and maintaining a state of well-being. There are countless techniques for this. All, without a doubt, are associated with connecting and moving the body.
One can, for example, do stretches, practice a short walk; take a break, closing their eyes and connecting breath and body.
In Dragon Dreaming, this moment is called Pinakarri, an Aboriginal concept that influenced the development of the method. Gurdjieff, a scholar of human development, called it a Stop. This is a 1-minute stop in which you gather your attention to your body and yourself and soon return to the activity more attentive and free of judgments for a certain time, until it is necessary to stop again to gather your attention. Theory U, in turn, through the concept of presence, suggests the practice of stopping for moments during both individual and collective actions.
Practices of this nature are also proposed by Mindfulness, widely accepted today in organizational contexts. It shows that focusing attention on yourself, relaxing, and connecting with the body is quite effective individually and collectively.
Time to Plan
From my experience working directly with processes of collaborative creation of projects, I say that there are few methods with this specific approach. What exist are practices, techniques, or adaptations of processes. Based on this, I suggest two methods, as they offer specific techniques to collect ideas from the group and transform them into collaborative actions:
Dragon Dreaming, which contains specific techniques for planning that follows the cycle of Dreaming, creating a common intention, Planning, Realizing, and Celebrating.
Another very interesting method is Design Thinking, a method to stimulate ideas and solve problems. Research, brainstorms, selection of ideas, and prototyping are part of the method.
It became known by Tim Brown and David Kelley to develop ideas and prototyping. It is a human-centered approach to innovation that uses designers' tools to integrate people's needs, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.
It is an interesting method to create ideas and organize them with a goal!
There are many planning methods, but the most important thing is the attitude of each person towards the collective to determine the good use of a method. Some personal attitudes contribute to the person being available to the collaborative process. One of them is to be in a constant attitude to learn, rethink, create, look for solutions. All of this is directly associated with personal development, therefore, seeing the process as an opportunity to improve yourself as a person.
In this way, everyone can take responsibility for themselves, recognizing their skills that make a difference and where they don't, which structures are deeply impacted by their skills and which are not. Thus, being able to choose where to engage and how to be part of the collaborative process.
References
Dell'Isola, Alberto. Mentes Brilhantes. Universo dos Livros. São Paulo. 2012.
Barbuto, L. "Transformative Development and applied knowledge". GAIA University. 2021. https://pfs.icafs.earth/view/view.php?t=kPVn6wXIM3bs5COqmcyA
Brown, t. Change by Design. Harper Collins. 2019.
Scharmmer. C. O. Theory U. Leading form the future as it emerges. SOL. Massachuts. 2007.