Collaboration: a key trend and also one of the latest buzzwords. This year I set myself the target of writing a book about collaboration to separate the rhetoric from the reality and to explore how we might use our collective talents to create something better.
I have been interviewing leaders from a range of different organisations and community groups that have been collaborating in new ways since the Christchurch earthquakes. Five things stand out for me so far:
- Relationships matter every step of the way. Time needs to be spent at the beginning to develop shared norms, values and vision.
- Technology enhances. Collaboration can exist without technology but the ripple it creates will be smaller.
- Conflict. If there is no conflict there is no deep collaboration. Expect conflict, allow for it and deal with it openly, and respectfully. When you have a diverse group working together the richness of different perspectives will naturally create tensions.
- Know when to collaborate. If there are few gains to be made, if there is a hostile environment, or if there are no relationships between parties then collaboration will simply waste time. Grow relationships first.
- Leadership. Collaboration still requires people to lead. This is often through influence rather than position, but both are appropriate. In an increasingly complex world leaders must be able to navigate complexity, explore multiple perspectives and feel comfortable in not having all the answers.
Don Tapscott describes the need for change as follows: “This is not the information age. It’s an age of communication, of collective intelligence, of major collaboration, of major participation…driving themes are collaboration, transparency and sharing of intellectual property.” Collaboration is human by design.
In an increasingly ubiquitous world, professionals are being replaced by technology in areas that are less ‘human by design’. When we look at the teaching profession we see that technology is increasingly supplementing the work of the teacher, including the use of telepresence robots. The Teacher (deliberately with a capital T) is increasingly a person who can navigate the complexities of learning and interact with others. In this emerging environment Teachers will need to be:
Agile
Open
Deep thinking
Collaborative
Connected
Self aware
In his research on disciplined collaboration, management professor Morton Hansen explores the imperative to collaborate. He describes four types of workers:
The Lone Star – the person who wants to do their own thing. Teachers who are lone stars are focused on their individual goals and focus on their students but do not collaborate or work well in a team.
The Butterfly – is willing to collaborate over everything without focusing on their own work. Teachers who are butterflies will volunteer for projects and committees and as a result their own work suffers.
The Laggard – wanting to maintain status quo and block change. Teachers who block change may not be interested in trying anything new but the reasons need to be explored carefully, in my view.
The T shaped worker – can work horizontally and vertically. Teachers who are T shaped workers perform well in their own practice and also collaborate in teams.
It is the T-shaped worker that we need to foster at all levels of the organisation. In education T-shaped workers are those teachers with what Michael Fullan describes as Professional Capital – teachers with a mix of human capital, social capital, and decisional capital. Teachers who are T-shaped have a deep knowledge of their craft, can collaborate with others, and make decisions that benefit learners. These Teachers won’t be replaced by technology any time soon because they have the ability to interact in uniquely human ways.
The trend is to build schools where learning spaces are more agile and adaptive. The Teachers in these spaces will need to collaborate but they will only do so effectively when there is:
Purpose – Trust – Clarity – Commitment
Collaboration is a trend that is here to stay. The people I have interviewed to date have shared their stories and I will be collating these so we can all learn from what worked, what didn’t, and lessons learnt. It is clear that collaboration isn’t always easy, even when it does produce better results. Collaboration requires an outwards mindset.
Over the next six months I will be sharing some examples of collaboration in action. I would value your examples and ideas.
Cheryl Doig
Latest posts by Cheryl Doig (see all)
- Collaboration matters - July 1, 2014
Good points. well done. i agree collaboration makes the whole team smarter & stronger.
When I consider collaboration and your "five things stand out" I am hit between the eyes about the importance of "time". In my experience the resource of time is often overlooked or negelected as people pursue effective collaboration. In the Christchurch context I think many opportunities for collaboration have been thwarted by the need for things to happen quickly.
I agree Chris. Collaboration takes time because it relies on the foundations of relational trust. This can’t be rushed by external agendas.
I find the leadership challenging…navigating the complexities and not having the answers when staff are looking at you to have them. Laggards are particularly challenging as they refer to professional dialogue about teaching and learning as 'waffle' and rather than share their perspective and ideas in order to come to a solution or decision, they sit and critise and poison staff cultures. These are definitely challening times for leaders…
It is natural for people to crave certainty. And sometimes, when things are obvious or complicated, we can provide certainty. We can approach things as if there is a recipe, we can look for research and we can learn from experts. Increasingly though, leaders work in the complex domain, where ideas emerge and where there are multiple solutions. It is really challenging. It also is a great opportunity to look at our own practice as leaders and to consider what we might do differently. Perhaps we need to change the language we use to be more explicit; publish the timeframe and direction; share positive examples of success; and provide feedback.
This is very interesting. I wonder why the collaboration in the open plan 70's was seen as unsuccessful and subsequently dropped. Is it possible that the enhancement of technology has a greater impact? Or was the leadership in a different place?
In everything we do Relationships are key. Kiwi Leadership emphasizes it, but it is a great unmeasurable. Attempts to appoint staff through team typing is one approach, but they still don't show how well a persons builds and maintains relationships. I think we need to look very critically at appointment processes to ensure we achieve that level of 'collaborative conflict' that achieve outstanding learning. If everyone agreed I would be worried.
ChrisB's comment about the speed of change is very relevant, especially as schools are pressured by outside groups to engage in 'their' initiative. The most difficult thing for a leader to do is decide with staff what's on top and resist everything else firmly and politely. Pay attention though so that you can be flexible if necessary. It is easy to be overwhelmed by opportunities.
Even laggards can be enthused if they are not buried in Professional Development. Most of them just want time to think and try things.
Thanks for the comment Mike. I think we are in a really different space than the open plan schools of the 1970s and agree that technology has had a huge impact. It will continue to do so as technology becomes more ubiquitous. One of the other drivers is collaboration. This is fundamental for all businesses and isn’t about playing nicely together. It has to result in ‘better’ and certainly does involve conflict. It is the ways of dealing with this conflict that are fundamentally important, driven by a compelling shared vision and agreements. And a laser light approach is needed. Keep the focus on those things of critical impact and be relentless in those key areas. Don’t collaborate about everything. Be clear and aligned in your leadership.
Shane Morrow, one of our D.Ps at school has the foresight to keep us up to date with past and current research by sharing relevant material with us via Teachers' Week, which is a really proactive move on his part……sharing and I, for one, appreciate it, especially when I have time to look. This particular Blog takes me back to our online community on the Post Grad. Dip in ELearning and Digital Technologies. The online cohort for that year were incredibly strong, we supported, encouraged, diplomatically argued, collaborated, presented, questioned and more. We had, what they call "lurkers", "wallowers" "connectors" and the ubiquitous great leaders. We also had some excellent facilitators in our tutors, whom I never met. I guess all of these are akin to the four types of workers. I realise that the blog is focusing more on face to face collaboration which I am a real advocate of. There is nothing I miss more than the human face, especially when it's supportive, positive and productive. Where technology can only show expression through various smiley faces, (unless it's live broadcast) it does not show body language, true expression, intonation and the nuances of our language, although it still has its place.
The four key values to me, relate to how we teach and follow through with our students, not just in collaboration and connection with our peers/associates. I have enjoyed reading this and it gives me food for thought. I would like to think I'm a T Shaped worker,, but I'm not perfect. Maybe we can all be a little of all four depending on circumstances, environment, time of day/year, direction, pressure and more. Our leadership here does have purpose, trust, clarity and commitment and I think that generally filters down through the school, it's directing the eclectic mix of personalities, characteristics, teaching styles and relationships which must be challenging. Above all, humour and recognition go a long way to developing and maintaining connections and collaboration.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments Carla. I think it is important to continually explore our own behaviours to see whether the ‘big T’ is alive and well. There are appropriate times for us to work as individuals and with others. The ‘outwards mindset’ helps us to explore possibilities that are outside our area of the known. You demonstrate this in your example of your own professional learning networks and your enabling and empowering of your DP to influence. In an increasingly complex world relationships will matter even more than before and I agree that humour is a key part of this. As teachers become Teachers they will be using technology more, woven with humanity. We are entering a new era, I think, where Teachers will be professional educators in a much more advanced way. Facilitation and ‘guide on the side’ isn’t enough. We need Teachers who are activators, collaborators, and provocateurs. And who can do this in face to face, digital and virtual environments. That takes collaboration to a whole new level….