Beautiful Teams

Collaboration Success Factors

We demonstrated that it is possible to improve on the status quo. We challenged the current practice and gained new understanding on how to get things done. It showed me again how important a good team is. A good team, working together, can get a lot more done than a group of individuals. How do we get a gelled and collaborative team?

In a blog by Alistair Cockburn [5], I found some interesting insight into team dynamics and collaboration. Alistair said, "People collaborate when they want to," and continued, "But what gets them to want to?" Through an informal study, he discovered that certain actions lead to an atmosphere of improved collaboration. Here is an abridged form of the top action categories:

• Lift others: recognize others.

• Increase safety: support others, challenge but adopt ideas.

• Make progress: success breeds success.

• Add energy: challenge, contribute.

In recalling this story, I can clearly see Alistair's action categories at work.

Bud's confidence in our team and willingness to give us the go-ahead really provided a huge lift to our team. Our learning and teaching styles lifted individuals. A counterexample was the assignment of Wally to the team. He did not lift people; he brought people down.

Bud's "get out of jail free" cards and approval of our proposed process changes gave us the safety to try new things. His realistic expectations added to this safety.

We had good people on the team. They were skilled but did not claim to know everything. ...