6The Second Stretch Is toExperiment a Way Forward

Walker, there is no path. The path is made by walking.

—Antonio Machado1

In conventional collaboration, we move forward by agreeing on the problem, the solution, and the plan to implement the solution, and then executing this plan. This approach works when we are in simple situations that are under control: when we can get such agreement among our collaborators and also get our plan to produce the results we intend. But when we are in complex, uncontrolled situations, we need to experiment with different possible articulations and actions: we need to take a step forward, observe what happens, and then take another step.

WE CANNOT CONTROL THE FUTURE, BUT WE CAN INFLUENCE IT

I see my work as helping ...

Get Collaborating with the Enemy now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.