Collaborating with the Enemy

7The Third Stretch Is toStep into the Game

We have met the enemy and he is us.

—Walt Kelly, Pogo¹

The third stretch is the biggest: from the sidelines into the game. If we want to get important things done in complex situations, then we can’t spend our time just watching and blaming and cajoling others. We have to step in.

In conventional collaboration, we focus on trying to change what other people are doing. These others may be people outside our collaboration who are the targets of our collective activities, or they may be fellow collaborators whose behavior we think ought to change. This approach works when we are in simple situations that are under control: when we can change what other people are doing. But when we are in complex, uncontrolled ...