Collaborative Intelligence

Chapter 3Collaboration Design

Making The Collaboration Experience Deliberate

“Have an agenda.”

That's the secret to holding better meetings, right?

But think about the last meeting you were in with an agenda. Did it go well? We mean really well—no egos and no politics getting in the way of achieving the team's goals. It probably didn't.

Having an agenda is good table stakes, but it won't fix a badly organized, poorly run meeting.

There's much more to consider. Are the right people invited? Are they able to participate meaningfully, to contribute? How will you lead so that people feel engaged—connected and wanting to be part of the work being done? How will everyone know progress was made? And how well will the collaboration of the team work over time?

The list goes on, but these kinds of issues have to be worked out again and again when leaders leave collaboration to chance. There's no thoughtfulness, no consideration, no design to how the collaboration should unfold.

Someone has to raise their hand to guide the team. It doesn't have to be a lot of work. Sometimes a simple nudge is all it takes: Just leading a warm‐up, ensuring fair turn‐taking, and providing solid follow‐up can change the dynamics of an entire team and drive better results. It's about paying attention to collaboration as the collaboration happens, either in real time or when working apart. Because here's the ...