The Cold, Hard Facts of Collaboration

Posted by Morry
December 23, 2009

Lock people into a room for hours, or days, and eventually you’ll get an answer. The only problem is that it might not be the answer you want, the answer you expect, or it may end up being the answer to a entirely different question altogether. Such is the risk when working in a collaborative session.

As we saw in Copenhagen, during the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, finding solutions to challenging problems can be extremely difficult. Getting everyone to agree can be near impossible. The president of the UN Conference, Connie Hedegaard, herself a former Danish climate minister, made it clear that “This is a UN conference, and everybody has to agree on everything. And if they don’t, you get stuck. That is the reality here.” The truth is, that’s the reality everywhere, in every company and organization.

I’m a big proponent of collaborative work styles and even co-developed a process that leverages collaboration to develop and implement strategies for success. As good as it is, and it is really good, there are many variables to getting it right. As South Africa’s environment minister Buyelwa Sonjica said after the UN Conference, “Process is important, since it determines outcomes, but some ill-restrained interventions combined with poor decisions by those guiding the process meant that process problems caused the loss of three days - precious time indeed.” She was referring to the talks being “hijacked” by, of all things, how to handle the process.

What I’ve learned from designing and facilitating hundreds of collaborative work sessions is that the process has to be well defined and at the same time, totally adaptable to account for, well, people. We’re different in many ways, especially how we look at problems and solutions. Each participant brings their own individual biases, personal values and emotions into a work session. The process, any process, won’t completely align these variables. That’s part of the reason you get through a session as they did in Copenhagen and within days hear things like Brazil’s government, after backing an accord reached past the 11th hour, later calling it “disappointing”.

There are a number of aspects that a collaborative process, and those managing the process, have to appreciate.

There are many techniques and steps throughout a collaborative process to deal with these very human realities, some of which I occasionally write about in this blog or post in SlideShare presentations, such as working together to formulate the criteria for decision-making BEFORE applying it to decisions. While some participants may not like the outcome of the decision, they can’t argue with the criteria that was used to make the decision.

The area I’d like to highlight this time around is…

Creating the Conditions for Collaboration: Facts

  1. Sessions go sideways when participants either don’t have the facts, don’t understand the facts, don’t agree on the facts, or just feel too intimidated to discuss the facts. When preparing for a collaborative work session, whether it’s a once a year thing for your company or part of your daily culture, do as much work as possible in advance to collect, organize and share facts.
  2. A pre-session questionnaire gives participants an opportunity to share their feedback on the facts and raise questions that can be addressed before or as part of the work session.
  3. Once you’re together, you want to spend time and energy on what do to based on the facts, not wasting time debating what’s real and what’s not.


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