3 Quick Ways to Make Collaboration Work

She looked confused by the question. 

“I just wanted to know how you develop ideas in the War Room,” I repeated.

The young woman looked past me, over my right shoulder, and out the window toward a tree-lined parking lot. Her pupils focused on a distant object, then on something inside her head.

“We don’t really develop ideas, I don’t think. We just talk about what’s behind schedule and how we can get more resources.”

So a group of people who work together every day do nothing but fight a plan? That’s not collaboration so much as group torture. 

The idea of a war room, or massive collaboration room, sounds appealing, and for over a decade we’ve been told that rampant collaboration will solve the world’s problems.  And yours.  “None of us is as smart as all of us.” Whatever.

But as I look around the office and around my life, I find problems have persisted despite massive collaboration.

What went wrong? Is collaboration just another failed theory from some jerk’s Stanford MBA thesis? Or are we doing it wrong?  Or has a good idea been oversold?

Let’s go with number three.

The Theory Theory:  Collaboration works.  Have you ever seen a 5 on 1 power play in a hockey game?  They don’t have them because one player against 5 will result in a goal in very short order.  Hockey is a collaborative sport. 

The Bad Practices Theory: Now we might be doing collaboration wrong at certain times and places,but I don’t think some bad practices have caused us all to cringe at the sound of the word.  Bad practices tend to resolve themselves because we are social creatures who understand innately how to work with others to achieve a goal.

The Oversold Theory: So I come back to overselling for a couple of reasons.  First, we tend to oversell and over buy every good idea.  Too much of a good thing is the American way. Second, while hockey is a collaborative sport, other activities are decidedly not. 

Creativity requires solitude. So does software design, great writing, and deep thought.  Meditation doesn’t benefit from a dozen people talking about it or doing it together.  (Someone in the room will invariably breathe funny.)  Some things either benefit from or absolutely require solitude, as Leo Babauta points out in this column on ZenHabits.net.

Along with solitude goes participation or collaboration. The thing we create must appeal to others, and others often serve as testers or inspiration for our creativity.  Total isolation will lead to dull results, just as total collaboration will lead to group think and mediocrity.

So here’s three quick ways to make collaboration work:

1. Schedule two hours of solo work for every one hour of collaboration.  You say you work for a big company that won’t let you?  Push.  You owe yourself and your employer every opportunity to get the most out of your day. But if that still doesn’t work—if you are locked in a room with others for eight hours a day—set aside an hour or two of your own time for solo work and dedicate that time to a particular task. People will want to know your secret, and that’s your chance to change your organization. “If we all had a two hours a day to think and experiment, imagine how productive we’d be.”
2. Spend an hour alone every morning.  This sometimes requires that you change your sleep patterns, but it’s worth it.  An hour of quiet solitude first thing in the morning—before breakfast, coffee, or shower—can produce powerful ideas and results.  Try dedicating this hour to the single most important thing you need to accomplish.  (h/t Leo Babauta, again)
3. Practice solitude within the multitude. Just because you’re assigned to a war room doesn’t mean you’ve lost your right to speak.  (If you have, then maybe you need to find a new job.) Raise the idea of 2 quiet hours every day. Push it. Make the rules simple: no talking, no phones, no music.  People may type or think or read, but may not speak. And stay in the room or out, but don’t wander in and out.

As with any practice, the time you set aside for solo work will be as effective as you make it. While meditating and daydreaming frequently add value, writing, drawing, coding, and designing are what someone actually pays for.  That’s why I recommend the two-to-one balance between solitude and collaboration, to allow time for both the thinking and the doing.  Plus the collaboration for the validation and inspiration.

Use the time well, and learn to make your solitude meaningful. It will pay off in buckets.