Collaboration workbook
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The document is a workbook for reflecting on collaboration. It contains questions to help the reader think about what collaboration means to them and how to improve it. It suggests filling out the workbook individually and as a team retrospective activity. The workbook covers topics like understanding why collaboration is valuable, what it looks like, the costs of collaboration, diagnosing collaboration challenges, understanding people and system conditions, tools that foster collaboration, and experimenting to improve collaboration.
Collaboration workbook
- 1. Collaboration Workbook Craig Brown Heart of Agile | Collaboration LAST CBR | 2018 edition
- 2. Your Story What was the situation What happened that demonstrated collaboration? What made the collaboration great? What did you learn from your observation? Describe a situation where you saw excellent collaboration at work
- 3. Do this, please 1. Fill in this workbook to help think about what collaboration means for you, and how you want to improve. 2.Repeat the workbook online to help us study what collaboration is for people, and what we are collectively doing about it. https://goo.gl/sRvREN 3. Try this workbook as a retrospective activity with your team
- 4. Agenda 1. Your story 2. Know why collaboration is valuable 3. Know what collaboration looks like 4. Understand the cost of Collaboration 5. Diagnose the situation 6. Understand the people 7. System conditions that foster collaboration 8. Tools for collaboration 9. Permission to act 10. Experiment forward Questions first. Then I share information that I have gathered.
- 5. collaboration is valuable List at least three reasons why we think collaboration is valuable.
- 6. Your horizons Me My team Our company Our customers Our community Horizon Benefits of collaboration Me My team Our organization Our customers Our community
- 7. Your horizons Me My team Our company Our customers Our community Horizon Benefits of collaboration Me My team Our organization Our customers Our community
- 8. What collaboration looks like 1.What does collaboration look like for you today? 1.What does better collaboration look like? And better? And better?
- 9. 1.You The team The company The customer The community Understand the cost of Collaboration List the most important costs of collaboration Me My team Our company Our customers Our community
- 10. System conditions that foster collaboration 1. List things that encourage and discourage Collaboration. 2. Circle the ones that you can make a difference to. Encourage Discourage
- 11. Diagnose the situation Model the system; parts, connections, contexts and people? What incentives and disincentives are baked into the system? What are the sources of authority that people use? Pay attention to the power dynamics; who lifts people up and who shuts people down? How and why? What interventions can you try? How do you know they will work? Do you act with consent or not? What use of power and authority are you going to employ? Does it fit with the target? What leverage points exist in your situation?
- 12. Tools for collaboration Examples; • Colocation, travel and AV infrastructure • Slack, etc • Visualization • Shared goals • Agreements on how we operate • Shared spaces • Quiet spaces • Meeting rooms • Whiteboards What are the current gaps in your tooling and physical setup?
- 13. Permission to act Remember this; • People need to know what your authority is based upon • Match your use of power and authority • Getting permission • Building trust on behavior and knowledge • Change management is a shared journey What things should you focus on to increase collaboration?
- 14. Hypothesis/Hunch Experiment Measure/Check Experiment forward What will you do next month?
- 15. What I found
- 16. Locus of concern Me My team Our company Our customers Our community • Bringing diverse skills and knowledge together • Diversity also tends to mirror the real world (where customers live) so you get more empathy and insights • You care about your team mates and put in energy and effort for them • We want to impress our team mates • You learn to trust in your team members and can shortcut to results • Safety in numbers
- 17. What collaboration looks like 1. What does collaboration look like for you today? 2. What does better collaboration look like? 3. And better? 4. And better? Dr Neil Preston, from Perth
- 18. System conditions that foster collaboration • Recognize what things encourage and discourage Collaboration • Let’s make a list. Encourage Discourage Ask permission Go first Be consistent Do what you say you will do Admit mistakes and apologize Know everyone is doing their best Admit when you don’t know Ask for help Shared goals Shared spaces Coach your peers Be authentic Act with integrity Know the boundaries and rules Know when to break them Coherent values and behaviors Be honest Be kind Competing goals Unclear goals Unclear boundaries Unclear decision making protocols Scarce resources Competition over collaboration Individually assigned tasks and activities Uncertainty about the future Personal consequences Incongruent behavior Not knowing people
- 19. Responses so far
- 20. What did we do? On the 17th May we hosted a Heart of Agile meetup here in Melbourne and asked attendees to work though a printed workbook while Craig led a discussion via a projected version of the workbook. Participants wrote their answers down, sometimes only partially answering questions. Subsequent to the meetup Craig also posted the workbook as a google form and gathered a handful of additional responses, but the majority of responses were collected in the meetup. The workbook asked participants to answer a number of questions about collaboration to help people reflect on what it looked like for them and what they could aspire to. We named the workbook “The 8 Steps to Collaboration.” Survey Analysis Findings Insights
- 21. Look at what we found I read through the results and categorized the answers against Dr Neil Preston’s taxonomy. This is where a crowd of Meetup going Advanced Agile practitioners rated their collaboration capabilities. Benchmarks for my evaluation: Co-creation - sharing problems and soft boundaries on roles and responsibilities Collaboration – working together on solutions, sharing knowledge, helping each other Cooperation – working as instructed but generally without conflict What does collaboration look like for you today?
- 22. Look at what we found I read through the results and categorized the answers against Dr Neil Preston’s taxonomy. This is where a crowd of Meetup going Advanced Agile practitioners rated their collaboration capabilities. Benchmarks for my evaluation: Co-creation - sharing problems and soft boundaries on roles and responsibilities Collaboration – working together on solutions, sharing knowledge, helping each other Cooperation – working as instructed but generally without conflict 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 Collaboration today Competition Compliance Cooperation Collaboration Co-creation What does collaboration look like?
- 23. Not good end up in boring meetings it doesn't people talking getting different team to interact with another team collaboration is mainly informal/subversive Working together for a common goal common goal, at the same time (synchronization), mutual dependency work on google drive work on my workbook, look at other's answers when finished non active discussion different people work together delegated, adhoc and enthusiastic Ritualised around planning & retrospectives & stand-ups strong in teams at the coalface but weak at higher levels common issues sharing common goal happy to help culture accountability saying hi to people on my team share information common goals of the day (I think, very unclear writing) teamwork People taking more responsibility, talks, asking questions, getting involved co-location, open discussion Calling a meeting, reading confluence articles, reaching out to people directly or via group emails People coming together to work on problem/fire fighting Acceptance of different ideas, learning from peers, lunch together meetings, brainstorming in groups Fun, accelerated improvement, happy culture, buzz/noise Some brainstorming, sharing, new ideas, active listening, boundaries, problem to address working in a team valuing everyone’s voice and opinions sometimes with purpose, or without A group of diverse minds in the same place working on the same problem provide solutions/suggestions for other areas, dedicate part of my time to help others outcomes Trust, Understanding, Openness respect for people helping not only when it's been asked for but when I understand it is needed. ex. if from my experience I notice that my colleague Analysis approach will fail then my collaboration is to share my similar experience with him/her. An opportunity to learn and share knowledge cross functional teams come together in a time of crisis to solve problems Everyone has a role, Not hierarchy, Anyone can ask anyone for help Pairing Openness - work & status is visible, Give and take, sharing skills unselfishly, Common goals & ownership, Easy access to people (physical, phone, video)" Team members having a conversation on the hour to resolve issues high trust, transparency, openness, empathy, curiosity, directness, honesty Competition Compliance Cooperation Collaboration Co-creation Collaboration maturity by examples
- 24. Look at what we found I categorized the 110 responses into 30 categories and counted how many came up in the better 1,2 3 answers. What I see is the 3rd level stuff coming back to basic concepts but with a higher level of performance or capability. I suspect the things on the left are the areas to focus on if you want to level up collaboration. We can investigate this further. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Better collaboration: Response themes Better 1 Better 2 Better 3 What does better collaboration look like for you today?
- 25. Look at what we found Collaboration doesn’t come free. I asked you to consider the costs of collaboration at five different contexts; Personal, team, company, customers and community. Here is what you said it costs you to collaborate; • Individual: Time and your own personal energy • Team: Time and dealing with conflicts • Organization: Money and time – e.g. opportunity costs • Customers: Lack of collaboration costs them quality and time, presumably dealing with bad quality When we asked you about the cost of collaboration to the community the general sense was that there was no downside. What is the cost of collaboration for you today? 25 7 7 5 5 5 44 3 2 2 2 1 4 Time Energy Emotional-energy Vulnerability Ego Mental-Energy Conflict Empathy personal goals control listening Knowledge Goals None Cost to Me 18 5 5 4 3 3222 1 1 1 1 1 Time Conflict Risk&Waste Emotional-energy Empathy Mental-Energy Motivation Vulnerability Goals Dependency Mgt control Ego Knowledge None Cost to my team 8 6 6 2 3 1 4 Low Quality Time Engagement Higher priceTrust Privacy None Cost to customers 15 12 6 4 33 3 2 1 Money Time Market- opportunity-cost Staff- engagement Mgt-maturityPower-structures Team-structures Mgt-Control Training Cost to Organisation
- 26. Look at what we found Shared Purpose is the number one opportunity to improve collaboration. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 1 System conditions that encourage collaboration Shared Purpose Respect Co-location Appreciation Autonomy Aligned approach Making Progress Nurturing Feedback Structure What are the system conditions that affect collaboration?
- 27. The implications… • We could do with help mapping out a pathway to better collaboration 1.We have a shared view on the value of collaboration in the abstract; • Shared mission, alignment in priorities, flow and a culture of respect and learning The priority areas we think have the most impact for good collaboration are; • Making time and mustering the mental and emotional energy to deal with the things that impede better collaboration If we want to break beyond our current levels of performance the barriers we need to overcome are;
- 28. Want more? Global Heart of Agile http://heartofagile.com Local Heart of Agile Melbourne meetup https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Heart-Of-Agile-Community-Melbourne/ Craig Brown Blog: BetterProjects.net Email craigwbrown.net Twitter @brown_note
Editor's Notes
- #7: Examples Bringing diverse skills and knowledge together Diversity also tends to mirror the real world (where customers live) so you get more empathy and insights You care about your team mates and put in energy and effort for them We want to impress our team mates You learn to trust in your team members and can shortcut to results Safety in numbers
- #8: Examples Bringing diverse skills and knowledge together Diversity also tends to mirror the real world (where customers live) so you get more empathy and insights You care about your team mates and put in energy and effort for them We want to impress our team mates You learn to trust in your team members and can shortcut to results Safety in numbers
- #9: Spiritual Intelligence – “flow absorption in the present moment for secular dudes” – Neil Preston
- #18: Spiritual Intelligence – “flow absorption in the present moment for secular dudes” – Neil Preston