Collaboration

First time occurrences where solutions and answers are not readily available often require collaborative efforts. Individuals often need the experiences and knowledge of others to draw from for addressing unique situations. Wrong and inappropriate decisions can have diminishing effects and catastrophic results. Collaboration is described as shared creation and shared discovery by Schrage (1990). Similar to dialogue, collaboration is more than communication, but rather collaboration is a process of forming solutions to problems based on combinations of information and expertise from several sources.

The complexity of schools is progressively requiring collaboration involving people with different skills for creating new solutions to old and new problems. Methods for collaborating must extend to correlate with emerging technologies and the way people do work (Electronic Practice Fields). The new methods for collaborating require improvements over "shared space" (whiteboards and notepads) and the new tools for collaboration need the capability to extend over time and space.

Collaboration is about relationships rather than exchanging and transmitting information. In collaborative relationships interactions are more about creating shared space for playing with collective ideas and information. When teams collaborate, there is as much if not more focus on understanding processes as there is on producing results. Collaborative synergy results when team members generate shared understandings that were not possible on their own (Schrage, 1990).

A metaphor for describing the difference between collaboration and communication can be illustrated by considering the musician and the composer. The musician simply communicates by playing the music as written while the composer collaborates by writing the music, considering the musicians (instrumentation), considering what key the music is to be written in, and considering the overall character of the work. Musicians can become collaborators in some jazz situations such as improvisation where what is played is improvised and requires consideration of the other musicians, the chord progressions, and the overall character of the piece.

A key purpose for collaborating is to produce something whether it is solving a problem or creating something new (Schrage, 1990). Collaborative processes are generally not predictable, and the team members usually do not know where they are going until they get there. Additionally, different teams produce different results depending on the teams collective strengths. According to Schrage (1990), collaborations are formed for specific purposes and dissolve after completion of their aspiration.

Technology-enhanced Collaboration

Improving collaborative efforts with emerging technologies is not centered on automation, but rather centered on enhancing collaborative relationships. Technologies provide the means for retaining more of the collaborative processes and for creating more efficient collaborations. New dimensions of collaboration are provided by technologies that extend the capabilities of speech, and the ability to share knowledge. Technologies also extend "shared space" across boundaries of time and space while removing obstacles inherent to many face-to-face meetings such as running out of whiteboard, organizing notepads, and using computer systems designed for one user

Team Meetings

Technology Teams

Typical meetings generally have agendas prepared by one individual, and the focus remains on individuals as people take turns talking. According to Schrage, meetings can be thought of in terms of content and process (1990). While content addresses what is said, process addresses the way things get said. The goal is to shift the focus toward community expression and away from individual expressions, or simply transmitting information (Schrage, 1990). In terms of "shared artifacts" technology can greatly affect the way things are communicated. "Shared artifacts" and "shared space" can include text, video, audio, and other graphical displays of information.

Collaboration Facilitators

Facilitators can play an instrumental role in shifting team meetings toward community expression. Typically, a facilitator is a person who writes ideas on large notepads or whiteboards for everyone to see and make contributions. With technologies as a facilitation mechanism, team members can make changes to and contribute to a computerized whiteboard, and shared space becomes the focus of the meeting rather than the one person speaking. Additionally, collaborative technologies provide immediacy in printing the team's work.

Coaching and Leadership

Characteristics of Technology-Enhanced Collaboration

• Collaborative systems designed for technology teaming must accommodate collaboration at all levels and at all times. The basic design of the system design must focus on relationships instead of individuals and on process rather than content.
• Collaborative technologies need to allow for a seamless transition between individual work and collaborative efforts. Collaborative technologies provide tools for sharing information and are referred to as "documedia" by Schrage (1990). Collaborative tools must provide expansive blank spaces to be filled with information and ideas similar to how notepads and whiteboards serve as blank spaces.
• Collaborative technologies provide visualizations where collaborators immediately focus on the challenge of solving the problem instead of simply talking about it.
• Collaborative technologies enable "documedia" for stretching across time and space.
• Collaborative technologies are increasingly determining the quality of human relationships by setting boundaries, defining parameters, and becoming the culture where teams work.
• Collaborative technologies will have as big an impact on the nature of relationships as the telephone, or television.
• Collaborative technologies transform personal computers into interpersonal computers (Morrison, 1996).
• Collaborative technologies will eventually emerge where meetings may be augmented with holographics capable of putting team members in environments that are unique to the team tasks.

Adapted from Morrison, 1996; Schrage, 1990; Tapscott & Caston, 1993.

Checklist for Technology Enhanced Collaboration

• Develop competence among the team for promoting higher intelligence through synergy. Training and staff development are needed for a minimal level of competence of each member of the collaborative team, or else the whole is less than the sum of its parts. A collaboration can compensate for some individual and technical weaknesses, but not for fundamental deficiencies.
• Develop a series of small manageable steps for team training. Learning on a continuum of small steps will increase capabilities and promote greater public support for further improvements.
• Develop shared and understood team goals and purposes. The key ingredients of collaborations are the levels of relationships, but collaborations require shared purpose and goals as well. Collaborations are a means to an end, and not an end in itself (Schrage, 1990).
• Develop mutual respect and trust among the entire team. High levels of respect and trust are necessary for successful collaborations. The purpose of collaborating is primarily because the team members need each other to accomplish their goals.
• Develop and create shared space that can be manipulated by the team. Collaborators need shared space for sharing ideas and insights. Shared space might be whiteboards, rehearsal rooms, a prototype of an invention, or digital space such as electronic whiteboards.
• Develop and encourage multiple forms of representations. Multiple forms of representations that occur in shared spaces facilitate blending different perspectives for addressing goals.
• Develop and experiment with multiple representations of the team's work. Successful collaborations treat uncertainty as opportunities for exploration. Use shared spaces and multiple representations as something to be stretched and molded (played with) for testing ideas.
• Develop and utilize both formal and informal environments. Generally, collaborators work in many different environments (anywhere from face-to-face meetings to geographically dispersed meetings), and these environments are both formal and informal.
• Develop clear lines of team responsibility, but remember that collaborative relationships are not managed.
• Develop decisions through team processes, but decisions do not have to be made by consensus. Collaborators usually agree about the directions they are taking. The real challenge is for the collaboration to generate the collective ideas and insights that accomplish the desired task.

Checklist for Collaborating Online

• Produce enough value online that it becomes indispensable for the work of the team. It is difficult to resist doing business the "old way." Designing work with technologies that has more value than the "old ways" of doing things promotes success.
• Produce opportunities for occasional face-to-face meetings to reinforce online activities. Many relationship-building processes still need to occur in face-to-face meetings for maximum benefits.
• Produce communication and collaborative activities on the network as often as possible. Activities will grow through time, but at first, look for as many online activities as possible.
• Produce high levels of use by consistently prompting people. Regression is common with low-level users of new technologies. Persistence is necessary for resisting the tendencies of going back to "old" face-to-face methods of interaction.
• Produce a common understanding of the limitations of online collaboration. Discuss and determine early what is possible and what is not possible online. Limitations of software and hardware are nearly impossible to immediately overcome and require waiting for a new wave of technological advancement.
• Produce and use an informal style of communication for helping to build relationships among the team. Encourage participants to have fun with online activities, and encourage humor as much as possible.
• Produce and use networks to sustain the relationships formed elsewhere. Develop habits of sharing e-mail addresses (eddresses) before addresses and phone numbers.

Cautions with Technology-Enhanced Collaboration

$ People who have difficulty articulating their thoughts are penalized. Depending on the format (text, voice, video) of the communication, those who need more time or have difficulty putting their ideas into the communication format will have less influence.

$ Some aggressive people may view the shared space as their own private domain.

$ Some people have difficulties letting go of their own ideas or will have hidden agendas and may not support the technological environment because it removes their influence.

$ The overall effectiveness of meetings (both face-to-face and technological) depends greatly on the skill of the team leader, and there exist potential abuse if the leader retains the power to control the shared space.

$ No technology will make a difference if the wrong kind of people are at the meeting.

Adapted from Covey, 1989; Schrage, 1990; Senge, 1990b; Tapscott & Caston, 1993.

Last updated: March 10, 1998