Have you supported a crowdfunded project yet? I’m happy to say I have! You’ll want to get involved, too, if you enjoy bringing ideas to life … in a collaborative way. I went through Kickstarter, although there are many crowdfunding sites. What is Kickstarter? It’s an on-line platform for bringing creators and backers together to make a creative project happen through crowdfunding. Those involved create…
Collaboration Tables 3: A Chemotherapy Room Table
Tables, like the Round Table of King Arthur or the Algonquin Group, promote discussion. But tables can support intense day-to-day collaborative work, too. Each week in chemotherapy rooms in hospitals around the world, patients receive their prescribed cancer drugs. There are 10 comfy chairs in the chemotherapy room where I received treatment earlier this year. They surround a long table used…
Collaborate better: A guide for teams and partners
The right effort at the right level Let’s look at 4 ways of working with others. Your understanding of what happens at each level can help you become a more valuable contributor to any project. From there you can build a checklist for any collaborative effort you engage in. 1. Networking When you exchange contact information with someone and express interest in an idea at an informal meeting, you are kicking off a…
Collaboration insight for introverts: Sharing and letting go
As Quiet Entrepreneurs, we often work alone. Could we be missing out on an opportunity to create something extraordinary by collaborating? Julia Barnickle and Julia Elmore took that chance. Their aim in working together was to capture the process of creating art using found materials at a unique London location. Watch them! Their work together leads to insight…
Great Collaboration Tables 2 – The Algonquin Round Table
In the second of a series about legendary meeting tables, we’re looking at the Algonquin Round Table, which brought together some America’s wittiest and most perceptive minds of early 20th century. Collaboration happens at tables. This group’s table meetings amplified the creative output of all members. Their insights and collaborative genius spread to other ventures in writing, art, movies, plays, and politics—American culture—even after…
Great Collaboration Tables 1 – King Arthur and his Knights
Collaboration happens at tables, usually in meeting rooms. Legendary meeting tables continue to inspire our work together. In this series, let’s look at one that comes to us through the mists of time: the Round Table of King Arthur and his Knights. According to legend, King Arthur drew the sword Excalibur from the stone—a feat that made him ruler of…
Collaboration and what we can learn from slime mould
Guest blogger Max Hardy looks at what slime mould teaches us about collaboration: that our identity is not lost when collaborating and that collaboration helps solve complex problems. A big thanks to Max for sharing his thoughts here. I’ve been reading a terrific book titled Collaborative Leadership: Building relationships, handling conflict and sharing control by David Archer and Alex Cameron. Drawing on the…
Collaboration, limits and boundaries
You may hear someone say, “I’ve reached my limit!” or, “He has stepped over the line!” They complain about others working on a project—partners, teammates, managers, staff, or leaders—and about other ways of doing things. With compassion, you nod and listen. Conflict is no stranger to any of us. Many people rely on a plan-work-argue-limit approach when working with others on writing or…
Embracing success: Six signs that your collaboration will survive … and thrive
When you are collaborating, it’s a lot like dancing. There are steps, actions, paths, communication, coordination, skills, postures and positions, and it all takes time and practice. How do you know if it will work or not? Today, I’d like to offer you six signs to look for. They are inspired by the dancers in Roberto Blizzard‘s video “Dancing…
Law 10. Celebrate, then evaluate
Today, I received a letter from a project leader in the mail. I chuckled and got a warm, fuzzy feeling. Here I was, thinking about the tenth and last law of collaborative writing—how important it is to recognize all collaborators and celebrate your collective achievement. Then a thank-you note arrives. (And I did not Photoshop that time stamp….