Page 36 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

Fundamentals of Collaboration 5

1. What is collaboration?
2. What is necessary for collaboration?
3. What facilitates collaboration?
4. What impedes collaboration?

What is collaboration? Merriam–Webster’s online dictionary defines
“collaborate” as (a) to work jointly with others or together especially in an
intellectual endeavor, (b) to cooperate with or willingly assist an enemy of
one’s country and especially an occupying force, (c) to cooperate with an
agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected.
We can see immediately that this word has positive and negative connota-
tions, and this is reflected in the great difficulty people have in collaborat-
ing effectively and especially in the paranoia that must be addressed when
attempting to collaborate with groups that may not have all of the same
common interests as you or your group. Collaboration arises unexpect-
edly, taking on a life of its own, when people smoothly and reciprocally act
together in pursuing shared goals while maintaining their own distinct
sets of goals individually and organizationally. From this point of view,
collaboration and competition are seen to exist in a dynamic tension in
relation to one another across a continuum.
What is necessary for collaboration? At bare minimum, collaboration
requires the presence of basic dynamic elements for it to “catch fire” suf-
ficiently to sustain its own process. The individuals seeking to constitute
a working group, though collaboration waxes and wanes, must mindfully
attend to these elements. Required elements include trust, communica-
tion, shared purpose, sharing of resources, contingent well-being (mutual
interdependence), and perceived and actual goodwill coupled with suf-
ficient shared necessity to offset absence of goodwill.
What facilitates collaboration? Beyond the bare necessities for a mar-
ginally effective but still sufficient degree of collaboration, several factors
enhance collaborative process for a more effective (and enjoyable) expe-
rience and process. As noted, while collaboration is much more proba-
ble when necessity demands it, “bare necessity” collaboration falls apart
quickly when there is no urgency. However, off-again, on-again collabo-
ration is really insufficient, as it impedes efforts to remain prepared in
between crises. Since in between crises resources dwindle and the sense
of urgency dissipates, more conscious intention and effort is required to
sustain the collaborative potential when there is no looming disaster.
Collaboration is facilitated by the cultivation of genuine goodwill,
for example, through regular meetings and networking events, working