What I love about the Collaboration Zone
I love that it’s not subject to control by anyone. That, even though someone, somewhere decided to market the idea of teams, making what comes naturally subject to expert-itis and high consulting fees, not to mention the feeling that you need help – our help, my help – to do this, despite all that, the Collaboration Zone exists and waits for whoever wants to enter it. I like it that the best collaboration comes out of what’s most authentic to those doing the collaborating. I love that exact paradox: That true collaboration is possible only when we are most authentically ourselves. I have no idea what people mean when they say “There is no ‘I’ in team.” There is a ‘me.’
The collaboration zone is a little wild – untameable. It’s like playing music with other really good players. Will you be good enough to fit in? Will you clench and not be able to find the groove? Or will it feel like diving into the pool does – the way the water reaches up to catch you, holds you up, makes swimming possible? I like working right there – right at the nexus of anxiety and desire. I like that there is no rule book, only guidelines and that things only go as well as the least present person in the room – unless there are enough of us to raise that person up and carry them along. Best of all, I like it when a group of people who start out not listening, not really linked to each other, a little nervous or bored, click. They talk faster, and listen harder and are moved by positions other than their own. There is this magical moment when they become a single organism, moving together, contending, arguing, convincing, stopping to consider. The air is brighter, everyone looks happier and there is energy buzzing in the room.
I want everyone to know how to get themselves there, and to help a group get there.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:12 pm
wow. i want to get that zone also. i’m inspired, intrigued and a littel confused about what exactly is done in that zone. what happens? what goes on there? do we finger paint or read graphs? do you tell us what to do to be better?
i may be the worst person to read your blog or the best, i fear the former; as i have never been in corporte america. I think i drove by once on the way to restoration hardware.
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:00 am
So that’s where restoration hardware is! You’re in perfect shape to head into the collaboration zone – confusion, uncertainty, not quite sure where we’ll meet or if we’ll just feel silly and exposed and leave without connecting. As for what we’ll do there, sometimes we know exactly before we get there, and other times we figure it out as we go. Usually, it’s some combination of both. I’m the guide, which means that sometimes I do very little, sometimes I take a back seat to someone else in the group who’s on a roll, and sometimes I’m active, active, active.