My favorite part of this week – getting to ask other people to tell me a story about their best collaborative experiences.  Sometimes I feel like this work can get jargon-y, so it’s nice to cut through that and listen to a story without all of the big words.  Not only did I get some more data for our “Effective Collaboration Framework” but I also got to learn some new things about my colleagues – from AJ’s fascinating Burning Man camp project (3D Printers and Scanners that made people miniatures of themselves!) to the incredible non-profit organization (about-face.org) that I had no idea my manager, Kathy, founded.

Their narratives definitely converged around similar themes we touched on during last week’s session:

• co-creating/creation
• no ego
• meaningful result (even if the intended result didn’t occur)
• open communication/equal participation

Two new ideas also emerged:

• energy/passion
• diverse skill-sets

All 3 of my colleagues said these two things were what made their collaborative efforts so great.  I remembered that Anna’s story also included a group with diverse skill-sets, so I thought these two factors were definitely worth inclusion in our framework.  The framework is still loose, but I’m excited to continue revising it throughout the bootcamp and as I continue in my career.  I’m sure I’ll hear about and experience many other collaborative experiences to add data and depth to this framework over time. 

Speaking of revision…..Eugene kindly prompted me to think about our discussion around generative questions last Wednesday in reference to one of my overarching questions for this experience.  Instead of asking whether you have to be in the same physical space to collaborate, I think my real question was the latter half of that sentence – “How can one support and spark collaboration and community virtually?”  Still working on the answer to that one….