How to Collaborate

Collaborators are people who tackle, experiment and play with ideas to understand problems, explore challenges and create solutions. But how do you do it and how can a paper airplane help?

“the act of working with another person or group of people to create or produce something”

Oxford Dictionary

Collaboration often has a start and end point, and parametres to work within or a specific area to focus on. I like to think of collaboration as a recipe or method, because it is a process rather than an act.

You will need:

• A Challenge

• A group of people with different perspectives (Ideally 6 people)

• Time together (ideally over 3-4, 2hr sessions)

• Insight from a variety of sources (research, lived experience, data, knowledge)

• Power (this could take many forms - money, influencing power, insight, knowledge, passion, resources etc)

To begin…

1. Choose your challenge.  Decide, what is the puzzle we are trying to solve? Write down all the people and things that this puzzle impacts on or connects to.

2. Find the hooks. The challenge matters to different people for different reasons. Link to a strategy, experience, an inspiring project or personal reason.

3. Gather your Collaborators using your list and your hooks. I like an expression of interest method, so everyone that wants to be in the room, can be and no one feels forced.  Ensure you recognise who is NOT there, fill the gaps.

4. Book a space ‘close’ to the challenge for the collaborator group to spend time together. Challenge focused on a place? Meet in that place.

5. Facilitate the time together, ideally over 3-4 sessions, design this time using your strengths and be inspired by the challenge.

6. Take people on a journey to:

• frame the challenge from different perspectives

• explore potential solutions using the skills and qualities of the collaborators

• imagine what impact these solutions might have

• plan ways to test solutions

In process..

Focus on relationships, creative activities and coaching exercises.  Use simple planning tools to begin to turn ideas into action. Draw on insight, connect to research, inspiration and data.

Make mistakes, learn from them.

Gain commitment to actions from all collaborators, ensure the group has decided on group communication methods and plan unfacilitated meet up/s together.

Share power within the group, recognise and be honest when power dynamics are at play…while we are on the subject, play.

Capture. Decide on a method and capture thoughts, feelings, ideas and development along the way. A roll of lining paper and felt tips can work as well as a digital solution.

Endings..

End well and the next beginnings will be more comfortable, fruitful and fun.

Focus on storytelling. Bring the group back together again, ask questions, listen, share the experience of the process and challenge.  Use creative and coaching approaches to glean, record and bring the stories to life. 

Work out what matters about your collaboration, what was different this time? The people? The ‘how’ you behaved together? The insight gathered? The most important result isnt always the same as the most important outcome.

Paper Airplanes

One way I like to demonstrate the process of colaboration with a group is to set a task of sending a message across the room, via the medium of paper plane. Its a playful activity involving folding planes with simple instructions (cooperation), graffiting messages in marker pen (imagination, decision making) launching planes down corridors (energy, mistakes, test solutions), laughing (fun, connection) then working together (collective resources) to improve designs and strengthen the messages.

At each point of the activity I introduce a new idea that encourages collaboration, through a simple question:

• A frame to dance within - what are the rules? How can you be creative within these boundaries?

• Self Reflection - what is your superpower as an airplane builder? What job do you gift to someone else?

• Radical Honesty - What do you acknowledge?

• Play - name your plane, what is its mission?

• Experimentation - can you combine 2 different messages?

• Shout about it - tell us a 5 word story about this moment?

So what?

Work with your collaborator group to decide how and where the stories of this work will have the biggest impact and influence and how they will change something that feels important to the group.

Do that.

Interested in collaboration? Join Brilliant Thing -The Collective to share and be inspired by design-work, collaborations and brilliant projects.