Working in Collaboration, Part II

My first business collaboration was at the age of 18, when I teamed up with a graphic artist in San Francisco to design the layout of my first book, CUTS From a San Francisco Rock Journal. Flushed with that early success, and having forgotten one important fact (Donna was fifteen years older than I), I proceeded, at the age of 24, to team up with a photographer (she was 22). We relocated to London and began work on a trilogy of nonfiction books for Columbus Books. Unfortunately, that second collaboration lacked cohesiveness and staying power, and 18 months later she disappeared into the London underground, hooked on coke and toting our two half-finished books along.

What I learned from that experience aided me in successive partnerships. I have now been collaborating with another writer successfully for eight years, and we recently formed a partnership with a film producer to write a screenplay to his idea. I am fortunate (usually) in being able to select my partners; many in business cannot do so. You, as a manager, will undoubtedly choose collaborative teams from among your employees at one time or another, and whether they are successful or not depends, in large part, on the choices you will make.

A team of collaborators becomes proportionately more unwieldy the more members it contains. Remember the jokes from the 1980's about things done 'by committee'? They never got done right...so keep your team as small as possible while still utilizing all the talents available to you. Everyone on the team must have clearly delineated tasks to perform -- nothing can kill a project faster than everyone floundering around day by day, duplicating one another's efforts and ignoring some parts of the project altogether. And each team member must feel he/she is making a valid contribution -- even if one person on the team is so talented she can do everything needed, she still shouldn't get it all (nor could she probably do it all in time, or you wouldn't need a collaborative team!).

The kinds of people who work well on a team are (a) willing to listen to the ideas of others with an open mind, (b) have healthy egos that don't need constant attention, and (c) aren't inclined to hog recognition. Nothing can spoil a collaborative effort faster than one glory-hound.

Teams of more than three should have a designated leader. If the idea for the project was yours, and you assembled your team for the express purpose of completing it, you'll probably be the leader. If you're not even on the committee but simply overseeing it, you can appoint the leader yourself or let the members decide amongst them -- not everyone wants to be team leader, and certainly not everyone is qualified. If you do appoint the leader yourself, meet with him/her before holding a meeting of the whole team.

Even if you want to distance yourself from the project during its' execution, attend at least one meeting of your team. One member should be designated to tape each meeting and prepare copies of the transcript for the members. Frequently, so many ideas are brought up during a team meeting that some get lost in the shuffle. They could be useful later in the project, and this way everyone will have them for future reference.

One unpleasant aspect of working with others on a special project is that there are a lot of people out there more than willing to take credit for work or ideas that weren't theirs. Taping meetings can prevent this -- everyone at the meeting knows who had which ideas, and can prove it with the transcript copies.

Overall, working in collaboration is a rewarding experience and can produce superior results. Frequently, Sandra and Scott, my current collaborators, will come up with terrific ideas I love, and they sometimes take my ideas and improved them. I think I do the same for them, and so can you, and the members of your team. The important things to remember are open-mindededness to others ideas, beating your own ego into submission, and being willing to share the credit for the splendid result of your collaboration.