Collaboration

Now that we have taught and worked on the ability to build consensus, I would like to now address the ability to collaborate. In the middle portion of the consensus process talked about in the last post, we saw that there is an opportunity to talk about the reservations that people have. It is in this process, or period, that relationships can be strengthened and collaboration can occur. 

The relationship is strengthened because there is an open and honest discussion about whatever the issues may be that are holding a person back from moving forward, or having the desire to move forward with a proposed idea. Typically the discussion would contain many questions that help to understand a person's point of view, such as: "why do you feel that way?", "what would help to change your mind?", "Is there anything else that is bothering you regarding this idea or process that you have not yet voiced?". These are just a few examples of questions that can be and are often used to be able to know how a person is feeling at this point in the process. The second question in those examples is where I think some of the most power comes from in the collaborative process. 

To be able to talk about what might change a person's mind is key in the step of building ideas and new strategies to move forward as a group. In the group that we are working with, this was demonstrated with scheduling, and what day of the week would work best for some people to meet and talk about future actions of the group. They talked about what days would be best, and then asked the small percentage of people that couldn't do the day that most people could, why they could'nt do that day. After a few minutes, they were able to decide a day and a time that would fits nearly everybody's schedule, and were able to successfully collaborate on an issue for the betterment of the group as a whole. It was great to watch, and a great lession on collaboration.