Introduction from the book WORKING TOGETHER ON COLLABORATION

INTRODUCTION

It seems a simple enough concept—to work together, to collaborate.

It’s not so much that collaboration is complex, although it can be, but more that, those who have spent their professional lifetimes engaged in rewarding collaborative efforts suggest that doing it well requires a unique grouping of skills and attributes.

Thus, this book.

What will you find in the pages you now hold in your hands? You’ll find a treasure trove of wisdom on collaboration from 15 experts representing a number of fields, the majority of whom are in public health. Shared themes come to light, providing verification on some level that a given idea is perceived as critically important.

Because of their generosity and gift of their lives’ wisdom on collaboration, you can benefit from their aggregate experience and see first-hand what has worked and what has not worked for them. Their knowledge may be a useful guide to you in your exploration of and involvement in collaborative efforts. To their great gift, I’ve added some of my own thoughts on the principal themes

WHY COLLABORATE?

Dr. Yuval Harari, Harvard scholar and author of “Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind,” has spent the greater part of his career developing and sharing this intriguing idea: when you collaborate with others of your species, you will be harnessing the most significant and powerful dynamic responsible for the success of homo-sapiens on this planet. Harari says that our ability to create a shared vision and to work together on that vision to fulfillment over time has brought mankind to where we are as a species today.¹

This is truly a thought-provoking statement. If you think about it, I believe you’ll agree with me that most of our significant accomplishments (and I’ll let you define them as you see fit) involve people working together with others to reach common goals.

Certainly, collaboration today has become a necessity in the field of public health, and, I suspect, in many other fields as well. For several decades public health professionals have seen their agenda expand while resources have declined. Thirty or forty years ago, how many of us would have predicted that we would one day be held responsible for controlling an epidemic of opioid abuse, stopping gun violence, or dealing with the social determinants of health —adequate housing, education, sustainable income, safe neighborhoods, and opportunities to exercise— to mention just a few?

At the same time, we are living in a world of declining resources. This was a theme shared by many of our contributors, and I would guess that most Americans feel the same about many areas of endeavor. Whether you think about your social club, local volunteer work, or your job in a non-public health area, you perceive that often there is simply less money available to accomplish goals than in years past. This inability for a single agency, institution, or other group to reach a desired outcome on its own creates a level of stress that can only be dealt with by working with others. No one we communicated with believes this trend of diminishing resources in the area of human services will change in the near future.

…We also must admit that working with others is not always easy, for we must learn to see another’s views and perspectives as equally valid to our own.

Getting along well with others is central to success with collaborations. You may not like all those involved, and they may not all like you, but cultivating their trust and respect while providing the same for them is a necessity for success. You’ll find the cultivation of effective interpersonal skills to be a prominent theme in the experiences described later.

There are many pragmatic arguments for pursuing collaborations, but personally, I like this reason best: it just plain feels good. Intuitively, I think we all feel that somehow, working with others is natural and good. It certainly makes us feel good to believe we can do so.

Thus, it may be said that collaboration somehow touches a root of humanity, something central to our being.

In this book, we’ll walk you through success in collaboration in a step-by-step, organized way, although you know already that life itself is not quite so linear, as the stories from our contributors will reveal.

A QUICK DEFINITION OF COLLABORATION

There are many definitions of collaboration. The one I like best comes from the Wilder Research Center:

Collaboration is a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve common goals.

The relationship includes a commitment to mutual relationships and goals; a jointly developed structure and shared responsibility; mutual authority and accountability for success; and sharing of resources and rewards.²

Humility—Seeing Beyond Yourself

To put this another way, ask yourself if you can see beyond your selfishness. The greater part of a human being’s life is determining in great detail what we believe in, what we think, and what we choose to do. It’s part of the process of defining who we are throughout our entire lives. But in a collaboration, you are far more likely to succeed by mastering the art of learning what others think and feel.

Diversity

An element of that inclusiveness is paying attention to diversity when putting a collaboration together. We have the tendency when choosing people to work with to choose people who are like us—people with the same values, the same color, the same socio-economic status, and the same education. Perhaps they even live near us. We’re often most comfortable with homogeneity.

The most effective teams, however, bring together people with very different views and skillsets representing the broad range of stakeholders for a project. Diversity goes far beyond race, which is its common interpretation. It might mean that you include representatives of the clients you are serving with your collaboration. For example, if you are working on a collaboration which addresses the health needs of a section of your community, include people who live in that community in your collaborative effort.

Let Your Ideas Go

One example of keeping the needs of the group in mind is to “let go” of ownership of your ideas that are embraced by the group. Allow others to take on your ideas as their own; let them speak of them as their own; and yes, perhaps permit them even to take credit.

This is difficult. After all, it was your idea! By the very nature of how we humans think, letting go of ownership of ideas makes sense. When we first hear an idea, we tend to discount it. Then in time, we see the validity, and then it is not uncommon for people to con

Going “Above and Beyond” the Norm

Why It’s So Critical to Success in Your Career

As you move on to read about the experiences of our contributors, I think you’ll be impressed by their resolve to do what it takes to achieve their goals. This resolve is more than just a willingness to work hard. That is a key element, of course, but it also indicates a willingness to step outside of the usual workday and to accept responsibilities implicit in moving a project ahead, but are outside of the person’s expected range of activities. Our contributors are also willing to accept risks of failure that might otherwise be avoided.

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