Everything I need to know about collaboration I learned from my kid

For some reason, it just occurred to me that the difficulty in collaborating when “not in person” is a bit like five year olds at play.  My son doesn’t like talking with his friends on the phone.  Of course not, he’s only five after all.  To play effectively he feels he must be over at his playmate’s house, the friend at our house, both at the park, etc.  For five year olds, playing is no fun unless you’re in the sandbox together.

For too many adults, collaboration is not practical when you’re not in the conference room together.

Replace “house” with “office”, “playmate” with “colleague” and you get the picture ….  What’s worse is that we make these decisions unconciously.  To collaborate effectively at a distance requires deliberate, conscious decisions to do so, and constant effort.

~ by Eric Kristoff on April 17, 2009.