Inauguration Day 2009

Today was not only an amazing celebration of the United States at its best, but it provides the world with a fresh start. I was proud to be among the throng on the mall, basking in the goodwill of the million plus people joined together to witness the making of history. However, not all history is positive. It was more than a sense of history drawing the massive crowd together. There was also a palpable feeling of hopefulness and newness, a sense that all things are possible. Given the over-capacity crowd and the sharp disappointment felt by those who could not get into areas for which they had tickets, the day went incredibly well.

However, the day ended without serious incident, and for that we can all be thankful. That everything went so well was definitely a result of a high degree of collaboration, between branches of government, among both Federal and DC departments, between DC and everyone concerned, and among a broad range of the military and civilian law enforcement officers. I am sure things could have gone more smoothly, and communication could have been better, but what went right was a direct result not only of planning and resources, but of people and organizations focused on working together effectively for a single outcome. I imagine time after time everyone involved had to put aside self-interest and stretch beyond their comfort levels. (Including the out of town police officer that told me he had been outdoors, on his feet since 2 a.m.)

This is what President Obama is asking of us all: to set aside childish things and all that divides us, and focus on what connects us, to work together to achieve more than any of us can imagine, but what we need so desperately. The miracle of today is not just that we have our first African American but that we have a president that believes in working with other countries and believes that by working together we can solve the many problems that lie before us. It is only through ingenuity, sacrifice, service, and, yes, collaboration, that we can achieve President Obama’s vision and find our way out of our many problems. The stakes are high and the challenges many, but the way is clear.

No excuses!

How time flies when one is both working and playing hard - or at least traveling a great deal. My resolution for 2009 is to get back to blogging regularly, no excuses allowed.

I have been thinking a great deal about excuses lately. I have long noticed to what great lengths people and organizations go in order to avoid collaborating. Even projects which appear on the surface to require a great degree of collaboration are parceled out in ways that resemble the worst gerrymandering efforts, all to ensure that organizations can work unencumbered by the need to collaborate.

Frequently the excuse is time. It is true collaboration requires time to learn about each of the partners' needs, values and goals, as well as consultation, co-creation of new systems, and on-going negotiation. In some cases the project has such urgency and such a short timeframe that the benefits of collaboration are not deemed worth the time required. I understand this thinking because I am currently working on a project with nearly impossibly short and immovable deadlines (hence my recent lack of blogging).

This attitude of non-collaboration is understandable if projects are understaffed or staffed largely by people focused solely on their part of getting the job done. When people are hired from outside the organization to get a project completed they learn their client organization well enough to do the job do not necessarily have the time or knowledge base required for organizational collaboration. If people are pulled from within the organization to work on yet another project they are often overwhelmed and have little time or interest to add complexity to the work.

Unless funders are intentionally building organizational capacity for collaboration they are unlikely to provide enough funding to support the time and staff needed for collaboration. It is unlikely collaboration will take place when the appropriate people in the partner organizations do not have time, funded or otherwise, to participate in the collaborative process.

It is easy to undervalue the need for collaboration if the partners do not expect to work together on future endeavors or if they do not believe collaboration is necessary for the success of current or future projects.

All these are common excuses for not collaborating. While each is understandable, each remains but an excuse. Any excuse will do if one does not believe that collaboration adds value, not just to the individual project, but potentially more importantly, to the capacity of the partnership for future projects.

It is understandably difficult for people to value what they have not experienced, or what they have had difficulty achieving in the past. Sometimes collaboration is undervalued due to negative experience with the process. Many people lack the patience, if not the time, for collaboration. Others prefer to work solo and not open themselves and their work to the review and reworking required by the process of co-creation.

However, in the end each is an excuse for not participating in the collaborative process. In the coming year this blog will focus on the benefits of collaboration, based on my experience, as explored in research, and as reported in a variety of settings. In addition, I will continue to explore other issues related to working together to achieve common goals. No excuses allowed!