Why collaboration coaching?

This is the first post I've written in a LONG time. The last time I wrote a blog was pre covid, before my children were born, a LOT has changed in the intervening time. However, as I looked back my old blog posts, some of which I moved over to this new website, I realised that some of what I said back then is still relevant now, perhaps even more so!

I thought it would make sense to start off with a new series of blog posts, which are based around the 'why' of my focusing on collaboration coaching as a business.

This is the first, more general post - but it will be followed by a series of posts which talk through some of the anti patterns I see when people try to work together - and what we could do to turn these around to be more helpful.

Firstly, what is collaboration?

For me it's about a diverse group of people coming together as equals, with autonomy to solve complex problems in unpredictable situations.

I have a firm belief that we shouldn't (and actually cant effectively) work on our own to solve complex problems. When I say complex I mean from a complexity theory point of view. Problems where there are no right answers, many routes to a solution and a constantly changing landscape in which the problem exists. There is little or no certainty as to what the future holds.

I think we all operate in unpredictable environments like this (and if you think you don't, take a moment to really consider whether that's true).

I've come across many circumstances where people tell me they collaborate on something, be it a piece of work or a process they need to follow. On closer inspection, I find that what is sometimes meant be collaboration is this - 'I do my bit, then they do theirs'.

For me, this is not collaboration.

For a lot of people, this concept is completely alien. And that's ok - if you've never truly collaborated with someone then you won't know what it's like. Society and the cultures around us aren't geared towards collaboration necessarily.

However, complexity and unpredictability in the world are becoming more and more commonplace, which means we need to find ways to succeed and thrive in it - and as I've said I believe we can only do that by truly collaborating, working together, learning as we go and being open to changing our plan to deal with the things going on around us.

I think that's enough on this topic from for now. I may leave you with a wee story though.

Humanity x Lego / Valerie x Robb

I was asked by a local meetup group to collaborate with a good friend of mine on a session for their community. Robb and I have worked together before, we've put together a workshop together before, but we've both come a long way since then and have our own interests and skills now.

We of course said 'YES', before we'd even had a chance to think about what we were going to do, never mind how. We got together twice to work out the details. We exchanged many messages on whatsapp and we finally delivered a fantastic workshop together.

When we first said yes, we had no idea how the session would go. Robb is a Lego Serious Play facilitator and I've been exploring how we accept and become aware of ourselves and our colleagues as humans, to work better together and make the world a better place. How were we going to fit that together?

After our first conversation about it, we had a bit of an idea how therse two themes would fit together, but it was just a brief outline. I had a bit of a wobble with a month or so to go and we almost threw the whole plan out and started again.

However, the second time we got together, we were in Robb's car, driving home from a Lego Serious Play workshop he had just run, part of which would form the structure of our session. I attended his workshop purely to watch him in action and figure out if - and how - I could fit 'humanity' in with what he was doing.

We spent 30 mins in the car, him driving, me on my iPad, thrashing out the details. We got pretty close in that time, with just a few minor areas to figure out. From there, we played to our strengths and our capacity to make the session ready for the meetup community.

We were still making edits 30 minutes before we were due to start, but we were always talking, considering what we were doing and how we could make it better. The session 'Exploring Humanity with Lego Serious Play'was a great success. There were of course lots of things we could have done differently, but we stuck to our purpose and feel we served it well.

So what?

There is a lot to be learned from that experience. Openness, Vulnerability, a willingness to learn and adapt. Making the most of time together, playing to our strengths, accepting when someone doesn't have the capacity and working within those boundaries.

It helped that I've known Robb a long time and we have a fantastic working relationship already - but what I do on a daily basis is strive to give others that easy sort of experience, whoever they are working with. It takes time, patience and a lot of getting comfortable with uncertainty. It's hard, really hard, but it is achievable through awareness and acceptance of ourselves and others.

Get in touch if you'd like to discuss how I can help, no matter how big or small the group, or the challenge they are facing.