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The problem isn't "collaboration", the problem is people who don't really know what "collaboration" really means. Status reports, standups, committees, meeting

The problem isn't "collaboration", the problem is people who don't really know what "collaboration" really means. Status reports, standups, committees, meetings with a large number of people, etc, does not make "collaboration" happen. Collaboration isn't a process or a management technique -- it is a communication style. If you want collaboration, you can't take random people and use process to "make them collaborate" -- you need to build your team out of people who are collaborators. Furthermore, collaboration is not at odds with accountability. Most of the highest performing collaborative teams I've ever worked on have people who are each individually highly accountable for their own contributions, and that's a critical part of what makes them a valuable collaborator.

msteffen 7mo ago
> Collaboration isn't a process or a management technique -- it is a communication style. If you want collaboration, you can't take random people and use process to "make them collaborate" -- you need to build your team out of people who are collaborators. Yes! I would add that IMO the communication style can be learned and there are great rewards for doing so. I believe the rough statistic that 20% of people on a typical project are contributors. I don’t believe that it’s because the other 80% are losers. IME it’s because no serious effort has been made to include them, make sure they understand wtf is going on around them, and help them solve whatever is holding them back. If you do this, a) it does work, and b) the need for small teams becomes apparent because the now-onboarded person can’t find anything that isn’t already being worked on, so they (with encouragement) start a new thing. And there are limits to people’s ability to understand what’s happening, especially if they’re inexperienced, and some people really don’t have the skills to contribute, but by and large, building bridges for people is still highly worth doing.

msteffen 7mo ago

> Collaboration isn't a process or a management technique -- it is a communication style. If you want collaboration, you can't take random people and use process to "make them collaborate" -- you need to build your team out of people who are collaborators. Yes! I would add that IMO the communication style can be learned and there are great rewards for doing so. I believe the rough statistic that 20% of people on a typical project are contributors. I don’t believe that it’s because the other 80% are losers. IME it’s because no serious effort has been made to include them, make sure they understand wtf is going on around them, and help them solve whatever is holding them back. If you do this, a) it does work, and b) the need for small teams becomes apparent because the now-onboarded person can’t find anything that isn’t already being worked on, so they (with encouragement) start a new thing. And there are limits to people’s ability to understand what’s happening, especially if they’re inexperienced, and some people really don’t have the skills to contribute, but by and large, building bridges for people is still highly worth doing.