Collaborative methods are processes, behaviors, and conversations that relate to the collaboration between individuals. These methods specifically aim to increase the success of teams as they engage in collaborative problem solving. Forms, rubrics, charts and graphs are useful in these situations to objectively document personal traits with the goal of improving performance in current and future projects.

History of collaboration

Group setup

Deliberate setup of a team—before beginning work—increases the potential for high performance. To do so, the following components of collaboration should be an initial focus:

Group models

Four group models are common in collaboration:

Spence's basic rules

Spence identifies seven rules for all collaboration:

Katzenbach and Smith's "team basics"

In research since 1993, Katzenbach and Smith have identified six fundamentals of collaboration that are necessary for high performing groups:

Working styles

Two primary types of working styles exist, each benefiting from contributions of the other: Conflict between these groups typically occurs when group one becomes passive aggressive or group two becomes outwardly aggressive. Managing expectations, building consensus and communicating well are ways to avoid conflict.

Acuity

While psychologist Howard Gardner identified seven major realms of intelligence, a more simple set of acuities may be more useful within smaller groups. Four roles have been identified and are defined as follows (note that individuals may score high in more than one category): Higher performing teams often have a diverse set of skills and an appropriate number of persons in each role—as required by the goal of the team.

Thinking styles

There are two main components of thinking styles: internal and external, they share similarities to the extraversion and introversion traits seen in human personalities. The two thinking styles are dichotomies and can be used as axes when charting personal evaluation; note that "there is no 'right' place on the grid."

Creation of ideas

Internal thinkers typically express themselves best through writing and take longer to develop and express ideas. External thinkers typically express themselves best through speech and are faster at developing and expressing ideas.

Application of ideas

Detailed thinkers typically focus on specific, existing situations and start small, eventually working towards solving the greater whole of a given problem. Visionary thinkers typically focus on broad, potential situations and start big, eventually working towards solving the more specific parts of a given problem With both thinking styles, each benefits from the existence of the other; internal thinkers 'feed' off of the rapid-fire ideas of external thinkers and, conversely, external thinkers are 'grounded' by the deliberate pace at which internal thinkers operate (Note that the speed at which each functions has no correlation to intelligence). Detailed and visionary thinkers succeed in opposite realms and collaboratively can produce results faster and better than alone.

Learning styles

For collaboration purposes, three learning styles are typically identified: Through the use of varied (or redundant) communication styles, collaborative groups can communicate better both internally and externally. Agreeing upon group values is a step that "sets the tone" for further work. This is a convenient warm-up activity for a group and most commonly involves brainstorming a list and then picking a "top-ten." Spence recommends that this is a high-priority item for the first meeting. Values may be grouped into categories, but each is up to debate:

Group functions

Collaborative groups often work together in the same environment but may also utilize information technology—collaborative software in particular—to overcome geographic limitations. As a group works to meet its goals, the following components should be included to sustain effective collaboration:

Interpersonal communication

Spence states that communication is composed of the following: In collaborative groups, two styles of communication are likely to be found: Spence adds that there are three major steps to listening that facilitate learning and show respect for the speaker:

Respect

In collaboration, respect is a critical component of group performance and is given and/or received in two distinctly different ways: The give none model of collaborative respect is seen when individuals or teams expect others to earn respect based on the actions of those persons. This often occurs inside organizations, businesses and other groups where there is an existing commonality. Persons joining a collaborative team must prove what they can do and how they are valuable to the group to gain respect and continue working with the group. The give all model of collaborative respect occurs when individuals or teams provide others with respect and—through interaction—may lose or maintain their level of respect. This often occurs when already established and functioning collaborative teams invite a new group or team to join. These new members have often already shown their work to be of high quality and face expectations to deliver such quality for their new team.

Ideation

This divergent stage of collaboration is where ideas are developed. Group activities in this stage are typically called brainstorming. There are four basic rules in brainstorming. These are intended to reduce the social inhibitions that occur in groups and therefore stimulate the generation of new ideas. The expected result is a dynamic synergy that will dramatically increase the creativity of the group.

Exercises

Clustering is often used to define and understand the basic thematics of the topic (such as 'danger,' as seen in the image). What follows is approximately 10–15 minutes of clustering and writing of anything and everything that comes to mind—whether related or unrelated and opposing or supporting. Next, to move forward and solidify group understanding, a voting process is used to identify the most thought-provoking or applicable statements about each basic thematic; finally, the group shares and discusses observations. The critical caveat of the writing and voting portion is that they both are performed silently, unjudging, divergently and done with confidence that every contribution is critical. Grouping is often used to agree on actions, items and properties within specific categories of a project. In creative problem solving—game design, for example—the categories "Duration, Purpose/Goal, Theme, Primary Activity, Physicality, Challenge, Audience and Location/Environment" might be used.

Consensus

This convergent stage of collaboration is necessary to move forward from stages of ideation.

Voting

Polling the opinions of all group members is necessary to equalize ownership of the collaborative project. There are two principal ways to do this through voting: Varying means of voting exist, each having their strengths and weaknesses:

Performance analysis

In Katzenbach and Smith's research, five team classifications have been established:

Barriers to effective collaboration

A main barrier to collaboration may be the difficulty in achieving agreement when diverse viewpoints exist. This can make effective decision-making more difficult. Even if collaboration members do manage to agree they are very likely to be agreeing from a different perspective. This is often called a cultural boundary. For example:

Group conclusion

When a group has completed their objectives, introspection and self-critique are necessary to provide growth from the collaborative work experience. This stage also can be used to identify further work to be performed. Documentation of previous group actions become particularly useful at this stage. Spence recommends that to evaluate collaborative output, individuals must "attack projects, not people." Using the values and goals agreed upon in the 'setup' phase allows group members to make objective, authoritative critique of performance. Spence states that group members who have worked as Katzenbach and Smith's "real team" will typically experience a strong desire to continue working collaboratively and may even find that performance as an individual unit may suffer.