Collaboration

What a powerful quote! What if we changed it a bit?

“…the time CTOs devote to building the capacity of their tech dept team to work collaboratively, the more effective those individual members will be.”

I shudder to think what would happen if we failed to learn to work collaboratively in schools and technology departments. For example, in schools, we’d probably have the following situation:

• Teachers plan alone then meet each other once a week to exchange lesson plans that don’t make sense to anyone but the individual who wrote them.
• Adversarial relationships are setup between campus admins and teachers.
• Crucial confrontations about poor behaviors–on the part of admins and teachers–would never occur.

In Technology Departments, what might it look like if we succeeded in working collaboratively? Hmm…

• We would develop a common vision based on a strong foundation of team synergy rather than individual dysfunction.
• We would challenge mundane ideas and welcome a little crazy in to help us all think outside the box.
• We wouldn’t be afraid to express our ideas because our goal was to improve the ideas, achieve common vision, rather than avoid crucial confrontations. 
• We would make sure that our team mates were affirmed, not just by the boss, but by each other.

What do you think?

Source: http://www.alleywatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/collaboration.jpg

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Check out Miguel’s Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Tagged: Education, Leadership, Transparency