The structure of collaboration
As we finish up with collaboration in class I wanted to one last post regarding my observations about one things which is necessary to effective collaboration: hierarchy. Anyone who has been following my posts about social media in our society will have noted my big emphasis on social justice. So it might seem strange that I feel that hierarchies are necessary for effective collaboration.
However, human beings tend to form hierarchies whenever there is more than one person in a group. Thus, I actually think it is far wiser to consciously choose the working hierarchy, otherwise the hierarchy spontaneously generated will likely just reflect the current inequities of our society.
In my group’s wiki project one member immediately set themselves up as the project manager, creating the overall structure for the project but allowing us all the freedom to decide our own involvement. He also would have likely and willingly given up the leadership role if one of us had wanted to do it instead.
Over the last year in library school I’ve had to participate in my collaborative projects. The most successful one after the wiki project is one where we specifically elected on person to be the project manager. It allows everyone more time and freedom to work on their individual pieces if only one person needs to worry about deadlines and the more admin level concerns. It also allows everyone to view that this organizational role is an important contribution: even if the person ends up creating less content for the actual project.
For me, effective and fun collaboration has always relied on the recognition that everyone has different skills and, thus, something to contribute to the overall end product. Collaboration provides a cleate method to recognize and understand how these different ways to contribute are all important and necessary, without privileging only one kind of participation.
** Note: I wanna make it perfectly clear that I think this Wiki assignment and the one I mention are examples of hierarchies done *right*. Also, it they were both examples of collaboration done right and structured properly for success. Great experiences and very educational.**
I can’t tell whether you feel said student who took lead on your wiki entry should have done something differently or whether you feel it worked out contrary to your social justice beliefs. Sometimes, to get work done, someone has to lead. I hope you can assume leadership when you feel you can do so, or follow, as the need strikes you. This mirrors practice in the field.
Oops! I’m gonna go edit for clarity. My position is that it is absolutely necessary for someone to take a leadership role and that it needs to be recognized as a contribution similar to creating the actual content for a project. The business world does reward leadership, but I feel that we don’t recognize it enough in academic/class settings.
Importantly, I think it works just as well when, instead of someone assuming authority, it is collectively decided. While this latter method is more aligned with my social justice beliefs, I also tend to feel that great leaders, appointed or not, will function in such a way as to still make everyone feel like they are part of the process.
Oh hell, Abraham, I hate taking on leadership roles. Your term “project manager” made me cringe a bit. I always feel very bossy and if there’s one thing I don’t want to be is a boss. I’m glad it wasn’t abrasive/off-putting. I’m not a control-freak or anything.
My muy preferred role is to be the Spock to someone else’s Kirk. I way prefer being the quiet person in a meeting with one brilliantly insightful gem that makes people go “That kid may not say much but he knows what he’s talking about.”
But in library school I’ve been finding we’ve got a lot of Spocks, and it just doesn’t work if we all dance around trying to have some perfect idea. I’m learning about the importance of an enthusiastic/confident-seeming seed-crystal. To be Kirk, to toss something out there to coalesce ideas around, even if it’s dumb. Structure and everything else can emerge afterwards in the refining process, but you need something to start with. To act first.
(Note that I’m thinking of the original Star Trek here, back when Kirk was also a thinking man, not the Abrams-reboot apple-eating fratboy in the Kobayashi Maru simulator.)
I think library types (or at least the ones I’ve been fortunate enough to work in groups with) are really good about not being assholes when refining ideas. Nobody is the out-of-touch Starfleet Command saying “That’s terrible and stupid and you’re terrible and stupid” and then sits there without contributing a new take.
But there’s a danger in the Kirk approach in that it stifles the other cool seeds that would have come from everyone else. I’m sure Uhura & Sulu would have had some brilliant plans (Sulu’s later captaincy suggests this), but they’re left off in the background, while the brash white guy is off bangin’ aliens and somehow making everything work out okay.
I’m so sorry for that. Everything I ever think in regards to hierarchy comes through a Star Trek lens. I can’t do it in any other way.
Ah. My “clever” angle bracketed warning got parsed out. Please insert beginning and end tags containing PROTRACTED STAR TREK ANALOGY around everything except the first and last paragraph of that comment. Thank you.
Sorry about making you cringe! I know “project manager” has totally become this awful buzzword for middle management but I really did mean this in the best of ways. I really do think that one of the reasons that the project went so well is because of this. I liked it better than in a organizational environment because it sprang up spontaneously. Just as it has in our second project, where I seem to have taken the lead.
The other good way is to simply pick someone who’ll take lead.
Oh! I suppose I should make it clear what I mean by ‘lead’: the person who worries about word count, deadlines, and keeping everyone on task. This isn’t the person with veto power over other people’s ideas. Having a more admin tasked person allows for everyone just to focus on getting their stuff done. At its best it is freeing, not constraining.
I know, for me, sometimes it is nice not to have to worry about those details and just focus on my piece.