“…on an activity or project.” (Collaborate. [2010]. Oxford dictionaries. Retrieved on July 26, 2011, from http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/collaborate)
Well, duh.
But the use of the word “jointly” in this definition is, I think, very important in distinguishing the true meaning of what it is to collaborate from what people assume it means. Many people seem to think that collaboration means “working together,” which implies that all the collaborators are together “in the same room” (whether literally or virtually), exchanging information and ideas to create something “together.”
It is this understanding of “collaboration” that makes many people dread it. People complain, “I don’t want to sit there and debate every word with the whole group. It takes forever, and nobody ever really agrees, so we end up with something bland that doesn’t really say anything.” This is, indeed, a pitfall of collaborative work: death by consensus.
Other people say, “Collaborative work isn’t fair. Someone (usually me) does all the work and everybody else just goofs off. Even if the project turns out well, I have to share the credit with a bunch of slackers who didn’t really do anything.” And few of us can deny that in most groups, one or two people will take the lead (usually those with the most to lose if the project fails) and do more than their share to ensure success, while everyone else skates.
That’s why I prefer working jointly to working together. Lennon and McCartney, one of the greatest collaborative duos of all time, worked jointly. One of them would come up with the basics of a song and would present it to the other, who would then suggest changes and additions. They would go back and forth, in an iterative process, until they agreed that “their” song was complete. Any Beatles fan can tell you who the primary writer of a song is from how it sounds. “I Am the Walrus” is John; “Here, There, and Everywhere” is Paul. And most critics agree that both Lennon and McCartney benefited from that collaborative process; the music that each produced independently is generally inferior to the songs they wrote jointly.
John and Paul did not sit together on a piano bench and ask each other, “OK, should we start with an A or a D?”, argue about it for 20 minutes, and then compromise on “C.” Not only would that have taken a ridiculous amount of time, the resulting music would have been abysmal. Yet that is the basic modus operandi that many people envision when they think of “collaboration,” and it has resulted in much wailing and gnashing of teeth, not to mention hundreds of truly awful corporate mission statements.
Working jointly means that I bring my skills and talents, you bring your skills and talents, we each do our best work, and then we combine what works best. In a successful collaborative team, the various skills and abilities of the collaborators will complement each other. My sardonic wit will balance out your upbeat melodies (and vice versa), and we’ll end up with “Let It Be” (or at least “I Want to Hold Your Hand“), rather than “#9 Dream” or “Spies Like Us.”
N.B.: I do not have a specific reference to cite regarding Lennon and McCartney’s collaborative style, but I did get an “A” in Music 422: The Beatles: Their Music and Their Times at the University of Southern California. (And yes, it did count toward my major. Awesome, right?)