For some people collaboration is a dirty word, with connotations from those who collaborated with the nazis in WW2. Not for me though, I think that it makes for a generally better outcome than trying to do everything oneself. However it does have its downsides. You often need to compromise, other people may have more time than you and drive things faster than you’d like, and perhaps not in the direction you’d choose. That said, good collaboration gives you more than you could have achieved on your own.
Where has this sudden enthusiasm for collaboration come from I hear you think. Well its not a sudden enthusiasm, but a timely articulation. My OU course (B301 Making Sense of Strategy) has just entered the collaborative block. Do for the next four weeks or so we need to work as a group to do some strategic analysis using the tools we have been introduced to in the previous block. So far it has been interesting, we’re on day 3 and people have appeared from the woodwork – as well as some familiar folk. Personally I’ve not been able to do much, a busy weekend and also trying to finish the previous TMA have kept me going.