Chapter 5 Summary
Jake Droessler and Josh Wentzel
Objectives and Outcomes:
1. To understand that writing in the workplace will involve collaboration.
2. Recognize situations that make collaboration appropriate, such as subject, process, product, and benefits. Also recognize situations that could cause conflict.
3. Develop skills to participate in different types of collaboration: coauthoring, working with colleagues, and team projects.
4. Learn to develop skills that are typical of a successful collaboration. Such as listening, asking questions, sharing ideas and thoughts, using technology effectively, and reflect.
5. Avoid interpersonal conflicts. Negotiate potential procedural conflicts, and encourage substantive conflicts.
The four main reasons that collaboration takes place:
· Subject of the project
· Process used in the project
· Product that collaborators create
· Benefits of collaboration
Subject of Project
When working on some projects, there needs to be collaboration to make the project a success. The subject matter of the project can require more than just one person researching and reporting. For example, the building of a bridge would require tons of collaboration. The engineer, drafter, contractor, and right down to the laborers themselves would all have to collaborate to make that project a success.
Process Used in the Project
The process that is used in a project will often dictate how much collaboration is needed. More often than not a project will require a fair amount of collaboration to complete it. A lot of tasks require feedback from more than just one person that started the project. Working together in a group will help eliminate a one sided view and will make the project go faster and better.
Product That Collaborators Create
The end product is the collaborators goal and they want it to be perfect. A web site for example is something that needs to be appealing to its intended audience but also should be accurate with its information. For example, a web site that wants to explain some normal automobile maintenance would want to have instructions from a certified auto mechanic rather than from Mr. Johnson down the street. It would make the website sound more professional.
Benefits of Collaboration
Some of the benefits of collaboration are the ease of communication, you can use a Web conference instead of trying to get everyone together at one specified time in one place. Also, collaboration has personal and orginizational benefits. Many people like being part of a team and succeeding as a group. Less burden on only one person, the workload is spread out among many individuals.
Disadvantages of Collaboration
· Takes more time than individual work.
· Managers want to much control.
· Unwilling to share credit.
· Conflicts can ruin a group if not worked out.
· Too much criticism.
· People have different ways of approaching issues.
· Responsibility, either too much or too little.
· Technology may not be availible.
· Ethics may be questioned in some instances.
Types of Collaboration:
Coauthoring
Many people have a wrong understanding of collaboration, they believe that both authors contribute equivalent parts. Really all the authors submit ideas, but they are willing to compromise with the others. Each collaborator analyzes their ideas strengths and weaknesses to achieve the best product.
Consulting with Colleagues
Consulting can provide us with constructive criticism to help us assure quality in our work. People should be willing to consult as well as provide consultation to their co-workers.
Contributing to Team Projects
Contribution does not necessarily have to be equal, but all members of the team should voice opinions on what each persons responsibilities and roles are within the group.
Being a Good Collaborator:
Ackerson gives three guidelines to follow:
1. Treat people like you'd like to be treated.
2. Identify strengths and weaknesses of team members and use them accordingly.
3. Insist on excellence.
Self-Assess
People need to look at their work in a way free from bias, personality, and prejudices.
Be Engaged and Cooperative
· Always come prepared.
· Be able to articulate the purpose of your collaborative work.
· Be articulate in expressing your views.
· Be cooperative and supportive.
· Be direct in stating your own opinions, and respect the ideas of others.
Listen
Active listeners are attentive, involved, interested. They pay attention to what their collaborators say and don't say, also the manner of speaking and tone of voice. By being an active listener you will learn more, and accomplish more as a team.
Conform to Conversation Conventions
All collaboration requires some type of conversation. Here are some tips to make conversations easier:
All conversations
· Select an appropriate location with minimal background distractions.
· Look, sound, and act interested.
· State your points clearly.
· Provide explanations and examples as needed.
· Share the turn taking
· Respond to the other person's ideas.
Face-to-face conversations
· Make direct eye contact.
· Respect personal space.
Telephone conversations
· Don't eat, drink, or chew gum while on the phone.
· Don't put people on hold for more than a few seconds.
Electronic conversations
· Keep in mind that all electronic messages can be forwarded, printed, or permanently stored by any recipient, so be sensible, even cautious, about what you send electronically.
· Copy only enough of the message you're responding to in order to provide a context or a reminder; do not copy the entire message unless you need a legal record.
Ask Questions
By asking questions you can determine how much you already know, and what you need to learn.
· Ask open-ended questions that require comments or discussions rather than questions that ask for yes or no responses.
· Ask questions that focus attention on a range of rhetorical elements important to the project: content, context, purpose, key points, audience, conventions of organization and support, and conventions of document design.
Share
Asking questions is a good way to get information from colleagues, but you also need to give them detailed information to help assist them. Establishing a schedule is the most effective way to get information exchanged.
Use Technology Effectively
Groupware
Groupware is software designed to facilitate group interaction, usually changes the way collaborators plan, share documents, give and receive feedback, and make decisions.
Two important factors of groupware are:
1. Time
2. Location
Awareness
Team members need to be aware of the Interaction, Workspace, and Information they are using and sharing with other members. This can help avoid miscommunication and misunderstandings.
The three areas for team awareness are:
1. Interaction.
2. Workspace.
3. Information
Keeping in mind the who, what, when, where, why, and how of things.
Privacy
Respect group members privacy in sending and sharing information. You should also be cautious in using files and information from other group members.
Reflect
Look back over all the information you have received and re-assess its value, decide whether to keep information or get rid of it. This will help you maintain organization and clarity.
Negotiating Conflicts:
As you become more involved in collaborations, you will need to develop skills to manage problems and negotiate three different types of conflicts.
Affective Conflicts
Are due to personal attitudes and biases, as well as personality and values. To succeed in a project you need to develop interpersonal relationships. You need to respect others in your group and get along with them. If you do not make an attempt to do this these conflicts will set-back progress of the project and lead to other problems.
Procedural Conflicts
Groups need to outline how they will operate, many experienced collaborators use these critical factors to help run smoothly:
1. Meeting details
· Settle details of meetings: time, place, duration.
· Agree on what preparation should be done for meetings.
· Discuss the collaborative approach the group will use.
2. Team roles and responsibilities
· Identify the responsibilities each individual will assume.
· Determine how to monitor the group's progress.
· Decide on order of authorship based on some mutually acceptable criteria.
3. Productive management of conflict
· Agree on ways to minimize affective and procedural conflict.
· Agree on ways to encourage substantive conflict.
· Decide how to negotiate among alternatives and resolve disagreements.
By taking care of these three critical factors first you can reduce the chances of having set-backs due to procedural conflict down the road.
Substantive Conflicts
Includes decisions about the projects content, purpose, audience, conventions of orginization and support, and conventions of design. Two things should be agreed on before the groups starts collaboration. Agree on the purpose of the collaboration and agree on project objectives and outcomes.
A number of things can be done in order to make the collaboration a success.
1. Voice explicit disagreements- dont hold ideas inside
2. Consider alternatives to plan.
3. Ask provocitive questions. Stay on topic with questions.
4. Take a productive and critical perspective. Give only constructive criticism.
5. Seperate ideas and personality. Don't mistake objection of idea for attack on you as a person.
Cultural differences can lead to conflicts in collaboration because of how different people are used to approacing things different ways. Like in Chapter 2 conflicts can be caused by someone misinterpretaion of something that another collaborator says or does.
When working in a group one should expect some conflicts due to cultural differences. How the group overcomes the conflict is the big picture. Understanding other cultures can cut those conflicts down but will not eliminate them. People need to be calm and try to realize that not everyone has to approach things the same way they, themselves do.
