Complexity, risk and collaboration

Complexity, Collaboration & Learning While Doing

Not all Issues are Alike
Simple Issues
Straightforward, ends and means are clearly evident, problem solving is recipe-like and easily replicable, no special expertise is required, experimentation is possible although there is little need for it and there is high confidence of success. Eg. Baking a cake.
Complicated Issues
Ends may be clear but the means are less so, requiring a process among experts to define. Many logically connected elements. Experts lay out a narrow path for success that has little tolerance for experimentation but high confidence in success if all the right experts have been brought together. The process is transferable to other similar circumstances if followed exactly. Eg. Building a bridge.
Complex ‘Wicked’ Issues
Uncertainty is high because both ends and means are unclear and must be learned simultaneously. Issue elements may be unknown or unknowable and may evolve over time. Solutions require the construction of positive relationships in order to share multiple perspectives and contributions. Experience is no guarantee of success. Solutions may be optimized for a given moment but are imperfect or incomplete. Each situation is unique and solutions are rarely transportable. Eg. Transforming a community.

Complexity Increases with Increases in the Number of Risks and Uncertainties Work Coupling Time Issue Complexity Context Technology Resources Business Action Interdependence Political Stakeholders Knowledge Shared Goals

Complexity Encourages Collaboration
Complexity breeds uncertainty
Since the goals and the means to achieve them must be learned together, one is never certain whether the right goal is being pursued or whether one has sufficient knowledge, resources or power to achieve it. This risk is mitigated somewhat by distributing it among others.
Ashby’s law of requisite variety
Match the complexity of the issue with the complexity of the solution
With the distribution of knowledge, resources (both human and financial), and power (authority and mandate), no one is fully in control. Shared governance becomes the only effective means of coordination.
With the awareness that we can’t do it alone, we open ourselves to the idea of collaboration
And yet…

A Practitioner’s View of Collaboration
“ Collaboration is an unnatural act between non-consenting adults.”
“ We all say we want to collaborate, but what we really mean is that we want to continue doing things as we have always done them while others change to fit what we are doing.”
Former US Surgeon General, Jocelyn Elders

Collaboration Needs Re-Learning
While children collaborate spontaneously, most adults have been taught:
someone is always in charge,
problems have simple solutions,
people can be compelled to cooperate,
accountability must be imposed & mistakes punished,
the problem lies in changing someone else’s behaviour, and
answers & actions are more important than dialogue.
Collaboration depends on our sense of belonging (how we are together) and on the quality of our exchanges with each other (the conversations we hold amongst ourselves).

Practices That Make It Work
Socialization practices
Pre-collaboration, getting to possibility, purpose, modicum of trust
Design Practices
Structuring the process w/o structuring the outcome
Engagement Practices
Empowerment, personalizing, building ownership & commitment
Trust practices
Building confidence, re-affirming trustworthiness & moral contracting

Practices That Make It Work (cont’d)
Governance practices
Purpose, principles, people, concepts, structure & processes
Working to consensus & multiple accountabilities
Operational Practices
Appropriate & fair sharing of risks, rewards & workload
Learning practices
Developing common language
Learning while doing & double loop learning
Information practices
Satisfying learning, contingent cooperation & multiple accountabilities

Collaboration is a process of …
Building trusted relationships
Bringing into existence shared possibility
Reconciling the metaphors which guide our various experiences & knowledge, leading to discovery and shared innovation
Heuristic (trial & error) learning by doing
Demonstrating our value to each other
Community building & creating a sense of belonging

Collaboration Leads To…
Effective dissemination and exchange of information,
Knowledge collaboration and frame reconciliation,
Collective learning,
Shared ownership and decision making,
Rigorous feedback & accountability,
Innovation,
Shared commitment,
The development of new resources, and most importantly
The effective and efficient implementation of collaborative endeavours.

At Christopher Wilson & Associates Let Us Help You To Collaborate…
To forge better results
To build a future you want to live into
To create a nourishing community
And a place of belonging

Thank you
Christopher Wilson & Associates
PO Box 62024
Ottawa, ON
K1C 7H8
[email_address]
Tel: 613-355-6505

Complexity, risk and collaboration

by Chris Wilson on Dec 15, 2010

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Complexity, risk and collaboration — Presentation Transcript