The document outlines 8 steps for effective collaboration: 1. Understand why collaboration is valuable for stakeholders at different levels from individuals to communities. 2. Diagnose the current state of collaboration and how it can be improved. 3. Consider the costs and benefits of collaboration for different stakeholders. 4. Evaluate conditions that encourage or discourage collaboration. 5. Use tools like communication platforms, visualizations and shared goals to facilitate collaboration. 6. Get permission from stakeholders to enact changes. 7. Experiment with interventions and measure their impact in an iterative process.

1. Collaboration in 8 easy steps
Craig Brown
Discussion at Heart of Agile meetup
Melbourne 17th May 2018

2. Your help wanted
Fill in this workbook to help think about what collaboration means for
you, and how you want to prove.
Also fill in our survey to help us study what collaboration is for people,
and what we are collectively doing about it.
https://goo.gl/forms/oejqvViJ7gNps5hr1

3. Agenda
1. Know why collaboration is valuable
2. Know what collaboration looks like
3. Understand the cost of Collaboration
4. Diagnose the situation
5. Understand the people
6. System conditions that foster collaboration
7. Tools for collaboration
8. Permission to act
9. Experiment forward

4. collaboration is valuable
Why do we think collaboration is valuable?

5. Locus of concern
Me
My team
Our company
Our customers
Our
community
• What is the locus of concern
people display?
• What is the impact you want to
make by working together?

6. Locus of concern
Me
My team
Our company
Our customers
Our
community
• Bringing diverse skills and knowledge
together
• Diversity also tends to mirror the real
world (where customers live) so you
get more empathy and insights
• You care about your team mates and
put in energy and effort for them
• We want to impress our team mates
• You learn to trust in your team
members and can shortcut to results
• Safety in numbers

7. What collaboration looks like
1.What does
collaboration look
like for you today?
1.What does better
collaboration look
like?
And better?
And better?

8. What collaboration looks like
1. What does
collaboration look
like for you
today?
2. What does better
collaboration look
like?
3. And better?
4. And better?
Dr Neil Preston, from Perth

9. 1.You
The team
The company
The customer
The community
Understand the cost of Collaboration
Discuss what does collaboration cost?
Me
My team
Our company
Our customers
Our community

10. System conditions that
foster collaboration
Encourage Discourage
Recognize what things encourage and
discourage Collaboration
Let’s make a list.

11. System conditions that
foster collaboration
Encourage Discourage
Ask permission
Go first
Be consistent
Do what you say you will do
Admit mistakes and apologize
Know everyone is doing their best
Admit when you don’t know
Ask for help
Shared goals
Shared spaces
Coach your peers
Be authentic
Act with integrity
Know the boundaries and rules
Know when to break them
Coherent values and behaviors
Be honest
Be kind
Competing goals
Unclear goals
Unclear boundaries
Unclear decision making protocols
Scarce resources
Uncertainty about the future
Personal consequences
Incongruent behavior
Not knowing people
Recognize what things encourage and
discourage Collaboration
Let’s make a list.

12. Diagnose the situation
Model the system; parts, connections, contexts
and people?
What incentives and disincentives are baked
into the system?
What are the sources of authority that people
use?
Pay attention to the power dynamics; who lifts
people up and who shuts people down? How
and why?
What interventions can you try?
How do you know they will work?
Do you act with consent or not?
What use of power and authority are you going
to employ? Does it fit with the target?
What key points exist in your situation?

13. Tools for collaboration
Colocation, travel and AV
infrastructure
Slack, etc
Visualization
Shared goals
Agreements on how we operate
What are the current gaps in your tooling?

14. Permission to act
People need to know what your
authority is based upon
Match your use of power and
authority
Getting permission
Building trust
Change management
What else?

15. Experiment forward
Hypothesis
Experiment
Measure/check
What will you do next month?