Full Disclosure - I’m not sure if you’ll believe me, but I started this blog BEFORE Stan Rapp and Rick Milenthal each gave separate presentations on the future of the Collaborative Model, of Engauage, to us here at Engauge Digital (formerly Spunlogic).

I’m certainly not anything special. And certainly not as visionary as the leaders of this new Engauge agency model. In retrospect, what I think happened is that in the past three months that I have been here, I have observed how Spunlogic sets itself apart by its level of effective collaboration. AND, that is exactly why Stan, Rick and the other leaders of Engauge thought we were such a great fit to this new agency model. It was synchronicity!

Wiki, Basecamp, Video Conference, GoTo Meeting, Sosius, Joyent, etc. are tools that help us collaborate. But, can tools make collaboration successful in and of themselves? Absolutely not.

Effective collaboration is impossible without the existence of important human factors. Teams made of members, equal in their contribution, all offering a unique skill set and points of view, come together to form an effective and efficient organism. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, sometimes. Stan Rapp made a great point by saying that true collaboration occurs when “specialists voluntarily join together to provide amazing results.”

That’s the power of collaboration. While tools can facilitate the communication and organization of the team, there is no substitute for true passion, skill, and camaraderie.

One of the wonderful things about Wiki is that everyone can contribute. It provides equalization of information, democracy in action, freedom of speech. This is what everyone finds so liberating about these tools. But we all know what speech can be like if collaboration breaks down. Silence, probably the best option, or worse, hurtful, discriminating and demoralizing speech impacting the entire group. What the best tools can do is to aid in the access and ease of information and knowledge sharing. What we humans have to do is the hard part.

So what makes human collaboration effective?

+ Atmosphere of trust & respect
+ Creativity
+ Open, regular and organized communication
+ Understanding everyone’s roles & responsibilities
+ Highlighting everyone’s strengths
+ Have fun: laugh and play
+ Learning from each other
+ Everyone feels empowered to make decisions
+ Everyone is after a common goal

When does collaboration breakdown?

+ CYA: paranoia amongst team members
+ Process for the sake of process
+ No fun! It’s all work, work, work
+ Meeting for the sake of meeting
+ Silos of communication
+ Decisions can only be made top-down
+ Everyone has their own goals they are trying to achieve through the group

No tools can prevent or promote these things. This has to come from us. If we don’t protect these things then the door is wide open for breakdown to creep in.

So the next time you are meeting with a colleague, thinking about how to solve a problem, constructing a project plan, remember the power of effective collaboration and amazing results will ensue!