Reflecting on Collaboration

Collaboration - it's certainly a word that gets thrown around a lot - and I can be guilty of doing just that.

Two heads are better than one... (or more...)

Together we are better... 

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. Helen Keller.

What does this all mean? 

If we are trying to embed a collaborative culture in our school we need to be able to articulate clearly our vision for this. What do we mean by being collaborative?

Greg Carroll (2015) clearly defines the difference between co-operation and collaboration stating that collaboration is where people are so inextricably linked that they couldn’t function without the others as opposed to co-operation being where they could operate without each other, but the collective brainpower of the minds working together certainly make it better.

A definition of working collaboratively that really resonates with me is working together to create something better than we could have created on our own. I have used this many times - I heard it somewhere and now can't remember who to credit this quote to. However when I watched this video clip of Tim Cook Apple CEO - it really consolidated this for me.

Tim talks about the qualities he would look for in a collaborative worker. He talks about the person that he would look for would be a person that  would have an idea and then share it with his team knowing that they would be able to take the idea and grow it. He wouldn't need to take credit for it - he wouldn't need to get accolades for it - his team would run with it and they would all share the limelight. 

Working together to create something better than we could have created on our own. 

This type of collaboration requires a high trust model which is why it is so crucial to build relationships, talk about and generate team norms so that when things do go wrong or disagreements happen  - you have a base from which to work from. 

Building a collaborative culture takes time however we are committed to moving from good to great and creating something amazing here at St Francis of Assisi Catholic School. 

Next post: What are we doing as a Senior Leadership Team to promote collaborative practice at our school?

Reference:
Carroll, G. (2015) Collaboration - So Much More Than Parallel Play. retrieved from:
http://core-ed.org/legacy/thought-leadership/blog/collaboration-%E2%80%94-so-much-more-parallel-play