The Era of Smart Collaboration

"We are all in the same boat together - either we row together or sink together." That boat is planet Earth, economic and social development, environmental sustainability, access to technology and education, and enlarging are networking of opportunities. How do we row together?

The story of our own evolution has been of collaboration in many different levels. Scientists think that we develop bigger brains and, thus, our creative capacities as a result of our need to collaborate and cooperate. Language, for instance, is the tool to maximize collaboration. It is surprising that, recently, and in a very brief period of our history, humankind moved from depending on collaboration to praising individualism and competition. But, guess who is back and stronger? Yes, collaboration. And this time, also smarter.

The pace of change, the complexities, uncertainties of technology, ideas and, in general, everything that we call life, makes it is almost impossible for anyone, person or company, to keep up. Every day we create as much content and information as all that was created by humankind before 2003. We are inventing, discovering, innovating and scaling at a rate never seen before. This is putting an enormous pressure on all of us to find better ways to become more effective and productive, sustainable, while increasing economic and social opportunities for all. The pressure, among other things, is translated in the need for newer forms of collaboration. Thus, this is the Era for Smart Collaboration.

Our ancestors were forced to collaborate and cooperate as a means of survival. Maximizing and optimizing the search for food, protecting the tribe from predators and other tribes, and staying warm in the cold weather, were all collective tasks performed better when collaborating. But in that far past, collaboration and cooperation weren't necessarily a premeditated decision. It was simply a result of the need to survive and more a biological impulse, rather than a conscious decision. 

Fast forward thousands of years since our first steps in the very basic and rudimentary collaboration, to our current times, collaboration now needs to be a premeditated and conscious decision. And this time it is not only to survive as species, but to expand our network of opportunities. Our ancestors wanted to eat and avoid being eaten. Today we need to make sense of all the chaotic pace of change and stay relevant, all of which is impossible on the base of competition.

There are several examples where smart collaboration could prove to be highly useful and actually become a matter of life or death. One of them is environmental preservation. It is simply impossible for any entity on an individual level to tackle the enormous complexity of climate change and environmental degradation. Many governments are agreeing on a common framework to solve this problem, but smart collaboration could make a huge difference. How? For instance, by allowing governments to work with organizations in the field that are positively making a difference at a much smaller scale (startups, NGOs, innovators). Or by creating multidisciplinary innovation labs where patents and trademarks are offs the table and the ultimate goal is to find solutions to compelling problems, rather than who is the owner of what idea.   

In smart collaboration mode a network of opportunities is created and enlarged for the benefit of all the collaborators. It doesn't necessarily need a common goal. We all know that very often when science has a hypothesis (or goal to prove), and even when it is proved wrong, many other discoveries come up along the way. Nevertheless, it is useful and easier to get together when we are striving for a similar purpose, when collaborators are united as one front to tackle a common issue. For instance, climate change, providing access to education, Internet and technology for all, eliminating red tape and building stronger economies, among others.

Collaboration exists today. And particularly over the past 30 to 20 years it has become increasingly necessary as technology and internet are giving people access to vast amounts of information. And information is knowledge, and knowledge is power. That power is translated into the potential for better solutions, and a more human-centered approach, where many are involved, and not just a few. How can we take this type of collaboration to the next level, and make it into smart collaboration? Here are 3 premises:

1. Work in the short term, but keep your eyes in the long term: having a common goal to bring people together is important as this is the way to keep everybody inspired. Identifying that goal becomes essential, then, in order to make collaborators feel that they are part of something bigger than their own personal interests. This is the case for social entrepreneurs, for instance, when they are called to work together for relief and economic recovery after a disaster hit one particular region or country. Keeping the eyes in the long term means connecting everyone around a purpose that is bigger than all of them. Working in the short term means collaborating and acting today in order to realize that purpose.
2. Share credits: one of the biggest limitations to collaboration is the “who gets the credit”. I was recently watching an episode of The West Wing when two senators, one republican and one democrat, got together with a long term goal in mind: save social security. However, they got stuck in the “who do we say came to who first”. Each of them wanted to be the one acknowledged and credited as the initiator of the discussion. This happens at all levels. In politics, in business, in the social world, even within organizations and working teams. Wanting to get credit is not necessarily meaningless or selfish. It actually serves as way of recognition and reward. Share the credit! This is critical for smart collaboration.
3. Failure, success and greatness: three words, with three different meanings, yet all connected by a strong thread. In smart collaboration acknowledging the potential for failure is essential. When collaborators get together to solve compelling problems, those problems are already putting enough pressure on them. It is true that things can go wrong, and some outputs in the process may fail. However, when the view is on the long term, those failures should be seen as lessons and learning opportunities to strengthen the connection and the collaboration. On the other hand, it is also critical to keep the eyes off quick successes, and focus on long term greatness. One big problem for many teams is when their people are focused on succeeding quickly, rather than achieving long sustainable greatness. There are several examples of that. For instance, when a team seemingly finds a solution for a problem, but that solution proves to be useful for a very short period of time. Smart collaboration needs to maintain keen attention and balance when talking about failure, success and greatness.

Smart collaboration will be the norm. Not only because we want to, but because as a society we will have to embrace it (whether we want it or not). The challenges are just too big, and the amount of information and pace of change are simply overwhelming. Smart collaboration is not reinventing the wheel, but rather going to the very roots of our human nature and evolution, and how we got here. Smart collaboration brings our basic survival and rudimentary collaboration style to a more developed, understanding and complex approach, where keep our eyes in long term solutions rather than immediate rewards.

Follow me on Twitter: @erubio_p
Visit my blog: www.innovationdev.org

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About the Author: Enrique Rubio is an Electronic Engineer and a Fulbright scholar with an Executive Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Syracuse University. Enrique is passionate about leadership, business and social entrepreneurship, curiosity, creativity and innovation. He is a blogger and podcaster, and also a competitive ultrarunner. Visit the blog: Innovation for Development and Podcast. Click here to follow Enrique on Twitter. 

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