If you build it, Joe Jackson will probably not show-up and thank you
There’s a prevalent myth out there about technical and physical collaboration projects. It might be a symptom of unbridled optimism, but I have heard this phrase far too often: “Well, if we just build it [or do it], people will come.” I have rarely seen things thrown together that “just work.” What is astounding to me is that I’ve been in meetings where smart people know that throwing it together won’t work, but do it anyway. It’s like they turn into Kevin Costner and start hearing whispered voices.
You’re Either the Michael Jordan of Collaboration Or . . .
I don’t care what you might hear/read from others, collaboration is a lot of hard work (Randy Nelson is a very cool guy BTW). Does it make your job easier, faster, cheaper, and better? I think it does. But like anything worth doing, its a difficult path to victory. There are some people out there that make it look easy, but even then they will tell you it has been a challenge to get to that level of professional implementation. Even those folks will tell you that getting people to work collaboratively is a grinding, ceaseless battle.
. . . You’re Crazy
I think there are many reasons that people fall into the “just build it” mentality. One reason is the very human (American?) desire to show immediate results. You may have been tasked with creating a collaborative experience or environment, but if there is a disconnect between the organization’s goals and the task then its activity at the expense of progress.
Another reason stems from standing up the technical solution first and then getting business practices to align. Sometimes it is necessary to make this compromise to get the collaborative inertia going. This can not be, however, your only approach. Thinking about collaboration as a multi-faceted business process change problem is much more productive then landing on a technical solution before knowing what the adoption picture looks like (there are some smart guys over there at Wikipatterns.com).
The final reason, I think, has roots in social science community’s theories on psychological dissociation. Clinically speaking, I do not think that just saying “build it” means that people are dissociative (“The unexpected partial or complete disruption of the normal integration of a person’s conscious or psychological functioning that cannot be easily explained by the person”). However, when we pair the entertainment industry’s notion of “suspending disbelief” and clinical dissociation, I think there is something compelling to explore. When faced with a very serious challenge, the human brain can become overtaxed and people are unable to make decisions. As the severity of the consequences rises for the individual, so does their inability to effectively make decisions. This was a highly contentious point of discussion in the nuclear warfighting literature during the Cold War. In the context of collaboration, you’re not making a life-or-death decision, but the enormity of the task might overwhelm your senses and mental logic processes. Given the enormity of a collaboration task, you may be more willing to suspend your sense of disbelief or pessimism in favor of a more favorable projected outcome. The logic trail might go something like this:
Thought A: This is a really big problem
Thought B: We don’t have enough time to figure it all out and build a solution
Thought C: Well, we could just start building it and figure it out later
Thought D: Besides if we build it, people might just start showing up and that would be good
The pain of giving in to the voices comes later when either (a) your customers scream and complain about the solution you selected or (b) don’t show up.
What to Do: Thinking Beyond the Technical
I’m certainly guilty of focusing on technical solutions prior to thinking about the problem. What keeps me on the straight and narrow is asking two simple questions:
1. What is the objective of the activity?
2. Who are the customers?
Be it a conference, brainstorming session, or technology implementation, these questions are important framing devices for any collaborative effort.
Just remember three things: planning, more planning, and executing. Have an idea of what you want to do and what you want to get out of it. Engage early with the customer of your effort to find out how they can help you get what you want and what they want. Finally, be prepared to follow-though on what your customers have asked for. If your budget or other constraints won’t allow you to accommodate all their needs, then you can choose to manage customer expectations or pick the best amongst the ideas to move forward. Just remember if you start hearing whispered voices, please seek professional help.
