Above and Beyond with Collaboration

Above and Beyond with Collaboration — page 3 — Skill set People may assume that they know how to work with others but collaboration involves specific skills It means being patient asking for and evaluating each other's ideas listening carefully and sharing your own thoughts Like all skills you need to learn and practice these to work and collaborate well Look at the list of collaboration skills How many do you think you have SPOTLIGHT Wikipedia is one of the most widely viewed websites in the world It is a collaborative online encyclopedia with more than 38 million articles in 290 zlanguages It is unique because it is written by anonymous volunteers Wikipedia is called a tive collaboration which means it is being changed and improved all the time by people all over the world People of all ages cultures and backgrounds can create or contribute to any article as long as they can back up their information with credible sources The more people that work on any one article the more complete and balanced it becomes However because anyone can add or change information errors and even vandalism can creep in Editors keep an eye on the pages and can fix problems and inaccurate contributions L

Above and Beyond with Collaboration — page 4 — Collaboration skills a giving and receiving feedback One Step at a Time I sharing credit with others for good ideas I acknowledging others skills experience creativity and contributions I recognizing the feelings and opinions of others I expanding on the ideas of others I being able to state your own opinions tactfully or with awareness of others feelings Learning how to work effectively with others can seem to be a huge task So what is the best way to improve your collaboration skills Focusing on one skill at a time is a good way to make sure you have truly conquered each one If you are practicing sharing credit for good ideas you can check the body language of your teammates to make sure you are successfully getting your point across Are they smiling because their efforts have been recognized or are they rolling their eyes I istening patiently to others during disagreements I defining problems in a nonthreatening way I supporting group decisions even if you don't completely agree STEP 3 STEP 2 STEP 1

Above and Beyond with Collaboration — page 5 — a da in a W AW R R R a A 2C MIL ET A1 Friday VAP FLDS 2 10 11 SWIMB CASS Le Food SHOP LJ 22 FEED ord DRY Tite CEANIN FISH Why Collaborate Water cooler Collaboration You might wonder why we should bother collaborating at all Why not just allow individual people to use their talent to create things Researchers have found that diverse groups can be smarter than the smartest individual How is this possible The reason is that people tend to build on the ideas of others and mistakes or flaws can be corrected by other members before they weaken or ruin a project Collaboration is important in all areas of our lives At home it helps all family members feel valued and respected If everyone is involved in creating a schedule for chores the result will take into account everyone's strengths and needs and there will probably be fewer problems A collaborative effort at school or at work results in a more successful product or project Some companies deliberately hire workers who are not only good at their jobs but also have unrelated interests A survey of their employees might reveal people with interests in kite making breeding racing pigeons glass blowing and roller derby These employees might meet up over lunch or in the hallways and have random conversations that can lead to fascinating new

Above and Beyond with Collaboration — page 6 — Brainstorming Brainstorming was a new idea in 1952 It is a way to find answers to a specific problem or to create something new by coming up with a list of possible ideas Alex Osborn developed the concept when he worked in advertising to produce ideas for new ads Brainstorming is often done by a group but unlike collaboration it can also be done by an individual Brainstorming has two rules 1 Don't judge how good or bad an idea is when it is created 2 Come up with as many ideas as possible Osborn wanted lots of ideas to be generated rather than just waiting for one good idea He believed that the greater the number of possible ideas the more likely it was that a unique exciting idea would be produced SPOTLIGHT It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think Alex Osborn was born in New York in 1888 After college he worked as a journalist then joined an advertising agency While he worked at the agency he became interested in the best methods of creating exciting and original ideas that he could use in advertising campaigns He went on to write several books on creativity In 1952 he introduced the idea of group brainstorming which was the beginning of the idea of collaboration up a new One Alex Osborn

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