There is a great biological term “co-evolution” which is
related to symbiosis and according
to Berkeley's Understanding Evolution for Teachers means :
“cases where two
(or more) species reciprocally affect each other’s evolution. So for
example, an evolutionary change in the morphology of a plant, might affect the
morphology of an herbivore that eats the plant, which in turn might affect the
evolution of the plant, which might affect the evolution of the herbivore...and
so on”.
My favourite simple example of co-evolution is one from Eve Mitleton-Kelly at
the LSE Complexity Group in London who illustrates co-evolution as the
relationship between your shoes and your feet:
“Your shoes change your feet but your feet also alter your shoes”.
So true collaboration is a balancing act between being
flexible and taking a stand. Nobody knows all the answers in advance so if you
are inflexible in terms of what is to be done then you diminish the results possible
from the collaboration. However… everybody makes mistakes so if you are
unwilling to take a stand, and with it the risk of being publicly responsible
for a mistake, then you also devalue your teams results.
So in effective collaborations the players are constantly dancing
between flexing and taking a stand but in ineffective collaborations players are locked
into one of 2 camps - the always flexing/accommodating camp or the always
taking a stand camp!
So back to my original question – what is the balance of “give
and take” like in your teams?
Ken Thompson (aka The BumbleBee) blogs about bioteams, virtual collaboration and business simulation at www.bioteams.com.
Ken Thompson (aka The BumbleBee) blogs about bioteams, virtual collaboration and business simulation at www.bioteams.com.
