Last Wednesday, May 13, was my last day at a pr firm. Nuff said. The next day, I turned onto SW 13th to navigate my way to
ward Portland Actors Conservatory, where I will officially take the post of Marketing Coordinator as of June 1. Later that day, I took exit 13 off the 205 to get to the Clackamas DEQ station - where my slightly battered '95 Nissan Pathfinder passed its smog check, allowing me (after the DEQ fee) to the right to pay my $54 for another two years of car registration. Now, can you beat that?
On to more pertinent news: all this talk of collaboration at the Portland Arts Summit, covered comprehensively by the O here and here. My good friends Bill Rauch and Michael Rohd spoke, two venerable practitioners of the art. What did they have to say? My subjective summary:
1) It's uncomfortable
2) One doesn't know where its leading
3) It's inclusive
One of the striking things was the group's articulation of what collaboration is not: led by Michael, attendees did an exercise in small groups at their tables completing the sentence "It's not collaboration if..." What they came up with? Think of it as a checklist for your workplace:
"It's not collaboration if... you think you know the answer already" and..."It's not collaboration if you're afraid to fail." Other tables volunteered useful sentences, too: "if someone has to win", "if it's compulsory," "if there's no talking and/or no listening," "if there's no trust."..."You need to create a safe space to go to dangerous places."
It makes me think of Janea Dahl and the Young Player's Academy's upcoming presentation on techniques for bringing creativity to corporate environments.
Questions: if Barry Lopez says he has no gift for collaboration, why did he speak? I guess since he's an author (a lonely business), he's off the hook.