Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Collaboration - Week 4

            Collaboration is something that many see as a positive thing, but also many do not enjoy collaborating with others. Individuals find it difficult to collaborate with one another for various reasons. The first, and most obvious, is that a lot of leaders like to do things on their own and not instill trust in others to do their task. Therefore, they do not enjoy collaborating because they want to just do the task and make sure that it is finished and correct. Also, collaboration is not always a leaders first choice because it means that you have to go through extra steps and more work to be able to explain to the others what to do and how it is going to work.
            Some elements of collaboration that are most difficult to engage in are ensuring that all parties have an equal amount of work to participate in and that everyone is on the same page. It is difficult to bring everyone up to speed and make sure that large groups of people all understand the concept fully. This coincides with the elements that are most difficult to engage in, which in my opinion, is the reasoning behind working as a group. Oftentimes, people will feel that the task can be completed individually, so collaborating, as a group is unnecessary. An obstacle to successful collaboration is delegation. Making sure the task is being completed but multiple people are participating is key to successful collaboration.
            When you have members of your group who do not want to work collaboratively, it usually poses a problem. Many don’t realize the benefits of collaborating, which can be difficult to see on the surface. Collaboration should not be forced on someone because that is not ultimately going to create camaraderie, but the positive aspects of it should be conveyed to the group. Also, diversity is important in a group because it allows for all different types of ideas and concepts to be brought to the table. Similarly, competition is often the motivator amongst collaborators because members often want to show up the other members of the team.
            In our chapter, visions, aims and values are demonstrated by coming up with a plan, presenting it to the chapter and why it coincides with our values, and then presenting the outcome to the group. When looking at many different priorities in the chapter, we try to have different groups work together to complete both tasks or take on different ideas so that we stay true to ourselves and allow all members to participate in what is important to them. Collaboration is incredibly important, and one of the main reasons why our chapter has been so successful at following through and completing tedious tasks. 

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