Fast Track Your Collaboration Through Patterning

Good collaboration requires the formation of collaboration patterns.  What are these?

Any collaboration contains problems that recur repeatedly, and a collaboration pattern is a reusable methodology - or repeatable set of behaviors or activities - used by people when working together to solve these problems.  According to Ellen Gottesdiener, “A pattern is a description of a known solution to a specific type of problem. It documents a core insight or instructive information, so people can solve problems quickly and effectively.” (1)  Context is a critical factor; specific patterns are right for some contexts, but not others.

Over time, collaboration patterns will emerge in a group, but productivity can be established quickly if primary patterns can be identified and agreed upon early.  Patterns save time; reduce uncertainty, learning, fragmentation, and redundancy; and develop cohesion.

In Where in the World is my Team? I presented what I call a collaborative architecture - The Six Cs. (2) One way to think about this architecture is as a form/container for collaboration patterns. In the chart below are the Six Cs along with associated ‘problems’ and some potential collaborative activities that could benefit from patterning early in the game.

The Six Cs	Problems	Some Candidates for Patterning
Cooperation	Developing supportive relationships across geographies, time zones and cultures	Partnering Managing conflict Negotiating Sharing
Convergence	Maintaining a clear purpose, direction, and shared set of priorities across distances	Goal setting Strategizing Planning Prioritizing
Coordination	Sharing processes, routines, tools, standards, and structure	Designing Decision-making Resourcing Monitoring
Capability	Leveraging the knowledge, skills, and experiences on the team	Eliciting Capturing Transferring Problem solving
Communication	Creating shared understandings across the team	Dialoging Running Meeting Sensemaking Using technologies
Cultural Intelligence	Developing an inclusive virtual workplace	Learning Adapting Leveraging Co-creating

By forming and integrating collaboration patterns early, a group can accelerate its drive to high performance.  

(1)    Ellen Gottesdiener, Decide How to Decide, Software Development Magazine, vol. 9, no. 1

(2)    Terence Brake, Where in the World is My Team: Making a Success of Your Virtual Global Workplace, Jossey-Bass, 2008