All Posts Tagged With: "Collaboration"

After waiting two days for the snowplow to come and liberate us, the neighbors of Crest Road finally took matters into their own hands this morning. A handful of us starting digging out the street, working our way down the block. The idea was to hook up with another portion of the street that had already been cleared. At its peak, there were about twenty people toiling away.

This got me thinking about the key ingredients for a successful collaboration. As you read, think of how this could apply to a current or upcoming project at work.

A shared vision. Should we dig to the east or the west? A quick check on Google Earth confirmed that the eastward direction was shorter – and downhill. We all agreed wholeheartedly with this goal — dig the shortest route to freedom.

Leadership. All it took was four or five people to just get out there and start digging. A quick, three-minute discussion and we were in action.

Cooperation. In a constantly shifting dance, we each managed to dig in our own niche, making all our efforts as efficient as possible. Nobody got in anybody else’s way.

Willingness to do the dirty work. Shoveling two-plus feet of snow is hard work! Especially when you have to lift UP to dump your shovel. I didn’t hear any complaining.

Sense of humor. Laughing and joking certainly made the experience much more fun. We fantasized about sending the city a bill for our services and wondered how our mayor was enjoying her first few days in office, under a snow emergency.

Sharing of tools. Days into recovery from this snowstorm found our family with only one good shovel left. Somehow, there were plenty to go around.

New blood. As we moved down the block, other neighbors joined us, which was a tremendous lift for our morale. Not to mention our sore muscles.

Refreshment. Someone set out a couple of water pitchers and a stack of cups on the hood of their car. It was a generous and caring gesture, and reminded us to take care of the basics even while working hard.

Community. Unusual events like this storm tend to bring out that “we’re all in this together” spirit. This is a good energy to tap into on any collaborative effort – especially when your attention wanes or you get impatient with our results.

In the spirit of “All I Ever Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” if you found this helpful, please comment and share it around!

“If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.”
African proverb

I have been listening to Riane Eisler’s brilliant book, The Real Wealth of Nations.  It is a miraculous synthesis of her life’s work in the study of cultural values, gender relationships, and economics.

One framework that resonates particularly strongly is her characterization of cultures on a spectrum between two opposite modes: domination at one end and partnership at the other. This framework allows her analysis of current economic theory, policy and practice to be independent of political or social ideology. Any culture can be one of domination or of partnership, and never are they purely one or the other.

As she characterizes them, domination requires insensitivity, competitiveness, cruelty, and destructiveness. It inhibits the partnership qualities of consciousness, caring, and creativity. Human beings have the biological capacity for the full spectrum of all these traits. Whatever model our culture orients to will bring out, express, or inhibit these tendencies.

Domination systems are rigid, top-down rankings that are maintained through physical, economic, and psychological control. A superior / inferior worldview ranks men over women and humans over other species, leading to other rankings of in-group over out-group, which applies to anything including race, ethnicity, or religion.

By contrast, partnership systems value and support participation, empathy, equity and caring. Continued

The Neighborhood Design Center works throughout the Baltimore and Prince George’s County area helping residents, small non-profit organizations, and community development corporations do what they typically otherwise couldn’t: improve their communties. These communities many times are seeking to improve blocks and homes, renovate parks and school grounds, reclaim abandoned structures for new community uses, improve neighborhood commercial districts, etc., but simply lack the means. The Neighborhood Design Center helps by offering multiple free services: conceptual building and site plans, preliminary feasability studies and cost estimates, neighborhood master plans, and community development guidance. As the center itself is a non-profit, it does all this by mobilizing volunteer architects, planners, landscape architects, engineers, and other design professionals who donate their professional services to help neighborhoods in their initial revitalization efforts. Through their work the center hopes to strengthen community participation in neighborhood improvement efforts, educate the public about the value of good design, and serve as a catalyst for increased investment in neighborhood development.

Baltimore Bird Club is a chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society, the Baltimore Bird Club provides a series of links on its website — other local birding groups, birding blogs, interactive games, and issues of the club’s downloadable newsletter.

MARAMA: “The Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association, Inc. is a voluntary, non-profit association of ten state and local air pollution control agencies. MARAMA’s mission is to strengthen the skills and capabilities of member agencies and to help them work together to prevent and reduce air pollution in the Mid-Atlantic Region.” The group currently has their headquarters in Towson, MD.

“The Environmental Fund for Maryland is a federation of twenty-one non-profit organizations dedicated to preserving, protecting, and sustaining Maryland’s natural heritage.” Donations to EFM help to resolve issues such as polluted air and water, declining wildlife habitat, depleted Chesapeake Bay harvests, and vanishing farmland, forests, and open spaces.