5 1 Principles of collaboration Gabriele Bammer The

5. 1 Principles of collaboration Gabriele Bammer

The point of collaboration is to combine different skills or attributes 2

These may be • disciplinary strengths, such as combining the skills from sociology, biology and statistics • personal attributes, such as combining the attributes of someone who is task focused and someone who is a good people manager and so on… 3

Collaborators do not just come with desirable differences Some differences get in the way of collaboration and must be managed for the partnership to proceed 4

The differences to be managed are often personal, i. e. so-called personality clashes But they may be intellectual, e. g. different epistemologies 5

Harnessing and managing differences Harness ‘good’ differences – reasons for the collaboration Manage ‘bad’ differences – get in the way of the collaboration Understand differences Differentiate ‘good’ from ‘bad’ 6

Whether a particular difference is desirable or undesirable (and therefore to be harnessed or managed) depends on the particular collaboration. 7

For example Different epistemologies among the researchers may be the difference to be harnessed in one collaboration, but the difference to be managed in another. 8

Harnessing differences is the focus of the framework… Dialogue-based Model-, product-, vision-based Common metrics -based Reduction Banishment Acceptance Exploitation Surrender Denial Communication Advocacy Engagement Fresh thinking Importance of critique ie not uncritical handmaidens 9

Differences that often lead to problems… • • • personality learning styles mental models emotional intelligence team roles epistemologies Often just recognising the differences leads the problems to disappear 10

Existing methods for uncovering differences in: • • • personality (eg Myers Briggs typology) learning styles (eg Peter Honey) mental models (eg Senge) emotional intelligence (eg Goleman) team roles (eg Belbin, Peter Honey) epistemologies (eg Toolbox project) (References can be found in Bammer, G. 2013 Disciplining Interdisciplinarity: Integration and Implementation Sciences for Researching Complex Real-World Problems. ANU Press. http: //press. anu. edu. au? p=222171, p 167 and reference list; http: //www. peterhoney. com/content/about. html and later slide. ) 11

Managing differences • Increase understanding by uncovering differences • Principled negotiation (differences in interests) concentrates on creative problem solving and fair accommodation of diverse interests. • Fostering reciprocity 12

Example for uncovering differences Toolbox or Philosophically-structured dialogue to improve cross-disciplinary communication. Materials available at: http: //i 2 s. anu. edu. au/resources/dialoguephilosophically-structured-toolbox-improvecross-disciplinary-communication 13

Exercise Which kinds of differences have you harnessed in your collaborations? Which issues have been challenging in your collaborations? How have you managed them? 14