What is Collaboration?

Collaboration is an interpersonal process in which two or more participants facilitate one another's creative thinking and/or work to reach shared goals, solve difficult problems, and meet important challenges. In collaborative efforts, the whole is greater, stronger, and more effective than any one member is likely to be when working alone, and the result of the work is also likely to be superior. Collaboration is much more than the mere coordination of effort or sharing of information or knowledge. 
Collaboration involves play or "fun" as well as work; it generates excitement, and is experienced as enjoyable as well as challenging. 
Collaborative work is made evident through its results. Useful "out-of-the-box" analyses and solutions emerge more frequently. Alternative approaches to solving difficult problems are created. People are not satisfied with the first "answer" that occurs to them, and are willing to take on increasingly demanding challenges. People help each other implement the solutions they devise. 
The conditions that facilitate or assist collaboration and collaborative work can be specified. Some examples follow:

• Participants have a challenging goal or set of goals, understood and agreed to by all. There is some confidence that the effort will eventually bear fruit.
  

• The collaboration is protected by a sense of psychological safety; there is mutual trust among participants. Incompletely formed, nascent ideas can be put out and discussed. 
  

• Participants can disagree strongly, and engage in lively and respectful dialogue. 

•  Participants have respect for the strength and ability of the others; a high value is placed on the capacity of other participants to contribute, analyze, understand, and even disagree.
  

• There is some diversity of experience, perspective, knowledge, etc. among participants.
  

• There is enough time and space to play with ideas and to enjoy the process-the participants are, to some degree, protected from undue external demands, deadlines, and imposed stress.
  

• The participants can tolerate ambiguity, uncertainty, obstacles, and apparent "dead ends," and can persist in spite of them.
  

• The participants are able to "hold" and discuss difficult feelings that may arise in the collaborative process, and to proceed beyond them.