{"id":6054,"date":"2008-05-30T05:11:41","date_gmt":"2008-05-30T05:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/in-praise-of-collaboration\/"},"modified":"2008-05-30T05:11:41","modified_gmt":"2008-05-30T05:11:41","slug":"in-praise-of-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/in-praise-of-collaboration","title":{"rendered":"In Praise Of Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I’ve seen the power of community (while planting trees<\/font><\/a>) and the benefit of reaching out to those I may not always agree with (in an air quality conference<\/font><\/a>).  <\/span>Today I’m hoping to distill some thoughts about the value of collaborating with other people, whatever the cause.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

I had the privilege this week to help run a workshop sponsored by the Transportation Research Board<\/font><\/a> on freight institutional arrangements.  <\/span>Bear with me here.  <\/span>An “institutional arrangement” is nothing more (or less) than a collaboration of people, or organizations, that is made official among its participants.  <\/span>The collaborations we were talking about were ones designed to further freight projects.  <\/span>The obvious local example – and one we examined at the conference – is the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority<\/font><\/a>, which built the $2.4 billion Alameda Corridor that speeds freight trains from the ports to railyards twenty miles to the north.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

One of the workshop attendees offered several “C” words to describe the elements needed for a successful collaboration.  <\/span>You need the participants to have a common issue<\/i> or concern.  <\/span>You need their commitment<\/i> to examine the issue and share information they have about it.  <\/span>You need some way to coordinate<\/i> their efforts – regular meetings, a neutral venue, documented follow-up.  <\/span>You need one or more champions<\/i> – leaders who are committed to the cause and finding solutions.  <\/span>You need (and this is a key idea) “a commitment to achieve consensus<\/i>.”  <\/span>You don’t have to have consensus – but you do have to have each participant’s commitment to seek it.<\/span><\/p>\n

                                          <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Another attendee remarked to me that it’s not always natural for people to collaborate.  <\/span>Each of us, whether individually or representing an organization, which most of us do in some aspect of our lives, has certain goals.  <\/span>Our natural preference is to get those goals achieved – whether or not they match with someone else’s goals.  <\/span>But finding ways to collaborate can help us advance some of our goals, even though it might mean delaying achievement of others.  <\/span>And as I’ve seen recently, collaboration can have side benefits, like gaining a deeper understanding of a problem, developing new relationships, encouraging dialogue – or getting a whole lot of trees planted.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

One local collaboration I’m part of is something we call the Public Space Mobility Group.  <\/span>We’re a collection of Long Beach<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> business people, city employees, artists, architects, and planners, organized by a far-seeing transit staffer.  <\/span>We meet for breakfast once a month to examine ways of improving public space in our city and making it possible to do more walking, biking, and other non-car-oriented activities around Long Beach<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.  <\/span>Currently, we’re looking at examples of other cities around the world that have made this change, and we’re collaborating (there’s that word again) with University by the Sea<\/font><\/a>, which this year will have a mobility theme.  <\/span>We’ve each made a commitment of time to the effort, and I’m excited to see where it will lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

There’s much more that can be said about collaboration.  <\/span>It’s not all smooth sailing, to be sure.  <\/span>Goals conflict, personalities clash, collaborations fail sometimes.  <\/span>But where you have a common issue, a champion, and a commitment to reach consensus, you have an opportunity to transcend “us versus them” thinking to focus on what will benefit every participant.  <\/span>One of my very favorite quotes is from anthropologist Margaret Mead, who said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  <\/span>Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6054"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=6054"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}