Hansmeyer and Gesimba
Objectives and Outcomes
*Understand that much of the writing you will do in the workplace will involve collaboration.
*Recognize situations that make collaboration appropriate –subject, process, product, and benefits.
*Develop skills to participate in different types of collaboration: coauthoring, consulting with colleagues, and contributing to team projects.
*Develop behaviors typical to skillful, engaged, and cooperative collaborators: listen, ask questions, share, use technology effectively, and reflect.
Reasons to Collaborate
There are many reasons in which you may find collaborating useful. Some useful reason to work in collaboration could be: subject, process, product, or benefits. In some examples of work many backgrounds of professionals are needed to perform a project. In large projects such as engineering, or construction many forms of professionals need to use their expertise to influence the project as a whole. Process is a helpful benefit of collaborating with others. Two heads are better than one could simply summarize process. Finding new alternatives and receiving feedback from ideas helps to innovate better documents. Having others to provide ideas or thoughts not only helps the document, but stimulates your own thoughts. Collaboration may also be needed when difficult or dynamic products are being made. Complexity of products drives the need for collaboration. Products such as manuals need collaboration due to lengthy and complex layouts. Benefits such as less travel, and a better work atmosphere could be apparent collaborating. Getting more work done, faster decisions, and being more competitive were all results of working with others.
Reasons Collaboration is a Problem
Time, discomfort, control, credit, conflict, criticism
Although collaboration has many benefits it also has several problems. Many argue that working individually is more productive in terms of time. Initial discomfort getting to know each other could tend to be awkward. Accepting different ideas or modifications to first ideas may cause criticism.
Being a good Collaborator
To become a good collaborator you must first assess yourself. Prejudices and preconceptions need to be left out of group meetings. Having a clear mind and being positive will greatly benefit your project. Being prepared for the collaboration, and being able to express your own views provides good ideas. Staying interested in the current topic, being an active listener, and supporting your fellow teammates helps to stay productive. Remaining polite and waiting your turn to add to an idea or supporting an idea is benefitial. Conversations must remain two sided with supportive information and questions to follow. Open ended questions are a great way to get the ideas flowing. Reflecting on ideas or thoughts will also help people to properly collaborate. Setting away ample amount of time to think over the current opinions helps to sort all the ideas from the members of your collaborating team.
Types of collaboration
There are three types of collaboration in the work place:
· Coauthoring collaboration is when each collaborator is free to contribute ideas but is willing to abandon and modify them. Coauthoring collaborator is able to analyze the strengths and weakness of his own ideas and also to evaluate the ideas of others by bringing arguments to the tables to have a mutual conclusion, thus he receives credit as coauthor.
· Second type of collaboration is consulting with colleagues. This type of collaboration is working hand in hand with people from different departments such engineering, marketing ,technical communicators graphic design e.t.c
· Lastly contributing to the team projects is another type of collaboration. Each collaborator should have some say on he or she is responsible for and collaborative approach that should b used in the project.
Negotiating Conflicts
To be a good collaborator you must know how to negotiate conflicts that may arise in the work place. The kinds of conflicts that may arise are affective, procedural and substantive.
Affective conflicts are your attitudes, biases, personality, and your values. These factors may affect how you collaborate with others. Effective interpersonal collaboration such as how you relate others is very important when working together. Ways to avoid affective conflicts to acknowledge your biases and prejudice and try to work on it. Another way to avoid affective conflicts is to pay attention to differences and changes in footing: - the assumption you may have for others that change your behavior.
Procedural conflicts arise when the procedure that governs the group fails. Example of procedures are meeting details, roles and responsibilities and lastly cost and material of the project. To avoid such conflicts meeting time should be set up and agreed upon, assigns responsibilities to each individual and agreeing ways to minimize effective conflicts.
Substantive conflicts arise when one member of the group agrees and disagrees on the agenda of the topic. To avoid this each collaborator must understand the purpose, and content of the project. By the understanding the purpose of the project he or she should remember the intended audience. Ask provocative questions that supports the argument and that need clarification and explanations, take a productive and critical perspectives and lastly separate ideas and personality.
Conflict may also arise by cultural difference in the workplace. As a collaborator look for ways to avoid such conflict and work against such conflict
Objectives and Outcomes
*Understand that much of the writing you will do in the workplace will involve collaboration.
*Recognize situations that make collaboration appropriate –subject, process, product, and benefits.
*Develop skills to participate in different types of collaboration: coauthoring, consulting with colleagues, and contributing to team projects.
*Develop behaviors typical to skillful, engaged, and cooperative collaborators: listen, ask questions, share, use technology effectively, and reflect.
Reasons to Collaborate
There are many reasons in which you may find collaborating useful. Some useful reason to work in collaboration could be: subject, process, product, or benefits. In some examples of work many backgrounds of professionals are needed to perform a project. In large projects such as engineering, or construction many forms of professionals need to use their expertise to influence the project as a whole. Process is a helpful benefit of collaborating with others. Two heads are better than one could simply summarize process. Finding new alternatives and receiving feedback from ideas helps to innovate better documents. Having others to provide ideas or thoughts not only helps the document, but stimulates your own thoughts. Collaboration may also be needed when difficult or dynamic products are being made. Complexity of products drives the need for collaboration. Products such as manuals need collaboration due to lengthy and complex layouts. Benefits such as less travel, and a better work atmosphere could be apparent collaborating. Getting more work done, faster decisions, and being more competitive were all results of working with others.
Reasons Collaboration is a Problem
Time, discomfort, control, credit, conflict, criticism
Although collaboration has many benefits it also has several problems. Many argue that working individually is more productive in terms of time. Initial discomfort getting to know each other could tend to be awkward. Accepting different ideas or modifications to first ideas may cause criticism.
Being a good Collaborator
To become a good collaborator you must first assess yourself. Prejudices and preconceptions need to be left out of group meetings. Having a clear mind and being positive will greatly benefit your project. Being prepared for the collaboration, and being able to express your own views provides good ideas. Staying interested in the current topic, being an active listener, and supporting your fellow teammates helps to stay productive. Remaining polite and waiting your turn to add to an idea or supporting an idea is benefitial. Conversations must remain two sided with supportive information and questions to follow. Open ended questions are a great way to get the ideas flowing. Reflecting on ideas or thoughts will also help people to properly collaborate. Setting away ample amount of time to think over the current opinions helps to sort all the ideas from the members of your collaborating team.
Types of collaboration
There are three types of collaboration in the work place:
· Coauthoring collaboration is when each collaborator is free to contribute ideas but is willing to abandon and modify them. Coauthoring collaborator is able to analyze the strengths and weakness of his own ideas and also to evaluate the ideas of others by bringing arguments to the tables to have a mutual conclusion, thus he receives credit as coauthor.
· Second type of collaboration is consulting with colleagues. This type of collaboration is working hand in hand with people from different departments such engineering, marketing ,technical communicators graphic design e.t.c
· Lastly contributing to the team projects is another type of collaboration. Each collaborator should have some say on he or she is responsible for and collaborative approach that should b used in the project.
Negotiating Conflicts
To be a good collaborator you must know how to negotiate conflicts that may arise in the work place. The kinds of conflicts that may arise are affective, procedural and substantive.
Affective conflicts are your attitudes, biases, personality, and your values. These factors may affect how you collaborate with others. Effective interpersonal collaboration such as how you relate others is very important when working together. Ways to avoid affective conflicts to acknowledge your biases and prejudice and try to work on it. Another way to avoid affective conflicts is to pay attention to differences and changes in footing: - the assumption you may have for others that change your behavior.
Procedural conflicts arise when the procedure that governs the group fails. Example of procedures are meeting details, roles and responsibilities and lastly cost and material of the project. To avoid such conflicts meeting time should be set up and agreed upon, assigns responsibilities to each individual and agreeing ways to minimize effective conflicts.
Substantive conflicts arise when one member of the group agrees and disagrees on the agenda of the topic. To avoid this each collaborator must understand the purpose, and content of the project. By the understanding the purpose of the project he or she should remember the intended audience. Ask provocative questions that supports the argument and that need clarification and explanations, take a productive and critical perspectives and lastly separate ideas and personality.
Conflict may also arise by cultural difference in the workplace. As a collaborator look for ways to avoid such conflict and work against such conflict
21 comments:
This chapter can be related to almost any aspect of life. You collaborate with people every day. In our class we are already in collaboration with our documentation project groups. Being able to collaborate effectively, makes working together much more pleasant and the job usually is done in a more timely manner - especially if you are working on a complex project. You can also say that you collaborate with your roommates. Both parties have to be willing to make sacrifices in order to make living with one another bearable. I think the chapter does a good job laying out the steps you have to take in order to be a better teammate.
While reading chapter 5, it reminded me of our Kids against Hunger Volunteer project for English. Each time we meet, we always need to agree on a time and what our purpose is. We work together so we can give the best possible effort as a group. Last time when we met as a group, we went to Kids Against Hunger and took a tour, and saw what the volunteers had to do. When Tim (the guy who is head of Kids Against Hunger in Mankato) finished talking to us, we talked a little bit about what we should do. To me this is collaborating as a team.
In school we have to make adjustments and learn how to make it work. Already in this class we have to work with our group and in order to be effective, we each have to push and shove a little bit so that we all can do it how we want. We get our stuff done in a much more timely fashion when we work togeher and if we would butt heads and not get anywhere! This chapter does a good job talking about collaborating and how to not only use it but also do it effectively in order to adjust to make our lifes in college and in our future easier.
This chapter is a very good chapter to read at the point we are in in class. Since we are working collaboratively on a project, it is important to learn some things about how to resolve conflicts and work together. It's important to know about reasons conflict can occur as well. For example, time can be a major issue. Everyone can not always work at the same time. That is why Google Docs is a very helpful tool. Also, the different types of collabortion is interesting. Coauthoring, for example, is the only collaborate work I have done in school.
Chapter 5 summary was put together well. It had many key points that we use everyday. Collaborating is a key focus in the workplace and to be sucessful on and off the job. It made me think of school projects that you dont get to pick your group because then you need to step outside of your comfort zone. This chapter showed what it takes to work as a team. I think while at work it is key to be able to talk to everyone and not have any grudges against people because it will just bring down the workplace.
Although collaboration didn’t seem like a topic I would learn about in a Technical Communication book, I thought this was a really important chapter. We work in groups a lot as students, and it is such a helpful tool to understand how we will be able to collaborate when we enter the work force. Because I am such a “do it myself” type of person, I find it difficult to work on group projects. I appreciate that this chapter gave several examples on how to work on group projects with a lot more ease. I will have to take a lot of other opinions into consideration when I am consulting with my clients, their fitness instructors, their families, etc. I think it is a good idea to better understand how to work in groups now as it will become an increasingly important part of my work.
Team work is everywhere ranging from school environment to work environment. I have some good and bad experiences of group collaboration. One of the bad experience was at MSU working on a science project. There was six students including me. The group didn't meet on time, most of the students didn't show up on meeting and some of the students have to do all the work. For the good experience, I was involved in a web design project. The tasks was divided and each person work on task that they're good at. The project went smoothly and involves little tension within the group. If I work independently to write the content that I have no knowledge of, it would be hard to finish the project.
We collaborate everyday. Whether it be in this class on our group projects or with friends on topics like when to eat, what to watch, or when to leave. I'm going into the construction business and with construction there is a ton of collaboration everyday involved in the workplace to get the job done on time. Collaboration is very useful when you are working on a group project because you have to work together to get the project done otherwise everybody has a different way of doing it and it never gets done.
For almost all of us we will be working together with other people to complete a task, and I feel it is very important to be able to do this well. I agree with this chapter when it talked about going into a group project with no prejudices and preconceptions. This is something I know I am guilty of doing in the past, by thinking you are not going to like your group it almost makes it impossible to like your group and to be able to get a lot out of the experience. I also think it is important to do some research on the topic so you can better discuss with your group.
Chapter 5 gives a good overview of how people make this work in this world. Starting from point A and getting to point Z as smoothly as possible. I've had to do a lot a collaborating for school projects and such. Getting information and examining it and using whats usefull to me as fare as the project goes. For Manufacturing Engineering I know I will be working with other people at most times and by my self sometimes and having a open mind about things will help future projects go much smoother. There is no I in team. So this chapter reminds people that everyone has an opinion and should be free to say what they want to say.
This chapter teaches a very important aspect of the business world. Most people with jobs in the business field will most likely get the chance to work in a group environment. A group is like a team, if one person fails and doesnt try, the whole team usually fails. In the Information Technology field, I will be teamed with a number of people and each of us will be assigned different tasks, instead of having one person take on the entire task. Collaborating in a group makes the task much easier to complete.
The main point in this chapter, collaboration, is a very good subject. Right now for me I have several group projects and activities that I am involved in right now. I have a Senior Design project, where I have to work with group members. It is something that can be a "double edged sword". Sometimes we can collaborate and accomplish many goals and other times we just step on each others "toes". Since we were a smaller group we seperated up into individual tasks and when you could get some outside opinions from other group members it was definitely helpful. Right now we also have our team projects for this class that involve collaboration.
Chapter five information was very useful especially for this class, since we are all working in a team projects, all concepts can be applied. Collaborating with people is not easy because every head is a world, but the overall of working in group helps us to communicate, respect opinions, help each other, and what I think is the best is that we learn to appreciate each other’s work and learn from each other. When I was a freshmen back home in college I was always the quiet in the team and was afraid of speaking out of what I believed , I now regret that so much because like I said everyone has something to collaborate to others.
I think chapter 5 can be linked to almost every part of our lives. Especially in this class when we are currently working on group projects; as members of a group, we must come to decisions and create our project all together, not just on an individual basis. Especially when you are trying to collaborate ideas, each part of the team or collaboration must give and take certain aspects or ideas of their own.
A workplace cannot function on the ideas and opinions of one person. It takes an effort that combines those thoughts into one educated, well-thought plan. In other words, a "collaborative" effort. You hear about corrupt schools, organizations and companies all the time. That's because they aren't collaborating with everyone involved and only one person's or group's thoughts are considered.
I can see this chapter matching up well with our group projects. We are building skills to participate if different types of collaboration. At the beginning of this class we were partnered up with someone to do these chapters and we had to develop behaviors and skills to help each other out and deliver useful information to the class. Sometimes collaborating with others is too time consuming and it would be better to just do the job alone but when we start in on our careers we will need to learn how to work with different people, and different amounts of people, whether it is one on one or a group of five.
This chapter reminds me of my small groups class last semester. We were all broken into groups and given the task of doing some form of culture jamming. Most of the semester was spent working on collaborating. we quickly discovered that collaborating wasn't as easy as simply splitting the work up and letting everyone do it their own way. We needed to actually work together to make the work flow and sound like one thought and not 5 little thoughts that were thrown together at the last second. I wish we had read something like this chapter before starting our work it would have made things so much easier.
In todays world some of the best businesses and writers work with collaboration between multiple people to get one job done. People have found out that when you work together you can provide more interesting information through the process of brainstorming. People all have skills in different areas and when these skills are all brought together you can work not only fast but ultimately produce documents that are better.
Let’s face it; we have no way around collaborating. If you are not well at collaborating you are not going to do well in the business world. I am going to be in the Construction world in a few years and that tool is going to be one of the most used tools of all. Being able to work in groups is a very useful, but if any of the group members do not collaborate well it can also set you bad in terms of work accomplished. I think this chapter really does a great job explaining the importance and usefulness of collaborating.
I think collaboration is great in the workplace because I very much agree with the two heads are better than one. In my field, we are working with clients to help them heal faster and get back to their daily lives. If one person just put forth what should be done every time people would not benefit since each person and business is different. I think getting input on what to do and when or how to do it from other co-workers is beneficial to the clients and the business itself. Collaboration is a big part of our society and if you cant work with other than you may look into starting your own business. Me myself I love working with people and am interested in knowing new ideas.
This chapter was good in that it related how people are supposed to work together. This applies well to our projects we're working on in class. If everybody does their little part in finding out some information, then when we come together, that little bit of info turns into a lot. This chapter relates to automotive engineering as well cause I'm going to be working with a lot of other people just to get one task done.
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