Each issue of the Journal will pose a Frequently Asked Question for discussion. The emphasis on discussion is based on the notion that questions are posed as starting points for dialogue and not for answers. In the spirit of the Journal as a format for interchange, there will be multiple conversation-initiators to each question. Reflections-discussions are first presented in English, followed by the Spanish translation. Readers are invited to post their responses to the question as well as their engagement with the initiating responses. Readers are also invited to pose questions for the FAQ section of future issues of the Journal. (To post, please scroll to the end of the page to the Comment box.)
Question: “What is “collaborating?”
Conversation-initiators: Sally St. George, Dan Wulff and Kerstin Hopstadius
Sally St. George
Associate Professor
Faculty of Social Work
University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada
Dan Wulff
Associate Professor
Faculty of Social Work
University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada
Collaborating is a way of interacting with others such that everyone contributes in his/her preferred way(s) and a new understanding, idea, or process is developed that would be unlikely by any individual actor. This dialogue is threaded, meaning that comments/actions are connected to the other comments/actions. The beauty of collaborating is that there are no set roles; there is a flexibility and fluidity that allows for leading and following being in motion. In collaborating all participants appreciate the variety of ideas and strive to be inclusive.
Collaborative relating can occur in any context, personal or professional. Collaborating can take place in moments, occurring in relationships that are typically considered hierarchical (e.g., parents and children, employers and employees). This process of collaborating could also be the predominant way of interrelating among collegial groups or couples. Our main point is that we look for opportunities to collaborate, even if it is only we who are striving to live through these principles.
Kerstin Hopstadius
Psychologist and psychotherapist, private practice,
Swedish Editor, Fokus på Familien
Leksand, Sweden
Collaborating is a way of working together where two people or more direct their attention and action to attain a new understanding, and in sharing their efforts give opportunities for new possibilities to emerge. Collaborating in a workplace entails openness beyond the usual course of action. You listen and receive the words and actions of the other in an immediate way, ready to share the impact it has on you and take a next step, enabling the other to respond to what you share. In therapy collaborating involves a readiness on the part of the therapist to seek wisdom and new ideas in all possible directions given by the moment and the people involved.
My ideas in giving that response is to use active verbs as much as possible, and try to refrain from nouns in describing processes. Also, for us who are familiar with social construction and collaborative processes, we see conversation as vital for human life regardless of circumstances and thereby not very different between helping professions and other meeting places in life. However, I think that a reader from a background of management work might not easily identify with something that ”smells therapy”. And, on the other side, a psychotherapy student might want to make sure that this way of thinking is relevant for therapeutic work.
En cada edición de la Revista habra discusión de una pregunta frecuente. El énfasis en la discusión se basa en la idea de que las preguntas se plantean para comenzar el diálogo y no necesariamente para encontrar respuestas. En el espíritu de la revista como formato para el intercambio de ideas, cada pregunta tendrá varios iniciadores de conversación. Reflexiones-debates se presentan primero en inglés, seguido por la traducción en español. Se les invita a los lectores a enviar sus respuestas a la pregunta, así como sus ideas sobre las demas respuestas. Tambien se les invita a formular preguntas que se usarán en la sección de preguntas frecuentes de las próximas ediciones de la revista.(Para publicar,por favor vaya al final de la página y usé el cuadro de Comentarios.)
Pregunta: “Que es el “colaborar?”
Iniciadores de la conversación: Sally St. George, Dan Wulff and Kerstin Hopstadius
Sally St. George
Associate Professor
Faculty of Social Work
University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada
Dan Wulff
Associate Professor
Faculty of Social Work
University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada
El colaborar es una forma de convivir con los demás de tal manera que cada quien contribuye en su forma preferida y a traves de ese convivio se desarrolla una nueva comprensión, idea o proceso que seria poco probable por cualquier participante individual. Este diálogo es tejido, es decir,que los comentarios o acciones están conectados a los demas comentarios o acciones. La belleza del colaborar es que no hay papeles establecidos, hay una flexibilidad y fluidez que permite que el guíar y el seguir estén en movimiento. En la colaboración todos los participantes aprecian la variedad de ideas y tratan de ser inclusivos.
La colaboración en relación puede ocurrir en cualquier contexto, personal o profesional. La colaboración puede suceder en momentos que ocurren en las relaciones que se consideran típicamente jerárquicas (por ejemplo, los padres y los hijos, los empleadores y empleados). Este proceso de colaboración también podría ser la forma predominante de la interrelación entre los grupos de colegas o parejas. Nuestro punto principal es que buscamos oportunidades para colaborar, aunque seamos sólo nosotros, los que se esfuerzan por vivir a través de estos principios.
Kerstin Hopstadius
Psychologist and psychotherapist, private practice,
Swedish Editor, Fokus på Familien
Leksand, Sweden
La colaboración es una forma de trabajar en conjunto donde dos personas o más dirigen sus atenciones y acciones para alcanzar un entendimiento nuevo, y en compartir sus esfuerzos dan oportunidades para que surjan posibilidades nuevas. Colaborando en un lugar de trabajo requiere una apertura más allá de lo habitual. Usted escucha y recibe las palabras y las acciones de la otra persona de manera inmediata, dispuesto a compartir el impacto que tienen sobre usted y de tomar el siguiente paso, dándole la oportunidad a la otra persona para responder a lo que usted compartió. En la terapia la colaboración implica que el terapeuta esté dispuesto a buscar la sabiduría y las nuevas ideas en todas las direcciones posibles propuestas por el momento y las personas involucradas.
Dando esta respuesta mis ideas son que se usen verbos activos tanto como sea posible, y tratar de que se abstengan de nombres en los procesos de describir. Además, para nosotros, que estamos familiarizados con la construcción social y los procesos colaborativos, vemos la conversación como un proceso vital de la vida humana, independientemente de las circunstancias y no muy diferente entre las profesiones de ayuda y otras situaciones en la vida. Sin embargo, creo que un lector con experiencia de administración de empresas no puede fácilmente identificarse con algo que “huele a terapia,” Y, por otro lado, un estudiante de psicoterapia puede desear asegurarse de que esta forma de pensar es relevante para el trabajo terapéutico.
International Journal of Collaborative-Dialogic Practices 
“Collaboration” has been a tricky concept in the realm in which I work–bridging Research 1 higher education institutions and high need K-12 schools. Although both are in the domain of education, neither is particularly agile, with the university solidly siloed despite protestations of desired interdisciplinarity, and with pre-college education under attack with corporate-driven and neo-liberal accountability reform agendas.
In praxis over the last five years, I’ve reached the same conclusuion as Chris Huxham and Siv Vangen in their 2005 book, ‘Managing to Collaborate: The Theory and Practice of Collaborative Advantage”: it may be unwise to attempt to collaborate unless absolutely necessary.
From years of identifying and building upon collaborative synergies in impoverished communities and playing matchmaker to needs and assets of the elementary and high schools alongside the universities in their backyards, the challenge has not only been to make strategic alliances grounded in respect and reciprocity, but in navigating the vested self-interests that accompany imbalances of power. The culture of higher education is decidedly predicated upon individual merit and reward. Schools labelled as “failing” under No Child Left Behind are understandably scrambling to retain dignity as well as decision-making. While both have incentives as part of their respective cultures to collaborate, the doing so is often a painful process or at least an awkward and lumbering dance.
I have come to appreciate two realities that are part of lessons learned in my role as Associate Director for School and Community Partnerships in Indiana University’s Center for P-16 Research and Collaboration: “pilgrims and Indians,” and “the poverty of imagination.” One must acknolwedge the importance of giving people what they say they need in order to ready the soil for the cultivation of fruitful future reciprocity without second-guessing. Secondly, “we don’t know what we don’t know” on all sides is an epistemology worth reckoning with.
I’d like to explore theses two ideas in more depth and am eager to read more on these topics from the experience and scholarship of other contributors and readers of this Journal.
Please do notify me if anyone comments or posts regarding my previous contribution. Thank you.
Thanks!
Claire, I am not sure how to say this without sounding awful and peevish. I was hardly able to follow your post. I could attribute this to my own intellectual density and that may be part of it. There seems to be a lot of allusions to insider knowledge and specialized vocabulary that is not very useful to a reader from outside the circle. I wonder, therefore, if this post was meant to communicate something in particular to readers or merely to vent a general state of dissatisfaction.