How to develop collaborative meta-relationships 5

I have described meta-relationships and why they are essential to effective collaborative working in a previous post.

Here, I will describe how you can develop meta-relationships.

Meta-relationships can be developed by doing the following things:

• Being inclusive
• Balancing formality with informality
• Focusing on people and relationships
• Focusing upon and managing emerging collaborative processes
• Developing supportive personal habits
• Developing a supportive culture

Developing supportive personal habits

People can create the interpersonal fabric within which meta-relationships can evolve by undertaking advanced interpersonal skills training and becoming familiar with and applying the principles of Emotional Intelligence.

But to ensure meta-relationships do evolve, individuals must develop an additional habit: the habit of communicating and interacting with others creatively.

To communicate and interact with others creatively is to do so with flexibility of thought and deed. Once weaved into the above mentioned interpersonal fabric, this flexibility provides the catalyst that helps transform interpersonal interactions into collaborative meta-relationships.

Below, I offer suggestions that will help you develop the habit of communicating and interacting with others creatively. Whilst writing them, I took some of my own advice (see the paragraph below about "introducing freshness") and used the insights and ideas from a new and, perhaps at first sight, unexpected source: musicians. This is a group of people from whom much can be learnt about creativity and collaboration.

In tandem with encouraging flexibility of thought and deed, the suggestions support the development of specific meta-relationship characteristics. (The bracketed paragraphs below highlight the main meta-relationship characteristics each point encourages.)

Paint a rich picture

As well as sharing your knowledge, ideas and suggestions, share why, where, when, how and with whom you discovered and developed them.

Share the story of your knowledge, ideas and suggestions. Enrich your story with contextually specific and personal details.

(Paint a rich picture of your story to help people get to know you personally as well as professionally and show that you acknowledge and value the contributions of others.)

Triple think

Ask yourself the following three questions when considering a person or an idea:

1. What strengths do you see?
2. What weaknesses do you see?
3. What do you see that is intriguing? (What do you see that is interesting, different or unique?)              

(Ask the above questions to encourage your curiosity. Use the answers you gain to form a realistic view of a person or an idea and appreciate the unique contributions a person is willing and able to offer.)

Drop in the unexpected

That unexpected insight, observation or idea you keep to yourself: drop it in. That visit you keep putting off: drop in. That caring, supportive or pleasing comment you are awaiting a suitable moment to make: drop it in now. If no one expects you to have an opinion: drop one in. If no one expects your generosity or help: give it now. That person whom no one expects to be invited: invite her.

(Drop in the unexpected to encourage openness and sharing, increase inclusion, and show that you value individual contributions.)

Make time for playing and having fun

Invest time in playing with your own and others' ideas: make different assumptions about them; throw them into different, unexpected or unbelievable scenarios; use them in different and unexpected ways; link and combine them in different and unexpected ways; add to them; strip them down to their essentials.

When a "piece of play" proves particularly enjoyable, stay with and explore it for a while.  

(Make time for playing and having fun so you encourage curiosity and challenge current assumptions and ways of thinking, encourage informality, and increase collaborative flexibility and resilience.) 

Introduce freshness

Introduce new people and ideas into your existing collaborative relationships to freshen perspectives and stimulate new approaches.

Change the environment within which you and others interact (e.g., rotate meetings between collaborators' offices, or meet and work where the beneficiaries of your collaboration's activities live) to not only gain fresh perspectives and approaches but also, quite literally, experience the positions of others. 

Work with people to construct small experiments and "try-outs" that test and explore new concepts, ideas and approaches. 

(Introduce freshness to increase collaborative flexibility, increase inclusiveness, encourage curiosity, and challenge current perspectives and ways of doing things.)

Use others' words

Become familiar with the words your collaborators use to describe and express things. What words do they use to describe their key concepts and areas of expertise? What words do they use to describe the key concepts and areas of expertise they share with you? Try out their words; when talking with your collaborators, use their words.

(Use others' words to increase your understanding of others and encourage empathy.) 

Reboot your language and then create a shared language

At the beginning of your relationship with collaborators, use everyday "day-to-day" language whilst communicating with them: reboot to the default language you all have in common.

Then create a shared language for ideas and concepts, etc., you have in common with your collaborators but for which you use different words: create a common language for things you have in common.

(Reboot your language to encourage conversation and increase mutual understanding. Create a shared language to not only encourage conversation and increase mutual understanding but also increase feelings of mutual connection and begin the process of creating a shared history of collaboration.)

Listen to and amplify ignored and quietly dissenting voices

Seek out and listen to the ignored and quietly dissenting voices that whisper between and around the attention grabbing and loudly unanimous voices. Listen for these whispers within the informal margins of your dealings with others. Amplify the ignored and quietly dissenting voices by identifying and demonstrating how their messages and insights will benefit the work you are doing with people.

(Listen to and amplify ignored and quietly dissenting voices to demonstrate respect for people, minimise assumptions about people, increase inclusiveness, encourage curiosity, and challenge accepted ways of thinking and doing.)

Explore what lies between, within, around, beneath and behind

Verbalise thoughts and intuitions that lie between, within, around and behind your explicit and fully formed ideas and opinions; encourage others to do the same. Identify what no one is talking about (e.g., the "elephant in the room" that no one wishes to tackle) and talk about it. Explore taken for granted but often powerful assumptions that lie beneath decisions and actions (e.g., assumptions about what is or is not the problem). 

(Explore what lies between, within, around, beneath and behind to enrich conversation, increase sharing of opinions and ideas, etc., increase inclusion, challenge existing taken for granted assumptions and beliefs, increase mutual understanding, encourage curiosity, and make what was implicit explicit.)  

Explore differences and allow discord the time and space to resolve

When disagreements, arguments and conflicts emerge, do not immediately seek to close them down or resolve them; allow them time and space to be expressed and explored. When someone disagrees, argues or comes into conflict with you, welcome his or her provocations and invest time and space in exploring them.

(Explore differences and allow discord the time and space to resolve so you encourage dialogue, challenge current thinking and ways of doing things, encourage collaborative flexibility, build collaborative resilience, demonstrate respect for differing ideas and beliefs, enhance mutual understanding, and encourage implied and partially expressed thoughts and feelings to become clear and explicit.)        

Share and explore mistakes and make mistakes make things better

Be honest about your mistakes; share and explore them with others. Encourage people to share and explore their mistakes with you and each other. Crucially, focus upon how lessons learnt from mistakes can help enhance processes and outcomes: make mistakes make things better.

(Share and explore mistakes and make mistakes make things better to increase openness and sharing, encourage mutual trust, and emphasise the interdependence between people: the fact that people need to work together to overcome each other's mistakes.) 

Share your encores

When taking the lead role within a collaboration, ensure you share the spotlight with your collaborators. Make sure those who helped you are able to share the spotlight of your recognition. Focus especially upon those who usually play supportive parts in the background.

Offer your collaborators meaningful roles in follow-up and "spin-off" projects and events. When you are invited to make presentations about your achievements, ensure your partners are given the opportunity to speak about how they helped you. When you are asked to write about your achievements, do not only acknowledge the help you received but also include descriptions of how the skills and expertise of your collaborators were essential to success. When awards are given to you, find ways to ensure your helpers and supporters receive their share of the acclaim.

(Share your encores to increase your reputation for collaboration, increase inclusiveness, acknowledge the value of partners' contributions, reduce the negative effects of status and hierarchy, and increase the positive effects of equality and participation.)   

Give others your ideas to test, adapt, own and name

When you have an idea give it freely to your collaborators. Encourage people to take it away to test within and adapt to their own contexts. As people test and adapt your idea, it will become a shared idea: an idea that is known and owned by many. Eventually, an idea that is known and owned by many will be named and renamed by many: people will christen it with the favour of their own languages and meanings. Welcome these new names and celebrate the sharing of what used to be your idea.

(Give others your ideas to test, adapt, own and name to gain a reputation for sharing and collaboration, acknowledge others' skills, and demonstrate trust in the integrity and motivations of your collaborators.)

Be curious about and enjoy the journey

Enjoy the journey you are taking with others. Be curious about the paths you follow and welcome and embrace the surprises they provide. If you take an apparent wrong turn, be curious about where it leads. Pause occasionally to take stock. Where are you in your collaboration's journey? Where have you been? Where could you go?

As you and others have travelled together, what memorable events have happened and what insights have you and others gained as a result? What has each person learnt about the other? What has each person learnt about their collaboration with others?

What has been most enjoyable about your journey with others? Why was this? What has been most disappointing? What can be learnt from this?

(Be curious about and enjoy the journey to enhance your understanding of those with whom you are travelling, encourage curiosity and conversation, increase the flexibility and resilience of collaborative relationships, and enrich your shared history of collaboration.)

Pass important things to others physically face-to-face in the same space

When passing important things to others, meet physically and pass the things face-to-face in the same space. 

Knowledge, skills, feedback, praise, resources, authority, responsibility, accountability, leadership, ownership, insights, opinions: whatever they are, if they are important, pass them to others personally.

(Pass important things to others physically face-to-face in the same space to emphasise the value you place on both the individual and the thing you are passing to him/her, highlight the value you place on personal interaction, and create a tangible connection with another person that encourages mutual trust and respect.)

Share your enthusiasm

Share your enthusiasm for not only your collaborative work but also your collaborative relationships. Champion the collaborative approach and the development of collaborative relationships through your words and actions; allow your personal beliefs and feelings about the importance of collaboration and collaborative relationships to colour and enrich your language and guide your actions and decisions.

(Share your enthusiasm to show people what motivates you personally as well as professionally, help implicit feelings and values become explicit, and encourage empathy and understanding.)

Tap into the power of others' enjoyment and enthusiasm

Tap into the power of others' enjoyment and enthusiasm by recognising and exploiting the relationship tipping point: the point at which personal and informal interactions begin to strengthen and gain energy and the spontaneity and closeness between individuals rapidly increases. For a description of the relationship tipping point and how to recognise and exploit it, click here. 

(Tap into the power of others' enjoyment and enthusiasm to increase mutual understanding, encourage informality, reduce the negative effects of status and hierarchy, and increase the positive effects of equality and participation.)    

Tap into the unusual

Search for and explore unusual non-mainstream ideas. Open your mind to their possibilities and explore them with enthusiasm.

Work at seeing the ideas from others' perspectives. Work hardest at seeing the ideas from their owners' and users' perspectives; do your best to feel others' enthusiasm for their ideas.

Find ways to assimilate unusual ideas and approaches into the mainstream.

(Tap into the unusual to increase inclusion and participation, show respect and acknowledge value, encourage curiosity and challenge accepted ways of doing things, increase understanding and empathy, add to a shared history of collaboration, enhance reputations for collaboration, and reduce the negative effects of mainstream status.)

See what is in front of you  

Enhance your ability to tap into the unusual by seeing what is in front of you rather than what you think is in front of you. Judge ideas rationally, based upon their merits. Do not allow your judgement of ideas to be influenced by your preconceptions about the people or organisations offering ideas. Focus upon "here and now" realities rather than "wherevers and whenevers" of generalised assumptions.

(See what is in front of you to not only enhance your ability to tap into the unusual but also increase inclusion and participation, challenge pre-conceptions and encourage curiosity, increase understanding and empathy, acknowledge value, and enhance your personal credit history of collaboration.)

Encourage people to listen to and speak with each other

Encourage people to find the guidance and answers they need from not only you but also each other; do not always take centre stage. Encourage people to get together and provide leadership and support for one another. Encourage people to learn from and with each other. Encourage people to take responsibility for their quality of ensemble: the quality of how they perform together.

(Encourage people to listen to and speak with each other to increase the sharing of knowledge, experiences and beliefs, etc., encourage informal interactions and conversations, promote face-to-face interactions, increase mutual respect and trust, enhance personal credit histories of collaboration and increase participation and inclusion.)    

Plant seed ideas in different places and nudge along other people's seed ideas

Plant seed ideas (suggestions about what to find out about, who to talk to and work with, and what to do, etc.) and encourage their nurture and development.

Plant seed ideas in different places and within different people. Encourage discussion of seed ideas by seeking feedback about them. Where a seed idea is taking root, encourage its growth by suggesting people get together to explore how it could be developed and applied.

As well as planting and encouraging your own seed ideas, nudge along the seed ideas of others: if one partner expresses an interest in another partner and his/her expertise and ideas, nudge them together; if partners ask why a person or organisation is not involved in the work of a collaboration, show interest in the query and (if appropriate) nudge them towards making contact with the person or organisation identified; if partners express enthusiasm for an idea, again show interest and (if appropriate) nudge them towards finding ways to develop the idea.

(Plant seed ideas in different places and nudge along other people's seed ideas to encourage dialogue and the sharing of ideas, encourage curiosity, and increase participation and involvement.)

Encourage and help people to be champions

Encourage and help people to find ways of championing the work of a collaboration.

Representing a collaboration within their own or others' organisations or at an event; making the case for a collaboration's aims and approach; being a real life example of the difference a collaboration can make to people's lives; championing a new idea or approach; championing the cause of a partner, stakeholder or beneficiary: use these and similar opportunities to encourage people to become "the face of the collaboration" (or the face of a specific aspect of the collaboration's activities).     

(Encourage people to be champions so you share the spotlight, improve your credit history of collaboration, reduce the negative effects of status, increase inclusiveness, and acknowledge the value of people and their contributions.)

Be consistently open for business

Work at being open to people. Make sure people know they can approach you. Do not allow the demands of time and the habits of routine to narrow the avenues through which people can approach you.

Place "open for business" signs on the shop windows at the periphery of your collaboration's activities and welcome and usher in anyone who shows an interest, including the most casual of window shoppers.

Keep your internal mental camera rolling so you can notice and then catch up with people and ideas you could not immediately acknowledge and explore.

Keep your internal mental camera rolling so you can notice and then make the most of opportunities arising from encounters with "friendly strangers": hardly known but friendly people with whom you have effective but rare interactions.

(Be consistently open for business to increase inclusiveness, encourage conversation and face-to-face interactions, and show you have time and respect for people.)

To read the next post in the series click here.

Be curious about the obvious

A few years back, I was delivering a workshop about collaborative working. During one of the discussions, I mentioned the importance of developing and maintaining informal relationships with partners and other key stakeholders.

My words gained an instant response from one of the workshop participants. She said that the importance of informal relationships was "obvious" and that she wanted to know the recommended methods for working collaboratively: the templates and good practice guidelines.

On another occasion, I was talking to a colleague about my attempts to capture the key lessons arising from his immense experience of collaborative working. Two thirds of the way through our discussion, my colleague paused; he then said the following: "Well Charles, what you are capturing simply amounts to common sense, doesn't it?" 

On one level, each of the above responses is perfectly reasonable: a participant on a collaborative working workshop has the right to expect specific guidance, tools and techniques that will help improve his or her ability to collaborate; my colleague, having experienced working collaboratively over an extended amount of time in difficult and demanding circumstances, probably did perceive the insights and key lessons I identified from his experiences as being "common sense".

Indeed, responses such as the above (so straightforward and precise in their judgements) enable us to put the apparently obvious quickly to one side so that we can give complex and challenging problems the attention they deserve.

But when this response becomes an instinctive and immediate response, a habit of immediately swiping the obvious to the periphery of our thinking, it can cause us to miss fundamental insights and lessons (and common sense lessons about collaboration can fail to become common practice in collaboration).

Avoid developing the above hasty habit by pausing before you dismiss the obvious. Fill this pause with curiosity about the obvious.    

If the above mentioned workshop participant had asked why informal relationships were important to achieving effective collaboration, she would have likely encouraged an exploration of the uniquely developed personal relationships invariably found within successful collaborations. (To read about these click here.)

If my colleague had asked why and how his experiences were valuable, he would have likely encouraged an in-depth exploration of how his approach to collaboration could be adopted and adapted by others. (I am, in fact, being very unfair to my colleague; he recorded his experiences in this book, enabling those so inclined to identify and benefit from the lessons to be learnt. (To read about these lessons click here.)

Do not swipe the obvious aside; be curious about it.

Secrets of successful collaboration: 25. manage the process of collaborative growth (3)

Here are the four main issues to address when managing the growth in influence of a collaboration:

1. Maintaining and enhancing the relevance and helpfulness of a collaboration's influence.
2. Freshening and diversifying a collaboration's influence.
3. Dealing with the consequences of a collaboration's influence, both for itself and for others it sits beside and/or collaborates with.
4. Ensuring growing influence is transformed into sustainable long-term benefits within mainstream practice.          

The key to doing the above effectively is engaging: engaging early, engaging continuously, engaging purposefully, and engaging widely and creatively.

Engaging early and with key people, groups, organisations and other stakeholders already active within a new collaboration's area of activity (be this geographical, sectorial, vocational or professional, etc.) will help ensure a collaboration's efforts and influence are not only immediately relevant and helpful but also readily welcomed and supported. 

Continuously engaging with the above people and groups, etc., will help ensure a collaboration's activities remain relevant and helpful and welcomed and supported. It will also help enable the timely identification of any unforeseen effects and consequences of a collaboration's influence and encourage action to address them.

Researching people and groups, etc., active within a collaboration's sphere of influence and purposefully engaging with those most relevant and significant to a collaboration's activity will not only help achieve many of the above aspects but also, most crucially, help transform current and growing influence into sustainable long-term benefits within mainstream practice. Commonly, the latter is achieved by encouraging influential and relevant mainstream organisations and institutions to get involved in a collaboration's activities and identify how emerging insights and new and innovative approaches could be incorporated into widespread common practice.
                                       
Identifying the shifting views and opinions of all the people affected by and who can influence a collaboration's work by engaging widely and creatively, through the use of social media and innovative conference and meeting approaches (e.g., unusual suspects conferences and scouting meetings) will freshen and diversify a collaboration's influence. It will achieve the former by encouraging a collaboration to change the way it goes about its work and achieves its goals, so altering the nature and manner of its influence. It will achieve the latter by increasing the amount and different types of people and groups, etc., a collaboration engages with, so adding to the channels of influence available to it.

To read the full post click here. 

Secrets of successful collaboration: 24. manage the process of collaborative growth (2)

As a collaboration develops, it will usually grow in the following three ways:

1. In size
2. In complexity
3. In influence

To ensure a collaboration's continued and increasing effectiveness (and the ongoing development of meta-relationships) the above types of growth need to be carefully managed.

Here are the five main issues to address when managing the growth in complexity of a collaboration:

1. Dealing with the increasing complexity of rules and procedures. (This can be addressed by regularly bringing partners and key stakeholders together to track and review changes and additions to a collaboration's rules and procedures. The key focus of this review should be to identify and challenge the reasons and motivations for changes and additions that add complexity to a collaboration's agreed ways of working. Do these reasons and motivation's stem from a genuine desire to improve collaborative effectiveness or from uncertainties partners have about each other? If the latter, any changes and additions will be examples of the previously mentioned over-compensation and partners will need to focus upon improving the quality of their relationships rather than adding rules and procedures that will merely serve to increase mutual uncertainties.)                
2. Dealing with the increasing complexity of communication (including use of information technology). (This can be addressed by regularly bringing partners and key stakeholders together to review the different ways in which they communicate with each other. This review should ensure, as was the case in the previous paragraph, that any increased communication or increased complexity of communication is being done for beneficial reasons. It should also ensure that a healthy mix of communication methods is being maintained as the amount and complexity of communication grows. The latter can be achieved by encouraging partners to use the place/time continuum of communication to review their overall communication approach and identify where benefit would be gained from communicating differently and with increased diversity.)            
3. Dealing with the increasing complexity of relationships and understandings. (This can be addressed by bringing partners together to do a partner and stakeholder involvement, attitude and relationship mapping exercise. A tool for doing this is described at Appendix F of the 5th Edition of "Sleeping with the Enemy - Achieving Collaborative Success". Once partners have completed this exercise, they can take action to address any problems that are emerging due to the increasing complexity of their collaboration's relationships. They can also, of course, take action to exploit any opportunities that are emerging due to the increasing diversity and richness of their relationships.)         
4. Dealing with the increasing complexity of discussion and dialogue. (This can be addressed by bringing partners and stakeholders together to participate in structured dialogue that seeks to not only manage increasing complexity of discussion but also encourage and exploit the sharing of differing perceptions and ideas. A simple and effective tool that can help partners achieve these things is the "Co-Counselling Method", which is described at Appendix G of the Fifth Edition of "Sleeping with the Enemy - Achieving Collaborative Success". Also, encouraging Flock Thinking by using the tools described here will achieve the same things.)          
5. Dealing with the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of issues and problems. (This can be addressed by bringing partners together to explore the ever-evolving big picture context of which their collaboration is a part and identify how various issues are combining and developing to complicate existing challenges and create new challenges. Rich pictures and mind maps will enable partners to do this task effectively.)

When undertaking the above tasks partners must keep in mind that growth in complexity must be not only managed but also encouraged. This is because the challenge most collaborations face (which is to solve previously unsolvable problems) and the way they go about meeting it (which is to find new and useful ways to combine the differing perspectives and varied resources of a diverse and ever-evolving mix of partners and stakeholders) requires not only direction and purpose but also creativity and innovation.

This is why many of the approaches mentioned above are flexible, structured and participative: they are fluid and permissive enough to encourage complexity through the combining of diverse thoughts and ideas, directive and disciplined enough to manage complexity so that it progresses towards worthwhile outcomes, and participative enough to encourage contributions from a diverse mix of partners.

To read the full post click here. 

Secrets of successful collaboration: 23. manage the process of collaborative growth

As a collaboration develops, it will usually grow in the following three ways:

1. In size
2. In complexity
3. In influence

To ensure a collaboration's continued and increasing effectiveness (and the ongoing development of meta-relationships) the above types of growth need to be carefully managed.

Here are the three main issues to address when managing the growth in size of a collaboration:

1. Moving from co and close locations to multi and wide spread locations.
2. Gaining additional partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries.
3. Managing the increasing number of boundaries between different spaces and different times.

Over the lifespan of a collaboration, a small and tightly knit group of partners working together in the same space or very nearby each other can develop into a large and diverse group of partners working at different times to each other in multiple spaces and widely spread locations.

Whilst growing in size in the above ways, a collaboration needs to safeguard and enhance its effectiveness and the quality of its relationships by ensuring it maintains a village feel and structure.      

The characteristics of a village feel and structure are as follows:

• Villages are composed of small distinct units: houses, pubs, churches, church halls, shops, doctors' surgeries, dentists, community halls, police stations, libraries, post offices, etc.
• Each unit has a clear and distinct function.
• In addition to the community halls mentioned above, there is usually common access to some other type of resource: common ground that villagers can use for grazing of cattle, or greens that villagers can use for social events, etc.
• The above units and common resources are, by design or natural development of villages over the years, positioned for ease of access and inter-communication.
• There is an informal feel and family structure within and to some extent between each of the above units.

The small size of the above units, the access to common resources, and the informal feel and family structure of day-to-day village life all combine to encourage an emphasis upon  relationship building and making progress through mutual understandings.

A collaboration can adopt and adapt the above village characteristics to ensure its growth in size is beneficial rather than problematic. By keeping its internal teams small, ensuring these teams are given distinct identities and functions, and giving each team a recognisable place that is accessible (either through physical proximity, regular face-to-face interactions or, as the collaboration grows in size, the supportive use of technology), a collaboration will encourage and maintain the informal family feel and interdependent structure that supports communication and cohesiveness and the development of meta-relationships.
  
Providing commons within a collaboration (i.e., space and resources jointly owned by and available to partners) will encourage partners to maintain and reinforce a sense of shared ownership and joint responsibility. This will help safeguard a growing collaboration's village feel and sense of community.

To read the full post click here.  

Secrets of successful collaboration: 22. identify the signs of the key symptom of ineffective collaborative processes and address its cause

Always be on the lookout for the key symptom of ineffective collaborative processes: overcompensation. Overcompensation, in the following three forms, can seriously hinder or prevent the development of collaborative meta-relationships:

1. Hyper-vigilance

This manifests as excessive monitoring, checking and box ticking that makes partners feel they are not trusted (that someone is always looking over their shoulders). This will mire a collaboration within burdensome meetings and bureaucratic processes that can often slow and sometime stop activity and progress.
       
2. Redundant communication and activity 

This will manifest alongside and within hyper-vigilance but is differentiated from it by an excessive focus upon repetition: repetitive checking and repetition of processes, with each repetition done by a different partner; excessive restatements of a collaboration's rules and directives; sending and receiving excessive emails about the same thing. 

3. Blind carbon copying

The unnecessary use of the blind carbon copy can be particularly corrosive to collaborative processes and the relationships they support. This is because it introduces an unhealthy element of stealth to a collaboration's activities and processes that insidiously erodes trust by creating an environment of uncertainty and suspicion. 

Those sending blind carbon copy emails will inevitably have their perceptions and behaviour affected by what they write; those receiving blind copy emails will be similarly affected by what they read. This will lead to people interacting with each other according to the scripts of hidden missives rather than the visible "here and now" stimulus of each other's words and behaviour. 

People will sense this inconsistency between what is being said and done and what is being thought and perceived, and they will become uncertain of each other's motives and actions. These uncertainties will cause misunderstandings, which will increase hyper-vigilance and redundant communication (consequently inflaming the overall symptom of overcompensation).

The approaches described in the previous blogs of this series will, of course, help address the three intimately related causes of the above symptom: lack of understanding, lack of mutual support, and lack of trust between partners.

Doing the following three things will be particularly effective:

1. Creating opportunities for face-to-face in the same space interaction that encourages informality, openness, and the spontaneous sharing and discussion of problems and ideas.

Bringing partners together (well away from the formal meeting room environment)  encourages them to relax, mingle, get to know each other personally, and begin sharing their thoughts and feeling and problems and ideas. This enhances mutual understanding and appreciation between partners and helps partners feel comfortable enough to begin relying upon and trusting each other. As partners increasingly rely upon and trust each other, they will decreasingly engage in hyper-vigilance, redundant communication and blind carbon copying.
             
2. Co-creating and co-owning collaborative processes and practices.

Jointly creating and agreeing collaborative approaches will achieve three important things: 1. it will increase transparency (partners will know why processes and practices have been put in place); 2. it will motivate partners to use the agreed collaborative processes and practices; 3. It will encourage partners to motivate each other to use agreed collaborative processes and practices. As transparency of processes and the motivation to use and encourage their use increases, partners' hyper-vigilance, redundant communication and blind carbon copying will decrease.  
     
3. Making informal understandings and ways of working explicit and clearly visible. 

Using the previously mentioned rich pictures and pictor analysis to make informal understandings and ways of working explicit and clearly visible will help partners describe and share their thoughts and feelings about working together. This will highlight assumptions, perceptions and beliefs (a significant number of which having been planted by blind carbon copy emails) that have been stealthily and often negatively influencing partners' decisions, actions and interactions. As explicitness and visibility of understandings and processes increases, partners' hyper-vigilance, redundant communication and blind carbon copying will decrease.

To read the full post click here.