Segment 12 (18) Collaborative Working Sessions

[Paul Terlemezian]

A few years ago my daughter lovingly challenged me by asking "So who defined the 10 impossible problems you chose to try to solve in 2016?"

She was correct of course - as open as I was trying to be to new ideas - I was still defining the agenda - as I continue to do. This segment will be an "open" agenda - defined by the participants.

Please post comments here regarding what you wish to talk about at Georgia LEARNS 2018. The agenda for this day will be built by you (or not -depending on the response to this approach.)

In particular - if you wish to schedule a collaboration session with another attendee (or potential attendee) and would like help from Georgia LEARNS in arranging this - contact:

Paul Terlemezian

[e-mail]

404-252-8330

[Bill Crose]

Conference Reflection:

I've never understood why competition is a higher valued skill than collaboration. Competition is difficult but necessary to "turn off" when collaboration is required. This can be counter-productive, even harmful when intra-group and inter-group members compete in the same organizations, when managers compete with their staff, and when managers compete with their peers. Conversely, it's difficult to find instances where collaboration is counter-productive or harmful in an organization. 

Collaboration is often thought to be a more feminine characteristic and competition more masculine. Seems some cultural change is needed. When only 3 Fortune 500 CEOs are women, down 25% from last year alone, it seems things are moving in the wrong direction. In a time when so many pre-employment / predictive assessments are being used to select CEO and others that "Fit" the organization, it seems the cards are stacked in favor of competitive males.

Thanks, Ann for leading this conversation! It was a pleasure being at your table.

[Paul Terlemezian]

I believe that competition and collaboration are both important - both very valuable - and both misunderstood.

Competition is intangible - do we really understand what we are competing against - and is the competitor really a competitor? Are we competing with fear?

Collaboration is tangible - it requires trust - and results Trust is harder to build than fear. So perhaps collaboration should be a more valued skill than competition.

[Bill Crose]

Put me in the collaboration as a higher valued skill camp.