Collaboration | Melvin Freestone

Questions and collaboration

Collaboration is at the heart of co-design and co-construction processes

Through it experience, knowledge, understanding, talents and expertise can be shared
Different perceptions and perspectives, and alternative possibilities are revealed.
A sense of belonging and commitment is generated.
Shared understanding of intentions and outcomes make implementation realistic and more effective.

"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself".
Henry Ford

“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people".
Steve Jobs

"Most great learning happens in groups - collaboration is the stuff of growth".
Ken Robinson

Co-design and co-construction bespeak participation in collaborative processes.

Co-design starts with aspirations, identifying the shared values or common good rather than agendas and solutions.
Co-construction enables learners learn from one another to further expand their knowledge based on one another's ideas and contributions.

They generate a curious dialogue with experience. As a partnership they are powerful generators of inventiveness.

The 'double diamond' process for inventiveness described previously on this website embodies co-design and co-construction.

Collaborative 'tools'

Working in collaborative partnerships benefits from processes that facilitate dialogue. These enabling 'tools' have three different, yet complementary, purposes.

Clarifying intentions, perceptions and perspectives.
Visualizing data, designs and concepts.
Envisioning possibilities, alternatives and consequences.

Facilitative processes help people express and discuss their values, thoughts, feelings and ways of acting.

The processes are appreciative and non-judgmental. They value and respect each person involved and give them power.

Indicate examples
Dialogical strategies
Promote collaboration, discussion and constructive argument

Select generic generative questions (GGQs)

Identify two or three to direct and shape

inquiries

Apply Socratic thinking

Create a mindset that cultivates a focused yet

open stream of questions

Brainstorm consequent questions

Generate fluency through diversity, originality, and detail

Group consequent questions

Cluster like questions into groups

Refine the consequent questions

Sharpen meaning and share perspectives

Prioritise the consequent questions

Determine preference in order of priority

Explore perspectives

Throw different lights on experience and possibility

Concept map
Interraltionships

Mandala
Whole picture

Clarifying questions
Intentions, perceptions and perspectives

Conceptualizing thinking
Mental imaging

Envisioning possibility
Alternatives and consequences

Metaphorical associations

Mental images can be expressesed by means of metonymies, similes, analogies, and metaphors

Visual representations

Diagrammatic representations depict - relationships between causes and effects, patterns in ideas,

sequences of decisions and solutions , consequences of actions, and steps to take in carrying out plans or actions.

Linear arrangements - show cause and effect
Fishbone diagrams - pattern relationships
Schematic diagrams - Explain the essence of a thing
Concept maps - Reveal complex relations
Cyclical maps - Show movement between elements
Venn Diagrams - Reveal interrelationships and linkages
Placemats - Identify major and minor aspects
Sketching - Helps to sort out different issues

Explore meaning

Discern and share different understandings and appreciations derived from written and visual texts.

Wonder and speculate to determine value of particular interpretations.

Hypotheticals
Explore speculative/imaginary challenges that require value-based, conceptual and practical
responses.

Hypotheticals challenge the efficacy of ideas and inventive actions.

Cooperative structures
Enhance the quality of dialogues and potential actions through strategies for working together

Think-pair-share
Say and switch
Roundtable
Round robin
Corners
Jigsaw

Mandalas
Mandalas are 'complete' symbols
that express aspects of self and the
world. They are visual metaphors
of experience.

Playfull dialogues
Open dialogues play with expressed thoughts to develop understanding and spawn alternative ideas and practices. They are respectful and limit adversarial arguments predicated on winning points.

Asking questions enables people to explore experience and make connections. The connectedness is illustrated in the diagram opposite.

Dialogues are fueled by 'catalysts' arising from personal dissonance or puzzlement that emanates from situations associated with particular inquiries. When combined with divergent and convergent thinking, including tension between them, different or new perceptions, novel ideas and possibilities for action are generated.

Collaborative dialogues
Collaboration through shared inquiries is a continuous process. It benefits from a flexible pattern of activity.

There are at least two dimensions-

A flexible review cycle of - plan/act/review, and
A dynamic collaborative process for generating ideas.

Together they help to promote creativity and enhanced outcomes. The diagram below outlines some key elements and how they evolve over time.

Dynamic thinking

"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age (Aldous Huxley)

Questions, curiosity, inquiry, inventiveness, collaboration, cooperation, learning, teaching, expertise, talents, community, development, challenge, co-design, co-construction

Questions and collaboration

Collaboration is at the heart of co-design and co-construction processes

Through it experience, knowledge, understanding, talents and expertise can be shared

Different perceptions and perspectives, and alternative possibilities are revealed.

A sense of belonging and commitment is generated.

Shared understanding of intentions and outcomes make implementation realistic and more effective.

"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself". Henry Ford “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people". Steve Jobs "Most great learning happens in groups - collaboration is the stuff of growth". Ken Robinson

The 'double diamond' process for inventiveness described previously on this website embodies co-design and co-construction.

Collaborative 'tools'

Working in collaborative partnerships benefits from processes that facilitate dialogue. These enabling 'tools' have three different, yet complementary, purposes.

Clarifying intentions, perceptions and perspectives.

Visualizing data, designs and concepts.

Envisioning possibilities, alternatives and consequences.

Facilitative processes help people express and discuss their values, thoughts, feelings and ways of acting. The processes are appreciative and non-judgmental. They value and respect each person involved and give them power.

Indicate examples Dialogical strategies Promote collaboration, discussion and constructive argument

Concept map Interraltionships

Mandala Whole picture

Clarifying questions Intentions, perceptions and perspectives

Conceptualizing thinking Mental imaging

Envisioning possibility Alternatives and consequences

Hypotheticals Explore speculative/imaginary challenges that require value-based, conceptual and practical responses.

Hypotheticals challenge the efficacy of ideas and inventive actions. Cooperative structures Enhance the quality of dialogues and potential actions through strategies for working together

Think​-pair-share

Say and switch

Roundtable

Round robin

Corners

Jigsaw

Mandalas Mandalas are 'complete' symbols that express aspects of self and the world. They are visual metaphors of experience.

Collaborative dialogues Collaboration through shared inquiries is a continuous process. It benefits from a flexible pattern of activity.