There is no such thing as quick-and-easy collaboration

A couple interesting blog posts from Product Four caught my attention this morning, the first called Collaboration is not Technology and the second, Creative, Connective, and Compounding Collaboration. In graduate school, you learn process, procedure, hone your writing skills, and dive neck-deep into theories both inane and fascinating. But working with people, collaborating successfully in a team environment, is something certainly learned best over time, in multiple situations, in both school and work, not in a three-hour a week classroom session or out of a textbook. While we work in groups for some of the projects in my program, most of us are young, we don’t like to step on toes, we assent more than we dissent. From my time in what I like to refer to as “the real world,” I found out that you don’t always have the luxury of falling back on commaderie, and navigating people is a mine field three-quarters of the time.