Finding Joy in Collaboration
For seventeen Black authors, these were stories different from the ones they had become accustomed to—they were liberating and magical, revealing a depth of their humanity that seemed almost clandestine. They reached back to childhood memories and brought to life the moments of joy that they had experienced, but typically don’t see or hear.
At the invitation of the Tristan Strong series author Kwame Mbalia, a group of sixteen Black men came together to write their stories of boyhood joy. The resulting Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood is a triumphant expression that steps away from the all-too-cemented stereotypes.
The stories illustrate worthiness and value in every black boy—a counter-narrative to what some might hold as true. The joy was recognized in a multitude of ways—some in the small everyday moments, like “setting the tone” that first day of school through care in how you dressed or the aspirational dream of electrifying the crowd with a feat of skateboard mastery.
“The world is harsh. Find your joy, fortitude, and it’ll be your night-light when everything is dark.” — Kwame Mbalia
The collaboration of these seventeen authors illustrates the power potential when we share our talents and our humanity. The lesson in this fraternity of writers, as in jazz, is that the magic is ours to create when we step into a space of collective expression. In December of 2019, not long after we launched this blog, I wrote the post below to express how the collaborative mindset is part of the secret sauce of high performance.
Elevating Leadership Through Collaboration
Dec 3, 2019
LEADERSHIP COLLABORATION TAKEAWAYS
How does true collaboration elevate leadership?
Collective self-confidence develops individual strengths and capabilities
Self-regulation controls emotions and impulses, increasing emotional intelligence
Disciplined attention to listen to and learn from one another
As a tool for self-reflection, articulating our thoughts allows critical feedback to affirm our strengths and weaknesses.
The longstanding tradition of human towers (castells) dates back to the 17th century in towns across Spain. Built during local festivals, large groups spend months planning and practicing the most complex human constructions, up to ten stories. The practice is symbolic of togetherness, the elimination of class differences, and the idea of community. Typically, a young girl, seven to ten years old, ascends to the pinnacle to complete the tower. This undertaking is filled with emotions of excitement, fear, uncertainty, and a bond of oneness—truly a collaboration of epic proportions.
COLLABORATION VS COORDINATION AND COOPERATION
Although sometimes used interchangeably, collaboration is different from coordination or cooperation. Many businesses, particularly those with command-and-control hierarchies, manage work through coordination – usually compliance, with people performing based on their individual functions. With cooperation, sometimes through independent processes, individuals or groups agree to interactions and intersections that can make the shared activity easier to perform or the shared goal easier to reach.
According to Collaboration Handbook authors Michael Winer and Karen Ray, collaboration is more complex—a process of well-defined relationships to achieve a desired goal. The process is participatory and allows for productive disagreement, which helps increase the level of engagement and the meaning of the group's work.
The JLP Trio at their collaborative best for a Verizon workshop in 2019
COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP IN JAZZ
Playing music is inherently social, central to culture, and therefore deeply human.
A jazz band performance is a high level of collaboration and is based on what we call an ENSEMBLE MINDSET℠ – collective intelligence focused on values, purpose, and intention. Some of the key elements that support this collaborative creativity include flexibility and persistent idea generation, musical imagination, communication, and empathetic attunement. This yields an outcome that is greater than the sum of individual contributions, which is a definition of emergence.
Collaboration generates high-level interaction and interdependence where band members respond to each other's creative output, while simultaneously generating their own – a feedback loop of improvisation. The blending of each player’s talent and skill forms a greater expanse of creativity and invigorates the experience of the performance. As members of the band encourage, support, and assess fellow members’ contributions, mutual ownership of the process is deepened. There is often a named leader of the band, but all members play a part as leaders in any given moment in the jazz model of collaborative and shared leadership.
It’s the group sound that’s important, even when you’re playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That’s jazz.
— Oscar Peterson
VALUES TO ELEVATE LEADERSHIP
So, what are the values we gain from high-level collaboration?
Transparency, there is no guessing about what is needed, why, by whom, or when
Inclusivity, having respect for everyone’s contributions
Adaptability to a range of outcomes
Flexibility to give something up so all may gain
Communal sensibility, as an ongoing, shared process
Collective purpose towards the common goal
Trust – listening with intention
In his national bestseller Russell Rules, eleven-time NBA champion Bill Russell explains the difference between his ego and those of the team he was addressing:
My ego is not a personal ego, it’s a team ego. My ego demands—for myself—the success of my team. My personal achievement became my team achievement.
—Bill Russell
True collaboration creates a culture of continuous learning and opportunities for growth and development. As we look at the bigger picture, we can leverage different perspectives and expand problem-solving possibilities. Going beyond your comfort zone is all right because your collaborators create a safety net to support you. Collaboration allows us to ask what can be in the field of possibility.
