Collaboration: You Can Always Blame the Other Guy

A big project comes up and you're called upon to produce something brilliant, but fast. You can hole up, snap at the colleague who pokes her head in to ask about lunch, and spend hours staring at a blank screen waiting for inspiration -- or you can collaborate. Then at least you'll have someone to stare at the blank screen with, and maybe that person will bring lunch. At the very least, you'll have someone to blame if the finished product doesn't work out. In any case, as part of a team you're not alone.

Or ... you might not have a choice. Your boss may have leaned in and said, "Brainstorming meeting in 10 -- my office." Of course what the boss means is, "We're going to collaborate now, and you're going to like it, or else."

Or ... perhaps you're the boss. You notice your employees producing the same old stuff the same old way, and you want to shake things up a bit.

Whatever the scenario, collaboration can help you create and communicate a finished product that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Here are a few examples of collaboration styles to help you get started:

The Svengali (or, Author/Editor): One person or group does the initial work; someone else (usually higher up on the food chain) edits and refines, or chooses the best material, or sends everyone back to the drawing board.

Ping Pong: Two (or more) collaborators divide the work up and each takes responsibility for one section. Then the pieces are sent back and forth until all agree they are finished. We named this style of writing after the way Sam's brother Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson write their children's books. One of them writes a chapter and sends it to the other, who rewrites it and sends it back, and so on, until they agree on the result. They told us they've had some pretty fierce arguments along the way. Imagine one grown man saying to the other, "A mermaid would NEVER do that -- it's just not realistic!"

The Fountain and the Cistern: Some people are idea fountains, like energizer-bunny-operated-idea machines. They can be too prolific for their own good, lacking discipline and focus or forgetting many of their own brainstorms. Creativity fountains can be inconsistent. Still, it's wonderful to have someone who is filled with energy and inspiration, especially when balanced by others who are deliberate and thoughtful -- listening and writing the ideas down (or, to continue the metaphor, collecting the water in the cistern and flushing the excess into the sewer of "maybe we'll use that another time.") The cistern is the one who says, "Wait -- that's a great idea. Let's develop this one."

No matter what model of collaborative writing you use -- and we'd love to here about yours, because we're sure there are many more-all of them require an environment where it's safe to speak your mind (including your wildest and wackiest ideas) free from scowling, frowning, or humiliation.

Personally, we are high on collaboration. Most great writing is the product of a partnership-some version of writer/editor or teams of writers. We write this column together, but we're still trying to figure out who is the fountain and who is the cistern.