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COLLABORATION

BYDESIGN

BY AMY BOSLEY

A cursory review of the American Association of Community employees. Te top fve (of ten) skills were all components of
Colleges’ (AACC) 2016 Annual Convention program paints authentic collaboration: (1) ability to work in a team structure,
a stark picture of the breadth and scope of issues facing (2) ability to make decisions and solve problems, (3) ability
today’s colleges: stackable credentials, structured pathways, to communicate verbally with people inside and outside an
partnerships to address competing priorities, analytics and big organization, (4) ability to plan, organize, and prioritize
data, accelerated remediation, apprenticeships, performance work, and (5) ability to obtain and process information. As
and accountability. Keynote speakers at the gathering address we continue marching past the Industrial Era and through
the political, social, and workforce realities that leaders the Information Age, the demand for the skills that underlie
are navigating and the closing keynote session, featuring collaboration is further heightened (London Business School
author Patrick Lencioni, begins to sharpen the focus on how contributor to Forbes, 2015). Drivers of organizational change
our organizations and leaders must work to make real the in the next fve years include, “extreme longevity, the rise of
achievement of our colleges’ collective mission. “How” the work smart machines and systems, our computational world, new
gets done is as much a focus for leaders today as the “what” and media ecology, superstructured organizations and the globally
the “why.” At the 2016 AACC convention, 71 sessions included connected world,” (Kim, 2015). In the post-information
in the title or session description the words, “collaborate,” age, skills such as sense-making, social intelligence,
“collaboration,” and/or “design.” And embedded in every novel and adaptive thinking, cross-cultural competence,
time slot were sessions focused on leaders and leadership transdisciplinary thinking, cognitive-load management, design
development. Collaboration by design, the discipline of mindset, and virtual collaboration all top the list as essential
intentionality and deliberate planning for engagement, input, skills for success. Tese are vital skills that we need in our
and impact on the “what” and the “why” of our work is emerging own colleges to navigate the “permanent white water” of our
as a key ability for leaders in our post-industrial organizations. individual and collective futures (Vaill, 1989).
At Valencia College, we are exploring and testing a working Human beings are wired for social interaction and co-
hypothesis that collaboration by design leads us to elegant construction of meaning (Lieberman, 2013). We are designed
solutions for complex problems. As the future emerges, we know to connect, share, analyze, deconstruct, and reconstruct
that yesterday’s technical and linear approaches to problem meaning in new and powerful ways. Tus, leaders in today’s
solving are too limited for the problems of the next 20 years. organizations have two specifc responsibilities related to
We are actively exploring new disciplines for design, thinking, collaboration – to be an authentic collaborator and to also
innovation, and collaboration to create deep in our institution design, sustain, nurture, and evolve the organizational
the problem solving abilities and approaches required for collaborative culture from a systemic perspective. As leaders,
tomorrow’s challenges. “Our ability to make useful progress in we must be both active participants in the collaborative
organizations is constrained, if not in total gridlock,” according moment/exchange (a discrete experience) as well as active
to Jones (2012). “Collaborating with intention can help us break designers of the system we wish to create and sustain. Trough
the cycle. Trough interaction with like-minded colleagues, we artfully and thoughtfully designing the collaboration required
can bring purpose and meaning back into focus. When we look to help us address a challenge, we build the structures,
up from our collaborative work, we sometimes fnd ourselves on frameworks, and supports that allow us to tap into the
a new and exciting path. We might even fnd we are starting to expertise, need for social interaction, and the power of co-
make a diference.” constructed solutions that our faculty and staf bring to work
In 2015, the National Association of Colleges and Employers every day. “Te systems approach to thinking about how
surveyed hiring managers about the skills they look for in new the world works has taught us that the structure of things

22 LEADERSHIP Vol. 22.1 Spring/Summer 2016

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