collective ownership, collaboration and empathy

[keryx]

I do not have to identify with my role so inflexibly that I cannot step out of the director shoes and allow another person to step into them and look at the play from the director's point of view. In fact, this stepping away on my part while, say, the sound designer steps in, can be very useful for our shared process. (Anne Bogart's blog)

That? Is real collaboration. It's also something people have an extremely hard time doing. Someone stepping into your shoes or your window or your territory feels like an indictment of your expertise, an assumption of failure on your part; we've studied ownership and accountability for so long.

This is, I think, what collective ownership is really about: we own the product together, and everyone is able to look at the product, build the thing, from many angles. I like the notion of collectiveness as empathy -empathy with the product, with the space and the people around us.

It's not the exclusive domain of theatre, though I've seen some of the most passionate collaboration there - it applies anywhere people make things together.

Your thoughts?

Comments

[goodgothgirl.livejournal.com]

This is what my CEO is striving to build in my organization, actually. She works this way very instinctively - she brings together very talented people then encourages them to step out of their comfort zones and into each other's roles in order to create new ideas, events, campaigns, etc. It seems that this is officially called "synergy" in the business world (I went to an outside meeting last week where the word was used at least 10 times in one hour *blech*), but whatever its called, I'm seeing how well it works with a group that's open to it. I agree that it is true collaboration. When you have enough trust in a group to allow other people into your "territory," you can create some truly awesome stuff.

[box-o-spiders.livejournal.com]

I agree! Very well said. What's frustrating is when you can't get anyone else to want to collaborate, or when you aren't free to do so yourself. A team that works like a well oiled machine is as much a reward as the finished project.