The
Collaborative Leader
Primus inter pares
Department of Recreation Administration
California State University, Fresno
Volume 2, Issue 5
April 2011
Better to light a candle than curse the darkness. Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International
On the E.D.G.E.
It was my privilege to help develop several new facilitators through RA 106, Facility Based Challenge Course.
This class follows the nationally recognized competencies overseen by the Association for Challenge Course
Technology. Read more…
Importance of Scientific Thinking to the Collaborative Leader
George Washington and Tom Paine were purported to have challenged a couple colonels in an experiment to
determine what was causing a marsh to catch fire. The valuable lesson in this venture was that neither group
was concerned about being proved wrong. They had their theories but egos were not attached to the
outcome. Indeed, they were all seeking the truth. Hence, the crux of scientific thought. Read more…
Ketchup Question
Scott Page, in his seminal book, The Difference, shared a wonderfully simple example on why teamwork can
be difficult. So simple, in fact, you might want to try this when encountering your next team training. It starts
out with the simple question: Who puts their ketchup in the refrigerator? Read more…
Preparing for Hubris
Initial success has shown to be critical in the on-going commitment of collaborations. Unfortunately, like most
things in life, there is a flip side, a countervailing perspective centered on collective hubris. Initial success does
have a profound influence on future large scale successes in collaborative setting. However, the relationship
might not be readily apparent. Observing teams during my leadership development courses Read more…
1
Resources
Collaborative Leadership (http://www.collaborativeleadership.org/) This resource was featured in a previous
newsletter. I’m bringing your attention to it again to focus on some of the components of collaborative
leadership identified in their study: Assessing the Environment, Creating Clarity, Building Trust and Safety, and
Sharing Power and Influence.
High Performance Teams (http://highperformanceteams.org/ ) This website is a great resource. What are the
attributes of high performance teams? Typically we focus on why teams fail. It certainly seems a more
proactive approach to ask: “Why do some teams succeed.” This resource is far from exhaustive but I liked
their observations such as 75% of the work will get done in the last 25% of the time.
Desktop Initiative
Initiative is the term given to experiential problem solving activities traditionally presented to teams on
challenge courses. To challenge you, each newsletter will include a Desktop Initiative. The first person or
team to send in the correct answer will win a prize ($25.00 value). Send your answer to L-Jay Fine at
larryf@csufresno.edu. The winner will be announced in the next newsletter. Read more…
Full Articles
On the E.D.G.E.
It was my privilege to help develop several new facilitators through RA 106, Facility Based Challenge Course.
This class follows the nationally recognized competencies overseen by the Association for Challenge Course
Technology. Ryan Soares and I were both very impressed with the quality and commitment of these newly
minted facilitators. Although they will continue to go through a rigorous apprentice program I believe we’ll be
seeing several of these acolytes on our course as assistant and, even, head facilitators in the near future.
Two insights emerged in our program over the past couple months—each related to the other and, hopefully,
relevant to collaborative leadership. First, the area that many of our novice facilitators struggle with is
debriefing—drawing out the learning. We’ve tackled this challenge by recognizing that just as the experience
belongs to the clients, so should the learning. We’ve adopted several self-processing activities and materials
to assist in this client-centered learning focus. Similarly, Ryan led a group of visiting scholars from Japan.
These Japanese students had only their instructor as an interpreter but translating the insights from a
debriefing session can be trying at best. Instead, incorporating a new philosophy of placing the onus of the
learning on the participants, with some prompting and good program design, we can open up our services to
more diverse groups. On that note, at least two students in RA 106 are bilingual and, with their leadership
skills, coupled with their language skills, they can provide a wonderful addition to the E.D.G.E. Challenge
Course Program by reaching out to more representative groups in the Central Valley.
Regarding the Newsletter: Last month there were some issues with links not working. It was an update from
Adobe that did not serve me well. My apologies. Please be aware that all editions of this newsletter can be
found on the CLP website. Therefore, if you are seeking a repaired version of last month’s newsletter it can be
found on our website.
2
As always, thanks to Dr. Nancy Nisbett for taking time out of her busy department chair duties to edit this
newsletter.
Importance of Scientific Thinking to the Collaborative Leader
George Washington and Tom Paine were purported to have challenged a couple colonels in an experiment to
determine what was causing a marsh to catch fire. The valuable lesson in this venture was that neither group
was concerned about being proved wrong. They had their theories but egos were not attached to the
outcome. Indeed, they were all seeking the truth. Hence, the crux of scientific thought.
In early November 1783, Tom Paine paid a visit to George Washington in Rockingham, New Jersey, where
Washington was waiting for news of the end of the revolutionary war. One night Paine and Washington got
into a discussion with two colonels about the will-o-the-wisp, the fiery globe that people claimed to see
floating over marshes.
They came up with two plausible hypotheses, one from each camp. The colonels thought that they were
produced from some kind of matter in the marches, such as turpentine. Washington and Paine thought it was
a gas.
So the next night, they got in a scow with some soldiers and set out on the Millstone River to conduct an
experiment. The soldiers poked poles into the mud, and Washington and Paine held torches close. They saw
bubbles rise, and then a flash of light broke out across the water. Washington and Paine were right. The gas
would turn out to be methane, produced by the microbes in the mud.
The realization that you will be wrong more often than right is a mindset that would serve collaborative
leaders well. Do you sit comfortably in your collaborations with this same notion: That it is fine to be
incorrect? For many the answer is yes but occasionally we can hold so dearly our convictions that we might
overdo the advocacy for our position in lieu of increasing our inquiry into the truth.
A balance between advocacy and inquiry is a theme that reemerges in collaborative leadership. Furthermore,
two other lessons can be drawn from this exercise. First, that truth trumped position. Secondly, that even
very busy people should follow their curiosity. If you ask me, this story is more apocryphal than the cherry
tree incident.
Ketchup Question
Scott Page, in his seminal book, The Difference, shared a wonderfully simple example on why teamwork can
be difficult. So simple, in fact, you might want to try this when encountering your next team training. It starts
out with the simple question: Who puts their ketchup in the refrigerator? Most people do but not all. Page
argues that one need not put it in the refrigerator and would actually save precious storage if we put it in our
pantry. The reason we do is largely out of convention and coordination. By putting the ketchup in the
refrigerator your family knows where it will be. I might prefer it warm but coordination (and familial
equanimity) is more important. Thus illustrating, in no small way, our proclivity to tribalism and why we are
likely to seek out like-minded people—even to our detriment. If we could be more cognizant of this
propensity we could better aim toward cognitive diversity, including those with different perspectives into the
fold.
3
We not only have coordinated differences but have different stories, experiences, and values. We can be
uncomfortable around people even if they were simply trained differently. Engineers, marketing
professionals, and social workers come to the table with so much more than their unique professional
qualifications; they bring with them a cognitive diversity requisite to solving the today’s big challenges.
As Scott Page noted, having a diverse team approach to a problem allows “combinations of perspectives,
interpretations, heuristics, and predictive models” (p. 374). Ask yourself what you think of people who put
ketchup in the pantry instead of the refrigerator—those rebels.
Preparing for Hubris
Initial success has shown to be critical in the on-going commitment of collaborations. Unfortunately, like most
things in life, there is a flip side, a countervailing perspective centered on collective hubris. Initial success does
have a profound influence on future large scale successes in collaborative setting. However, the relationship
might not be readily apparent. Observing teams during my leadership development courses I find early
success often leads to future hubris and groupthink. Sometimes a group rests on its laurels or uses the same
problem solving method on all challenges. A collaborative leader might need to serve in the uncomfortable
role as devil’s advocate—challenging the group to test new thinking and creative problem solving opposed to
the same mindset that won them the last battle. Chrislip (2004) states “initial successes using collaborative
and inclusive modes for addressing health concerns help establish credibility and momentum” (Collaborative
Leadership and Community Health Governance p. 7—on-line article). However, he goes on to say that these
successes must be followed by “deep, meaningful results.”
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE talks about leadership as the “deep dive”: seeing things from a perspective
different than those closely tied to the problem, a perspective they might fail to see.
Resources
Collaborative Leadership (http://www.collaborativeleadership.org/) This resource was featured in a previous
newsletter. I’m bringing your attention to it again to focus on some of the components of collaborative
leadership identified in their study: Assessing the Environment, Creating Clarity, Building Trust and Safety, and
Sharing Power and Influence.
High Performance Teams (http://highperformanceteams.org/ ) This website is a great resource. What are the
attributes of high performance teams? Typically we focus on why teams fail. It certainly seems a more
proactive approach to ask: “Why do some teams succeed.” This resource is far from exhaustive but I liked
their observations such as 75% of the work will get done in the last 25% of the time.
Desktop Initiative
Initiative is the term given to experiential problem solving activities traditionally presented to teams on
challenge courses. To challenge you, each newsletter will include a Desktop Initiative. The first person or
team to send in the correct answer will win a prize ($25.00 value). Send your answer to L-Jay Fine at
larryf@csufresno.edu. The winner will be announced in the next newsletter.
4
Last Month’s Desktop Initiative Solution
15 Pennies
Picture fifteen pennies (or any objects) laid out in a row (as below).
Your goal is to force your opponent to take the last penny. On your turn, you can take one to three pennies at
a time (and your opponent can do the same). If you went first, how many pennies would you take to assure
that you could win? Can you explain your answer? This exercise illustrates the importance of knowledge
sharing and the pitfalls of knowledge withholding. When you figure out the answer it will appear obvious.
However, not knowing the solution forces us to struggle and feel “out of the loop.” Keeping your team
members apprised of the latest information is an important task for the collaborative leader.
Answer: If you start and take two pennies you will always win because you can force your opponent to take
the first five, second five and ultimately stick him or her with five, in which case, you can’t lose.
This Month’s Desktop Initiative
Take the following words and create a word circle. A word circle occurs when every pair of words makes
sense—it’s used in our common lexicon. For example the words “pad, down, lock, day, and play” could be
reordered to be: pad-lock-down-play-day. You can combine all the words such as lock-down, down-play and
day-pad (yes, a bit of a stretch) to make a circle of combinations. Try this in pairs or small teams. It makes it
easier and more fun.
The words are: out, deep, lock, note, pad, end, wax, clip, car, paper, board, call, log, in, walk, on back, box
Primus inter pares: Latin for first among equals.
5