Introduction (Background)

I work for a large, international, corporation that makes a wide variety of healthcare related software and hardware. Our clients are hospitals, hospices, homecare organizations, laboratories, radiologists, pharmacies, and doctors. As cycle one began, the department I work for was called Client Education. There were 14 people in this department and I worked closely with all of them on a daily basis. Our primary responsibility was to provide the courseware (asynchronous, synchronous, and traditional classroom delivered) that educates our clients on how to use our products in their facilities. Our department consisted of one Manager, three Instructional Technologists (or ITs), four Learning Consultants (or LCs), and six Learning Developers (or LDs, of which I am one). In addition to my teammates within Client Education, I also worked with Subject Matter Experts (sometimes referred to as SMEs) from several other departments, as well as members of the Employee Education (internal training) department.

As I began my first cycle, the larger corporation made some restructuring decisions. Among these was the decision to place Client Education(14 people), Employee Education (3 people), and the education department for a newly acquired product (about 4 people), under one senior manager (the person to whom my direct manager reports). The intention of this restructuring was to create one larger department called “Education” or possibly "Enterprise Education" (we nick-named it "The Big ED"). We were literally at the very beginning of that change and were just starting to discuss how we would all work together as a larger team.

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My Action

In December of 2004, I began to pay careful attention to not only how I communicate with my colleagues, but also how they communicate with me. Initially I looked at my own “communication.” As I read the existing literature on successful teams and collaboration, I began to realize that before I could “communicate,” I needed to learn how to listen better. I began to consciously practice active listening. I approached individual conversations and group meetings with a more open and empty mind. Rather than concentrating on how I would respond to what others were saying, I tried to simply listen to what was being said, take it all in, and reflect on it before forming my own response. This was a challenge at first, but practice did help.

As I worked on my listening skills and worked to quiet my own inclination to provide an immediate response to whatever anyone else said, I became aware of my increased frustration with one specific colleague. This colleague is one of the Instructional Technologists in our department, so I will refer to him throughout the rest of this cycle summary as IT1. IT1 brought to our team a high level of creativity, talent, knowledge, and skills in a wide variety of applications. Recently, our manager had assigned IT1 the task of sharing his unique knowledge and teaching the rest of the team many of his application skills. IT1 was very quick to point out to all of use that he had neither training nor experience with teaching others how to do what he did. I had been frustrated with this colleague for some time. Working on my own listening made me more acutely aware of this frustration. I began to pay closer attention to our interactions and realized that I often felt that he did not respect my work style, my space, or my needs (and the needs of my projects). His style was often phrenetic and easy to interpret as hyper and lacking focus. My inclination was to avoid working with him or to try to "rein him in" and get him to adhere to a schedule based on my evaluation of a project’s needs. My perception was that he generally expected me to drop whatever I was currently doing and focus my attention on his needs whenever the whim struck him. This perception caused me to feel that he did not consider my own focus on current work.

Rather than confront him with a request to show more respect for me and/or my work, I decided to take a closer look at why I felt this way. I asked myself this question: “What actions was my colleague taking that made me feel undervalued and under-respected?” An expectation that I would pay immediate attention to his needs seemed to be one of the things that irritated me. So I asked myself another question: “Don’t we all want others to pay immediate attention to our needs?” More importantly, don’t I want that too? Of course, my own answer to this question was, “Yes.” I began to suspect that this expectation on his part was actually synonymous with his own need for respect and a sense of being valued. I then asked myself if there were other causes for my irritation with him. As I reflected, I realized that the fact that he often did not get to my projects in what I considered a timely manner was another point of irritation. As I scrutinized this second point of irritation, I realized that it was the “flip-side” of my first concern. I don’t want him to interrupt my workflow, but I expect him to drop everything to address my needs. The more I looked at the situation, the more I began to wonder if there was something deeper going on. I knew that I valued the work that my colleague did, but I began to wonder if I was not communicating that value and respect to him. I began to wonder if the reason that I felt he didn’t value my work was because I wasn’t demonstrating that I valued his.

I retuned to the idea of active listening. I began to pay particular attention to what IT1 said, as well was what he didn’t say. I noticed a pattern. IT1 would regularly put down his own skills and abilities in the areas that the majority of the team specialized in (education, instructional design, training, and writing). As I reflected on this, I realized that he felt that although he had little or no knowledge of how to train people, he had been tasked with training his team. Further, those he was tasked with training were themselves professional trainers, educators, and instructional designers. He assumed that this group would find his training methods less than adequate. He also assumed that this group, because they are skilled writers, would also find his writing skills less than adequate. Although he did not succinctly state that he wanted our help in both these areas, his continued self-deprecation indicated that he would like to be “cut some slack” and, further, that he would like some assistance in developing these skills.

These realizations led me to attempt to change my own attitude and approach. I decided make a deliberate effort to not assume that this colleague did not respect me. Rather, I decided to approach our relationship with the idea that not only did he respect me, but that he also wanted to learn from me as much as (if not more than) he wanted to teach me his own skills. I decided to take it for granted that we both brought something unique and of value to the table and that we could learn from each other. Once I made this decision, it became natural to look for opportunities to share knowledge. I consciously began to "think out-loud" when we worked together with the tools and applications that he was tasked with training us on. I did this as a way of sharing with him how I learn without “lecturing” him on how he should be teaching. When he would try to take over ("Drive" has he called it), I would ask him politely not to. I would then explain that I learn best when I do the work myself with my instructor providing guidance as needed. We began to talk about the different ways that people learn. This was important because it helped him reflect on how he learns and also on the fact that he was trying to teach us all in the same way because he was tasked with teaching us all the same material.

As I worked with him in this way, I came to understand him better both professionally and personally. My frustration with him diminished and I was able to listen to him in an even more active way. By listening in this open way, I was able to hear what wasn’t being said as well as what was being said. I came to understand that he had a real desire to develop both his writing and his teaching skills. I began to look for opportunities to help him do this.

Near the end of 2004, I received a call for proposals from the eLearning Guild for an online symposium on tools and methods for “Rapic eLearning development.” I was not interested in presenting at this symposium myself, however I immediately thought of my IT1 and what he could offer to such an event. I sent him an email with a copy of the call for proposals and followed it up with an instant message (a form of communication he is quite partial to). I wanted to assure him that I honestly felt he had a great deal to offer to this event and that this would be an excellent opportunity for him to become more recognized by his colleagues, his supervisors, and his peers outside of our organization. He showed some initial interest in presenting but also seemed reluctant. I spoke to him and confirmed my suspicion that he did not feel that he could complete the initial task of writing up the proposal. The way he expressed his reluctance was to belittle his own writing by saying something like "I'm just not a writer..."

In the past I might have let this drop. I would have assumed that as an adult, if he actually wanted my help writing the proposal, he would come right out and ask for it. This time, I made a conscious effort to take a different approach. I suggested that we should have coffee, talk informally about what he might want to teach, and then take a look at what was required by the proposal and see how his ideas fit with the proposal requirements. I made a deliberate effort to listen, asking occasional questions, and trying not to impose my own ideas regarding what should be taught. I asked him, if he were to make such a presentation, what would he want the attendees to walk away with (in terms of knowledge and/or ability). He expressed several excellent ideas. His instructional topics were valid and his descriptions were far more eloquent than he gave himself credit for. As he spoke, I wrote down what he said (as verbatim as possible).

Once we had his ideas “down on paper,” I explained what the proposal required and showed him how what he had just described met the requirements of the proposal and also where we would need to supply additional information. I realized as I wrote down his additions, that he is eloquent and articulate but becomes unsure of that ability when he is required to write it down. At the conclusion of this initial conversation, I showed him what I had written down and then we tweaked it together. I made sure to emphasize that he had “written” this himself. I had just “wordsmithed” it. I continued to encourage him throughout the process. As we worked together on this project, I became vitally aware that this encouragement and reinforcement of his value on our team was something that was missing for him in our professional environment. I further realized that I was partially responsible for this, as I had not encouraged him in the past.

The proposal was officially submitted in mid-January 2005. At the end of January 2005 the sponsoring organization, the eLearning Guild, contacted my colleague, indicated that they might be interested in having him present, and set up a telephone interview with him. I was able to witness his conduct during this interview and it was exemplary. He presented himself as the knowledgeable, talented, and articulate professional that I knew he was. In early February 2005, he was officially invited to be a presenter at the online symposium. The symposium is scheduled for several days at the end of April, 2005.

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Evidence and Evaluation

The majority of the evidence upon which I based the evaluation of this first cycle was in the form of my own personal observations.

Shortly after starting cycle one, I realized that I owed my colleagues an assurance that I would be conducting research on my own practice and not “researching them.” To explain to them the nature of my research and establish their willingness (or lack thereof) to participate, I asked them each to sign a letter of informed consent. I also gave them the option to not sign [View Concent Form]. I requested that 16 of my colleagues (the ones that I work with most closely) fill out the letter. All 16 returned letters of consent to me. This was my first real indication that my colleagues were willing to support what I was doing and trusted me not to take advantage of them.

My first indication that my new approach to working with IT1 was having a positive impact came early in cycle one, before we started working on the presentation of the eLearning Guild. Early in the cycle I began sharing my learning style with IT1. I did this not by telling him how he should approach teaching me but by simply “thinking out-loud” when he would work with me, as a way of sharing rather than telling. My intent was to demonstrate for him how I learn and also how each of us may have different ways of learning. Evidence that my efforts were having an impact came when I heard him talking to someone else about how I and another colleague learned better if we could work directly with the tool, while another team-member preferred to be shown all the basic information and then given very specific steps to follow.

My next real confirmation that I was learning to collaborate better with an individual with whom I had previously been frustrated came when I watched IT1 interview by telephone to present at the eLearning Guild online symposium. As I noted in my January 20, 2005 blog entry:

“The interviewer was very impressed and indicated that his proposal was on the short list and that he should hear back from them one way or the other next week sometime. It was amazing and wonderful to watch him as the interview progressed. His whole posture changed (as did his face) - it was a bad morning here at work and this was more than just what he needed. Knowing that what he does, what he knows, and what he has to share is valued by someone else (someone from the "outside" of our little environment) is such a significant thing. I'm equally amazed at how good this has made me feel - it's not a sense of pride either... rather it is a sense of deep gratitude (although I'm not sure who the gratitude is directed toward).”

Working with IT1 and observing how changing my style was having such a positive impact on our work together inspired me to begin to make some changes to the way I communicated with the entire team. As I noted in my February 8, 2005 blog entry:

“I've found that I've changed the way I voice what optimism I still have. I do believe that our team is safe (or at least as safe as any team can be in a for-profit, publicly traded, corporation) - but when we have conversations I also voice my concerns regarding how the corporation and our managers are communicating with us. I still voice the optimism too, but I mitigate it w/ the admission that I also see the disconnects and feel the frustration that others are feeling. I'm not being dishonest or disingenuous in doing this - I do see these things and feel the same frustration and concern that others do. I've found that if I articulate that along with the optimism other members of the team are more comfortable because they no longer feel that they are alone in their concern. What I am very aware of though is the danger of wallowing in that concern and not seeking other options, different approaches, or even solutions. So, when we are all discussing whatever pain points we have on a given day, I'm careful to try to bring the conversation around to options and possible solutions or alternate approaches at some point. For a while, I was the only one doing that and was general met with the attitude (or even the exact words) "...it's always been this way, there is nothing we can do to change it..." Recently, I've noticed that on occasion, I no longer get that response. I don't know if that means that attitudes are changing or if it means that everyone has just accepted that I'm trying to offer options and is just "letting me do my thing."

Later in February we attended an all day “team-building” event for Technical Publications and Education. During this meeting, I found that my participation was directly effected by what I had been learning about my practice during cycle one. At one point, we divided up into small “focus groups” to discuss what some of our common “pain points” were and what we could collectively do about them. The focus group that I was in was tasked with brainstorming ways that we might increase the positive visibility of our two departments within the greater organization. At that time, the majority of members of both departments felt that they were undervalued as both individuals and as a department. Prior to my action research, I would have immediately begun “contributing” my own ideas regarding what we should do. Because of what I was learning, I decided to take some time to really listen to what everyone else in my group was saying. Several ideas were discussed, some more potentially productive than others, but I still had the feeling that we were missing something important. As I noted in my blog entry of February 17, 2005:

“I thought I saw what we might be missing... So... I asked the following... "What departments in the organization feel valued?" At first the answers were Sales and Development and maybe Implementation. So I re-asked the question... first I said... "Ok.. .we think that the organization values those departments above the others... and that may be true... But... (and here is the important question)... What departments within this organization sit around a table and talk about how valued and respected they are?" Everyone thought for a moment... then someone said that while we think Product Development is highly valued... they don't see it that way... they think that the company values implementation and sales above them... and implementation thinks that sales and education is more valued ... and sales feels that development is more valued... and so on." After a very short time... we all agreed that each department feels like it isn't valued or respected when compared to other departments. So - then I suggested that perhaps hosting special events where we "toot our own horn" in the interest of telling everyone else how great we are may not be the best approach. Perhaps instead... we need to find ways to promote other departments contributions to the organization and then in turn we promote ourselves as well. We work with all these departments in one way or another... so why not promote our projects in such as way as to also highlight the contributions from these other departments. At first... everyone just sort of stared at me... and I thought I'd lost them. But then... I actually saw the lightbulbs going off over some heads... If we show them that we value and respect them, then they will come to value and respect UStoo! WOW... revelation. “

The presentation for the eLearning Guild was delivered on Thursday April 28, 2005. The presentation was extremely well received by both the Guild representatives and the attendees. This presentation validated IT1’s professional standing within our own organization and within the greater professional community. Our work together on this presentation also validated for me that I was making positive changes in my own practice and that these changes were impacting how I worked with my colleagues.

As a way to conclude his first cycle and evaluate my colleagues’ perception of the quality of my communication and contributions to the team, I asked them to fill out a brief survey [View Survey Results]. I sent an email requesting that all 16 of my colleagues who returned an informed consent form complete the survey. I made the mistake of not indicating a date by which the complete it, so results trickled in over a period of several days. By the end of March when I closed the survey, 11 people had completed it and one other person had partially completed it. While the survey was anonymous, based on the last question I was able to conclude that of the four people who did not fill out any part of the survey, one was a manager and one was a member of our support staff.

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Insights and Reflection

This cycle was focused on understanding my own communication style within our team and observing, reflecting on, and modifying the way I collaborate. As I worked through this cycle, I learned several very important lessons about how to collaborate with other people. My review of the literature indicated that trust and respect are crucial elements in a functioning team (and therefore in a successful collaboration). My work in cycle one of my research taught me the value of these elements on a more visceral level. I learned a little bit about recognizing the signs that trust and respect are lacking and then made an effort to learn how to develop both.

My work with IT1 taught me that when I listen, what someone doesn’t say can be as important, or more important, than what they do say. As I worked with him, I watched his confidence in his own value grow. Somehow, that confidence was suppressed, perhaps because those he worked with did not truly demonstrate that they valued his contribution to our team. I know that I was guilty of that. I was so caught up in why his approach wasn’t working for me that I missed the fact that maybe it was my own approach that wasn’t working for both of us. Our professional relationship had become somewhat adversarial. It was good natured but not productively supportive. Once I started really listening, I began to make an effort to stop assuming that IT1 was being purposely obtuse or difficult. I made an effort not only to listen to him but also to observe him. I noted how he reacted when he was excited about something and then how he reacted when he wasn’t. I began to make an honest effort to show an interesting in the projects he was currently working on, both for our organization and for his own outside work. Showing this interested resulted in a genuine interest on my part and a new dimension to our professional relationship. I began to respect him and trust him more and then I began to realize that the trust and respect was returned. It is likely that the trust and respect was always there but that I could not really be aware of it until I had changed my own attitude.

As I continued to reflect on our work together, I also saw myself changing my own methods of working with the team as a whole. I found that I had come to better understand the importance of making an effort to connect with my colleagues on more than must a professional level. I began to make a concerted effort to find areas of interest that we could share.

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Next Steps

This cycle was very personally focused but near the end of the cycle I began to notice how my personal work was having an effect on my other relationships within the team and the department. For cycle two, I want to continue to broaden my focus and find a way to have an impact on more than just one other member of the team.