Introduction (Background)

In cycle two, my goal was to change my approach to the critique process. I challenged myself to move away from viewing the critique and review comments as something to either be accepted or rejected and start viewing them as an opportunity to reassess my work, identify any underlying presumptions, initiate a dialogue about the design/development process, and improve my own work. My question was: could this new approach to our review process enhance my collaboration skills and improve my work with the team? After several weeks of practicing this new approach, I noticed a significant change in my own attitude toward the critique process. Looking at critique comments as a way of inspiring dialogue about the content design and a way of re-evaluating and improving that design inspired me to make some changes to the way I phrased my own critiques of my colleagues’ work. Rather than make corrections or modification suggestions, I began to ask questions that I hoped would inspire further reflection about the content and the purpose of the content. My work in cycle two not only redefined my approach to the critique process but also redefined by attitude toward it. I now look forward to the critique process. I not only understand the importance of this process, I also value it on a personal level and view it as a privilege and a benefit rather than as a necessary burden.

At the conclusion of cycle two, I asked my colleagues to complete a peer review for me. While I requested reviews from sixteen colleagues, only seven returned completed reviews. I consider this an anecdotal sign that there is still room for work when it comes to building trust and collaboration within the team. The seven reviews that I did receive were very positive in their overall comments, especially concerning my collaborative work. This tells me that I am making some positive changes in my practice. My own change in both work approach and, more significantly, attitude is another indication that I’m making productive changes.

For my final formal action research cycle, I looked for a way to have some impact beyond my own team. Currently our corporation is at the beginning of a process focused on changing from a culture of individual competition to a culture of teamwork and collaboration. Although there are lots of presentations and conversations about collaboration and teamwork, the perception is that overall culture still recognizes, reward, and reinforce individual accomplishment and competition. In recent months, I have noticed and commented on the fact that there seems to be a disconnection between what is being “said” and what is being “done.” I’ve blogged about it, talked to friends, family, fellow students, and colleagues about it, and even talked to my manager and director about it. For cycle three, I wanted to find some way that I could do more than just talk about it.

Back to Top

My Action

To start this cycle, I reviewed my online journal entries regarding my frustration with what I saw as the disconnection between the official message of collaboration, cooperation, and teamwork and the visible actions that seemed to recognize individual accomplishment and competition. In April, I wrote about ideas I had expressed to my manager regarding finding a way to “celebrate an example of collaborative contributions.” In this entry, I had indicated that my manger planned to bring this idea up at the next manager’s meeting but at the time I started cycle three, that had not occurred or he had not indicated to me that it had. [View online journal entry] I decided that it might be appropriate to take matters in my own hands and suggest more than just the general idea of celebrating collaboration. I reviewed my recent projects and realized that there was one project which had involved collaboration across at least six different departments in addition to the Education department. This was just the example I was looking for. This project had been completed recently and was considered a significant success for the Education department. The project involved designing and developing over 50 individual learning events (some asynchronous, some online synchronous, and some traditional classroom) to teach clients and employees how to use the latest version release for one of our most established application suites. We had taken the time to promote these events throughout the company and to the entire client base, but we had not publicly thanked all the other departments that worked with us to complete the project. Recently I and two other Learning Developers received individual awards of recognition for our work on this project. Shortly before that and again after that, I mentioned to our department director that I thought it would be appropriate to have a “release party” where we could celebrate not just the successful completion of the project but also the significant cross-departmental collaboration that made this possible. She agreed that it was a good idea, but nothing further was done. My own reflection helped me to understand that all I was doing was talking about the idea of recognizing collaboration. I was waiting for someone else to take action.

I decided that I needed to “practice what I was preaching.” So, I spoke to my manager and asked if I could take the lead in organizing a Celebration of Teamwork focused specifically on the cross-departmental teamwork that made our courseware release possible. I wanted to organize something that would not only convey our thanks to everyone involved, but would also give everyone in our local offices an opportunity to take a little time away from their desk and socialize with their colleagues throughout the various departments. My feeling was that collaboration was more likely to occur between people who have had an opportunity to get to know each other socially. It also seemed to me that it was most appropriate to celebrate collaboration with a social event. My initial challenge was to find something that the majority of people would enjoy and therefore be inclined to participate it. It had to be something that not everyone had to show up for at the exact same time, as various work demands meant that we all have different availability. It also needed to be something that wasn’t so over-organized that it would seem like a forced activity. I’ve learned that many of my colleagues resent what they consider to be “forced, artificial, company-sponsored social activities.”

I proposed that we, the Education Department, host an Ice Cream Social to celebrate teamwork. My manager asked me to present him with a proposed budget. His final approval of the event would be based on the budget so I was under some pressure to create a budget that would be approved. I decided that to create and accurate budget, I would need a plan that included logistics such as location, date/time, ice cream vendor, product choices, and people who would assist with different aspects of the event. The first thing that I realized was that I had no idea how much ice cream would be necessary to provide for all the local employees. I spoke with our administrative assistant and asked her if she had ever organized such an event for this company and, if so, could she suggest where I should start. We talked a bit about whether we wanted to serve scoops of ice cream in dishes and/or cones, make floats and/or shakes, or provide pre-packaged individualized servings such as ice cream bars and ice cream sandwiches. I discussed these options with a couple of other team members too. We decided that individualized servings such as ice cream bars and sandwiches would not only be easier but also allow us to provide more variety. Individualized servings would also mean that we would need fewer people to manage the event, as we would not have to arrange for someone (or multiple people) to serve the ice cream.

Our administrative assistant suggested a vendor and also helped me by inquiring with the activities committee regarding the appropriate quantity. We would need enough to serve about 600 people. This would allow us to have enough for everyone, even if a few people took more than “one portion.” I telephoned the vendor and requested a current product and price list. I also asked how far in advance I would need to make an order of this quantity. There were still a lot of choices to make. I narrowed the list down to several items that I thought would be favorites. My list included: ice cream sandwiches, fudgesicles (for those who might want non-fat), orange creamsicles, strawberry fruit bars (for those who might not want ice cream), bullets (for those who might be nostalgic for their youth), drumsticks, heath ice cream bars, and a few other “premium” choices. Most of these items came in boxes of 24 but some came in boxes of 12. Prices ranged from $2.00 per box to $13.00 per box. After creating a few different options, I realized that we would not be able to provide the more expensive items in any significant quantity. I realized that if we provided only 12 or 24 of one of the premium items (such as the heath ice cream bars), we would have a lot of disappointed people. Disappointed people was not the intent of this event. Happy, socializing people who would remember that collaboration and teamwork are valued and recognized was the intent. I asked several people about their favorite kinds of ice cream items (given my specific list) and found that nearly everyone said they like Ice Cream Sandwiches. I decided that rather than order a few of the very expensive premium items, I would make the bulk of the order ice cream sandwiches and round out the list with fudgesicles, orange creamsicles, assorted fruit bars, and bullets. I put together three different variations on that list of items and then decided that the variation that provided the most ice-cream sandwiches was the best option. It occurred to me then that I would need some way to keep our frozen treats frozen. We have a small freezer in the fun room in the building where I work but our other building (about five miles away) does not. So, I would not only need a way to keep the treats frozen while we transported them from the vendor to our buildings, I would also need a way for them to stay frozen at our other building. Dry ice made the most sense, so I added several slices of dry ice to the order and then presented a budget of $150 to my manager. There was no real discussion. The budget was approved about two days later.

The approval of the budget was only the beginning. I realized shortly after the budget was approved that to make this event successful I would need to enlist the help of several other people. I probably could have tried to do everything myself, but it seemed more appropriate to give others the opportunity to help. After all, we were doing this to celebrate collaboration. I knew that our administrative assistant would help me get our check request submitted to the right person. She also agreed to loan me her ice-chest and help me pick up the ice cream on the day of the event. I asked one of my other colleagues, the one I worked so closely with during cycle one, to help me create posters for the event [View Poster]. I created two different email announcements. One was a company wide announcement of the release of our training events. This email also officially thanked the other departments for their help in completing the education project. The second email was only sent to company employees who work in our two local offices. In this email, I included the graphics from the poster and an invitation for everyone to attend the Ice Cream party [View Both Emails].

As I considered the logistics of hosting an event in two different buildings, five miles apart, at the same time, on the same day, I realized that I would also need help from a few people in the other building. I thought it would be a good idea to find someone to take the lead in the other building. Our sister department, Technical Publications, is located in the other building. Our departments share a Director and recently we’ve begun looking for ways in which our two departments can work together more closely. I thought working on this event might provide a good venue for some of us to get to know each other better. I started by speaking with one of the technical writers that I know who happened to be attending a meeting in our building. She agreed to bring a stack of posters over to the other building and recruit a few other Technical Publications members to bring in some ice-chests and maybe help in other ways. The next day, I received a telephone call and an email from the newest member of the Technical Publications department. She had volunteered to take the lead in that building . She recruited three other people to bring in ice-chests and help distribute the ice cream on the day of the event. We worked together via email and telephone to plan and coordinate our efforts.

On the morning of the event, I coordinated with our administrative assistant to arrange the time we would need to pick up the ice cream at the vendor, deliver half to our other building, and bring the rest to our building. I spoke to the technical writer at the other building and confirmed that I would pick up the ice-chests in the morning and then bring them back, stocked with ice cream and dry ice, at approximately 1:30pm. I made sure she had enough people to help her unpack the cases of ice cream so that people would be able to serve themselves. Our administrative assistant and I left at about 11:15am to go purchase the ice cream. We divided it up by building, packed the ice-chests accordingly (keeping careful track of which ones went to which building), and headed back. We stopped briefly on the way back, to pick up some “real food” for lunch, and I bought her lunch as a way of thanking her for all of her help. We delivered the ice cream to our other building where there were four people waiting to help carry it in and set everything up. We then took our half to our building where I stocked the freezer in our Fun Room while our administrative assistant sent an email to everyone in both buildings announcing that Frozen Treats were now being served [View Email].

Back to Top

Evidence and Evaluation

The evidence for this final cycle does not include survey or peer review responses. Changing our corporate culture from one of competition to one of collaboration will take a great deal of time and we are at the very beginning of that process. My hope is that the event that Education hosted will trigger more events of this type and more recognition of and appreciation of collaboration. But cultures don’t change after just one or two “events” and conducting a survey would not provide an appropriate measure at this point in time.

Because I didn’t feel that a survey or other similar evidence and evaluation methods were appropriate for this cycle, I had to look for other methods of evaluating my action. The culmination of this cycle was the Ice Cream Social to celebrate collaboration. I could consider the event itself a success based on the attendance, the ice cream consumed, and whether or not it appeared that people were enjoying themselves. However, the cycle itself also included all the preparation that led to the event. To evaluate the greater cycle, I needed to look at the preparation, not just the event itself. Initially, I thought that I would do most of the work to prepare for and host the event myself. I knew that I would need some assistance in finding a vendor for the ice cream and that I might need a few people to bring in some ice chests to keep the ice cream in, but I did not fully consider the other logistics involved. I started with just the idea of an ice cream social. As I began to work on the event, I realized that I could not plan this event completely on my own because I did have all the necessary information.

For the event to be approved by management, I had to submit a basic budget, but I did not know where to purchase the frozen treats from, nor how many to purchase. Initially, I asked for input from our department’s administrative assistant. She was able to refer me to a local vendor and was able to determine approximately what quantity of items we would need to purchase. Based on past events where food or beverage items were provided for the entire local workforce, we would need to provide approximately 600 individual servings. Once I saw these numbers down on paper, I realized that I would need additional help in organizing and hosting this event. The event would not only celebrate collaboration, the success of the event itself would depend on collaboration.

My work with our administrative assistant was one aspect of this collaboration. My work with our new colleague in the Technical Publications department in our other local building was another level of collaboration. Our email and telephone exchanges regarding the planning of the event demonstrate that we worked well together [View Email Correspondance].

As a way of announcing the event and publicly thanking all the departments that collaborated with Education, I originally wanted to create a flier or email announcement that thanked everyone by name. Two of the five people I requested this information from replied to my request by email. One other team member responded verbally. Two did not respond. Of those two, one indicated that he did not feel he had any names to contribute that had not already been listed, the other simply did not respond.

Based on the email responses I received and further discussion with my Education colleagues, I concluded that listing specific names might not be the best way to promote collaboration. [View Email Request and Responses] Several of the people who had initially worked with us were no longer with the company. I was also concerned, as were my Education colleagues, that we might leave someone off the list and thus cause more damage than good. Finally, with further reflection, I came to understand that while each of us may have had contact with and direct help from specific people in different departments, for those people to be able to provide us with the help we requested the rest of their department had to support them. The people who worked directly with us may have had to change priorities within their own department in order to be able to do so. This, in turn, meant that other people in their department were also impacted and had to adjust their priorities. It truly took the help of each entire department to make this project a success. After some additional discussion with my Education colleagues, I decided that it was most appropriate to thank entire departments rather than just a list of individual people. We listed the departments on the poster announcing the event [View Poster] and I sent a company wide email (to all offices) officially thanking all the teams involved. [View Email] We could not afford to buy ice cream for the entire corporation, internationally. So, I decided to send a separate email to our local offices that announced the ice cream celebration event. I have no way of objectively evaluating whether this was the right decision or not. I did not receive any complaints regarding leaving anyone off the list but I also did not receive any specific indication that the departments involved appreciated the acknowledgement.

Based on the fact that all the frozen treats were consumed and on my observations of those consuming them, the event itself was a success at least on some level. I had the opportunity to visit both buildings while the frozen treats were being served. I was surprised to see that the event was received very differently in each building. In the building in which I work, nearly everyone showed up at or shortly after 2pm, picked up a treat or two, hung out for a short time in the Fun Room and socialized a bit, said thank you to any of us who were there, and went back to their desk or office to continue work. Everyone that I spoke to personally and those who spoke to any of my colleagues indicated that they really appreciated the treats and had been looking forward to the “break” all week. This was gratifying and certainly made us feel like we had done something good for the morale. My initial thought was that this meant the event was a success. When I visited the other building, I found that everyone also arrived at or soon after 2:00pm and helped themselves to the treat of their choice. However, unlike in the building where I work, the employees at the other building really took advantage of the opportunity to socialize with each other. While the majority of the employees in the building where the Education department is located seemed to feel some kind of pressure to return to their “work” as soon as possible, the employees in the other building were comfortable with “hanging out” in their Fun Room and enjoying the opportunity to be away from their desks and offices for a little while. As I thought about this, my initial thoughts were that there are no executive offices located in the other building; therefore the employees in that building were more comfortable with socializing with each other. After further consideration, I also remembered that there are very few employees in the other building who are tasked directly with customer service and customer support. Those who work such areas experience a lot of pressure to always be available to our clients and that means being at their desks and/or by their phones. These two facts might account for the fact that the employees in the second building appeared to appreciate the opportunity to socialize as much as the opportunity to eat ice cream but I suspected that there was more to it than that.

The following impression is based purely on anecdotal evidence such as comments made in passing by the employees in the building that I work in. It is possible that the employees in this building sense that their managers, directors, and other authority figures do not approve of employees socializing. These employees do not trust what the company says about a culture of collaboration because they fell that they see something different in the actions of the leaders of this organization. I base this evaluation on several comments from different individuals that indicated that they felt that they were being watched while in the fun room and that if they spent more than a few minutes there, there would be a price to pay. Comments were made in jest to those who were in the room that they were going to be caught loafing. At this point in time, this evaluation is based on a “gut-feeling” and a few comments by colleagues who work in the same building that I do. Further investigation would be necessary to establish whether or not this attitude is really prevalent only in this building and, if so, to find out why. However, this question may be moot, as the corporation is constructing a new, larger building and the employees from the two current buildings will all be moved into the new building in late 2006.

My intent at the beginning of this cycle was to recognize and promote collaboration and encourage my colleagues throughout the local offices to socialize and celebrate collaboration. While this one event did not change the overall culture in the local offices, I didn’t really expect it to. What it did do was provide an opportunity for a few of us to collaborate further, to make this event happen, and to celebrate a wonderful example of interdepartmental collaboration. I felt that the event did succeed in doing this. People enjoyed the celebration and several of us worked together to make the event a success. I received two emails from employees (one in who works in my building and one who works in the other one) thanking me for the event [View Thank You Emails]. Late on the evening of the event, I realized that I should thank those who helped me organize it. I sent an e-card to the Technical Publications team member who took the lead in the other building [View E-Card]. I found that I could not access my full work email address book from home, so I asked her to forward the e-card to the others in that building who had worked to make the event a success. The next day, I thanked those who helped me in my building personally. I received three emails thanking me for the e-card [View Thank You Emails ]. While I am still unsure about the impact of this even on the overall culture in our organization, these final correspondences indicated that I have had a positive impact on more than just the individuals in my own department. That is a start.

Back to Top

Insights and Reflection

In reflecting on all the aspects of organizing this event, I’ve come to appreciate that collaborating with people is about more than just working with other individuals on projects. When two or more individuals in an organization work together on a project, especially individuals in different departments, it is not just those individuals who are impacted by the work. Other team members and entire departments are also affected. It is up to those of us who promote collaboration to also demonstrate that the departmental impact is recognized and appreciated. If we don’t do this, then the overall culture will not change. Individuals will see the impact, often negative in the short-term, on their own personal and departmental workflow but will feel that they have not been recognized as an integral part of the positive impact on the organization as a whole. Successful collaboration is not only about working well with other people. Working well with others is certainly important but my work in cycle three has helped me to understand that collaboration is also about demonstrating an appreciation of the contributions of those you worked with. Further, it is about recognizing, acknowledging, and truly appreciating the contributions of those that support the individuals you worked with directly. Cycle three of my research was about that demonstration on several levels. Organizing and hosting the celebration event was one level, working with others to make it happen was another level, demonstrating to those that helped me that I valued their help was yet another level.

As part of my final reflection on this cycle, I looked at my action and what I learned from it in the context of my frustration with what I see as a disconnection between the culture our organization claims to want and the one the organization’s actions seem to promote. What I’m beginning suspect is that the organization wants the best of both worlds. The leaders of our organization want the benefits of people working together under a common mission toward a common goal. They want an organization where everyone works together to make the organization stronger. In addition to this, the leaders of our organization want each individual to demonstrate that they are working hard and maintaining focus on their own work. To ensure this, individual accomplishments are recognized and rewarded. Those that stay focused on their own projects tend to receive this type of recognition. When group recognition is given, it is generally given to the leaders of teams, projects, or departments or to the individuals who worked on the specific project being recognized. The fact that it takes the support of an entire team or department to enable one or two individuals to complete a collaborative project is neither publicly recognized nor rewarded. My work in this cycle leads me to believe that to truly change our culture to one of collaboration, we need to find a way to recognize and reward the kind of support that such collaboration requires. Ice cream socials are fun, but we need to go further than that. We need to find a way to recognize on a daily basis the value of working together.

Back to Top

Next Steps

Although this action research project was set to be completed with cycle three, my work on improving my own collaboration skills and promoting a culture of collaboration will continue. I hope to figure out what that “next step” is to recognizing and demonstrating value in collaboration. I don’t know if I can change the culture of our organization, but I can start looking for opportunities to recognize those who help me do my job better. I can remember to thank not just those that I work with directly on a project but also thank those who have supported my work in one way or another. Further, I can make this recognition something public at group meetings or via email. In this way I can lead by example.