Hi. My name is Ruth Lopez Turley and I am a professor of sociology at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

I would like to share a little bit today about collaboration. Collaboration is something that I have given a lot of thought to, given the type of work that I do. I just want to share a few highlights of some of the things that I learned that are really important for true collaboration.

The first thing is that, in order for people to collaborate they need to be really clear that the work they are doing is benefiting each other. It is mutually beneficial.  Otherwise, what is the point of collaborating, if the two parties aren’t getting something out of that effort?  That may seem obvious but it is amazing how easy it is to lose sight of that. Sometimes to make clear what the benefit is to each others’ work.

The other thing that is really helpful when it comes to collaboration is that, there has to be trust and understanding, that the people that are collaborating with one another have to be able to trust one another. Trust that they will meet deadlines, that they will do the work that is expected in the time, in which it is expected to be completed, and that they understand each other so if things come up and they can’t deliver, that they understand and that they are patient with one another for that collaborative effort to be successful.

The other thing that is helpful in collaboration is that it is helpful for the partners in that effort to be really transparent with one another. To be transparent about what the goals are, to be transparent about their concern about the challenges that they are facing. And, to be transparent just about how they are feeling about the work. This is especially important when it is a long-term collaboration, because a lot of things bound to come up.

Lastly, I would say that it is very important for any collaborative effort for the folks involved to be flexible and responsive.  As new challenges come up, this is something that is very important in my work right now with the pandemic. As different crisis come up we have to be very flexible in our work so that we can be responsive to the needs.

Just to give you a quick example, the work that I am doing right now as director of the Houston Education Research Consortium, involves. This is a research practice partnership between researchers at Rice University and district partners at 11 school districts in the Houston area.  We work with various district leaders. And what we have learned in our collaboration with these partners, especially right now, in times of crisis, is that we need to be really flexible and really responsive to their needs, even if it means changing plans, reprioritizing our projects so that we can put more emphasis on the projects that they need help with right now. So that is what I have learned about collaboration. Thanks.

Thank you Ruth for those wonderful insights on collaboration. I’m sure our listeners will appreciate your takeaways — I know I did. In the past years, especially in high school, I worked on a lot of group projects, and oftentimes, the collaborative aspect of it was as difficult as the actual project at hand. With technology facilitating communication, I find that students often choose to work separately on projects, breaking tasks up at the beginning and not reconvening until the end. Without trust, which is an important aspect of collaboration as you mentioned, this kind of divide and conquer method often fails, as some students will fail to uphold their end of the bargain, leaving other students to make up for their work at the last minute. Despite how much schools will stress collaboration as essential to learning, I think the lack of emphasis on how successful collaboration takes place deems group work daunting as opposed to helpful. However, done correctly, and keeping the highlights you shared in mind, collaboration can facilitate and enhance our work.