dougnoll’s posthaven

Segment 1: Collaboration, Defined. When people use the term “collaboration,” often they are not really talking about collaboration in terms of working together to create something new. Instead, they are talking about getting someone else to buy into their idea and what they want you to do. True collaboration is a process, a mind-set, a way of solving problems and a way of being. To discuss effective collaboration, we’re speaking with Delia Horwitz on this edition of The Doug Noll Show. Delia is a consultant, keynote speaker, facilitator and co-author of Collaboration Soup, a Six-Step Recipe for Co-Creative Meetings and Other Conversations. Delia’s years of experience with facilitating team-building workshops in corporate environments all began as a fascination with the question, “What does it take for people to get along?”

Segment 2: Movement toward Collaboration. Delia feels that there is currently an evolutionary movement toward collaboration. As an example, there is now grant money being given to teams of scientists from multiple disciplines (who were former competitors) to come together with their different views and work toward a common goal or solving a particular problem. Additionally, Delia is seeing collaboration on a personal level: i.e. Craigslist, eBay, etc. Billions of dollars are being shared through free sites. It’s all about matching needs and resources, and the internet has made it possible to exchange what we need and what we have.

As a consultant, Delia and teaches groups how to keep the fight or flight response calm. How do we stop those triggers? How do we take advantage of the collective wisdom that arises when people are looking at the whole picture instead of just protecting their part?

Segment 3: An Internal Motivation. Delia’s six-step RECIPE for collaboration:

Be READY to go

ENGAGE your stakeholders

Have a CONVERSATION

Allow time for INTEGRATION

Have an action PLAN

END with clarity

Doug and Delia both find that this work is simple but requires discipline. People are hungry for it. They know there’s a better way, and once they experience a true co-creative conversation or group action plan they are changed forever. They have a new reference point. When they co-create a plan that everyone feels is theirs, you end up with ownership, enthusiasm and accountability. There is an internal motivation.

Segment 4: Wisdom from Totality. Delia and her co-author outline a new way of decision making in their book, Collaboration Soup. She tells us that when a group comes together, there is a wisdom that comes out of the totality of the pieces. Everybody puts in their piece, and together they create something that could not be created out of the individual pieces, just like Stone Soup. For more information, visit www.collaborationsoup.com.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4

Segment 1: Navigating a High Failure Rate Environment.

On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we speak with Rebecca Costa, an American sociobiologist who offers a genetic explanation for current events, emerging trends and individual behavior. Rebecca’s first book, The Watchman’s Rattle: A Radical New Theory of Collapse, questions our ability to thrive in the complex world we have created. Her website is http://www.rebeccacosta.com/.

When Rebecca lived in Silicon Valley in the 1980’s, she observed the exponential rate at which the pace was moving and came to the conclusion that there was little chance we would be able to keep up with that pace. She says these days we’re all struggling with a high failure rate environment. It’s difficult to sort through all the information that bombards us each day and decide what’s relevant and what’s not. The odds are stacked against us to pick the right career, the right health care program, etc. There is too much information, and the number of wrong choices is exponentially greater than the number of right choices.

Evolution is lagging behind what is needed to succeed in society. Our brain is not designed to deal with the complexities and the great amount of information coming toward us each day. It exceeds our physiological and cognitive ability.

Segment 2: The History of Human Civilization.

Evolutionary Law says we need to adapt or die. However, we can only adapt at a certain rate. Rebecca sees a consistent pattern throughout history: First civilizations hit a cognitive threshold, where the problems are beyond their “pay grade” and they become gridlocked and unable to act. Next, there is mass confusion among leadership and individuals in the society between what is an empirical fact and an unproven belief. Public policy becomes highly irrational because it’s based on unproven beliefs instead of empirical evidence. Lastly, an event comes along that “does a society in” and the society collapses. This doesn’t mean that everyone dies; it just means that the society breaks into smaller units and then starts to ascend again. This is the history of human civilization.

Segment 3: Insight.

So what tools do we have to prevent an ultimate collapse? Rebecca sys for the first time in human history we can use science and medicine to watch what the brain is doing. For instance, scientists recently discovered a third form of problem solving: insight. Insight is the ability to connect two pieces of data in a novel way. Scientists can now predict that a person will have an insight about 300 milliseconds before they actually solve the problem. Our brains need to be consistently exercised and “warmed up” to deal with the complex problems of our day-to-day lives, thus stalling and perhaps preventing an ultimate collapse.

Segment 4:  

We are dealing with environmental changes that are beyond what we’re designed to do. We are not designed to respond to a long-term threat. The solution is to try to mitigate and train and catch up the brain. We can turn to neuroscience to help us adapt at a faster rate. We can train our brains and recognize that when we have a complex problem to solve, we need to invest in multiple solutions and expect a high threshold of waste.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4