To collaborate...or not?

By Philip Patston

Collaboration. It's the buzz at the moment. Funders want it. Government wants it. Business wants it. I want it...

Or do I?

Ten years ago I made the decision to be self-employed. For years I was a one-man-band, doing workshops, design, writing and, of course, comedy – all roles that were, ostensibly, individual activities. My ideas, my deadlines, my scripts. If things happened I got the credit and if they failed I took the blame.

Around five years ago, things began to change. I took on projects that were bigger than me. I made a DVD, I ran a festival, I started a non-profit trust. No longer was it all about me – it was about us. This felt like success to me. I thought this new way of working would rock my world. I figured building teams, partnerships and online project management systems would yield vastly better results. And it did, I think...

But it was bloody hard work.

Of course it was, I hear you say, what did I expect? Well, indeed I knew it would take effort to co-ordinate people, share ideas, manage communication and keep everyone on the same page. But lately I have been reflecting on how difficult collaboration really is and wondering – is it really worth it?

If there was an activity that was the epitome of complexity, surely collaboration could be it. A complex situation is one "with many parts in intricate arrangement." It has "numerous elements in a system and numerous forms of relationships among the elements." (Wikipedia)

Swap "elements" with "people" and "system" with "team" or "organisation" and the nature of collaboration becomes clear. The dynamic of people coming together and interacting with one another not only collectively, but individually as well, means that when you are collaborating, everything is changing all of the time.

Collaboration can be a creative hot air balloon – or creative quicksand. The more you try to control it, the less you can control it. No matter how many systems, checks and balances are in place, there will always be something you missed. And it'll be that conversation, that mistake or that other "thing" which reveals an unexpected triumph – or turns everything on its head. 

What makes collaboration even more difficult is that it's not difficult. Complex is often confused with complicated, which leaves one looking for a way to make things simpler. But complex is the opposite of independent, not simple, which means the only antidote to the complexity of collaboration is going it alone.

Last night I interviewed Italian film director Pier Giorgio Provenzano for Creative Momentum and asked him about the value of collaboration. He said that, for him, the process of collaboration outweighed the end result and that he was fascinated by the impact of individual input on the collective output.

I'm still left wondering – is it really worth it? Does the value of the collaborative process mitigate the effort? Does the potential of an individual's input making a project outweigh the risk of them capsizing it? Is there a way of working independently within the dynamic of dependence? And, when it comes down to it, isn't it just simpler to go it alone?