This week, I was able to enter into a space that allowed me to reflect. My point of reflection relied on how I collaborate with others, and my general expectations when I must work with fellow peers on a task that showcases collegiate ways of conducting research, and presentability. Author Rebecca Ingalls, through her article, “Writing ‘Eyeball to Eyeball’: Building a Successful Collaboration“, details many ways through which collaboration can become successful, and the many ways it can act as a segue into a larger conversation about the opposite effects– what detracted from certain, or all, aspects of a successful collaboration. I found myself questioning some of my previous collegiate collaborations. In both, I resonated with Ingalls’ strategies and anecdotes.
I also read a shorter article, by author Alexus Yeakel, titled, “Failure is Awesome” rebuking the idea that failure is a shameful part of life. I realized while reading this article that the idea that failure should enter a more welcoming community of life lessons is commonly easy to speak out about, but harder to be prided on as a consistent practice of a changed, kinder, and accepting mindset. I appreciated this article for that reminder, however I have stumbled across the reality that myself and others may continue to live life receiving these constant reminders, yet allow the standards that have been self-set or set through other people’s expectations to break them into a mindset that failure is simply because of not doing enough to avoid such a fate.
Reading each of these articles gave me enough perspective to connect them. I realize collaborating can have various effects that mean different things, depending on the route decided: Is it more effective to be more open, diverse, inclusive? Or are results better yielded when having a fully familiar group to work alongside? These can contribute different learning curves– that is, different depictions through which failures can be enacted and growth can occur. If Yeakel abhors failure as a shame, and adopts that it helps the learning process, collaboration can be another way to achieve that goal entirely. It can also bring about failures in a new light to collaborators, acting as its own entity and the extension of a paradoxical separate entity.
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