Collaboration, in anything, can help expand your knowledge, creativity, and ability to do something. In America, especially in this generation, we’re taught to ‘toughen up’ and that doing things on our own makes us stronger. But Rebecca Ingalls, the writer of the article, Writing “Eyeball To Eyeball”: Building A Successful Collaboration, rejects that idea. She talks about how collaboration can actually excel you in whatever you’re working on and the goals you can set with it. Making sure every member of a collaborative team, whether that’s two people or 10, works together, has something to do, and remains productive.
For me, she put into perspective why schools make it such a priority to work in groups. But by her definition, the schools I was taught definitely lacked that goal-making. Their priorities were in the right place, but they didn’t teach us why working together was important; therefore some people didn’t even try. Sure, they talked about working with people when you get older but never talked about why, how it could help you and others, or how to do it. Even now in college, whenever some people hear “group assignment” they let other people do the work for them or take too much control, and that’s not the point of collaboration.
Now that I’m older I see just how beneficial this concept is. As a writer working on a special project, I’m constantly looking for people to collaborate with me. For example, editors, publishers, and graphic designers can all be used for collaboration. But even if I don’t want to work with others, like in situations where we’re forced to, it’s a skill essential to learn.
Leave a Reply