Social Change Model

Collaboration

Collaboration is the intersection and implantation of a group of individuals’ skills and strengths in order to produce a quality product. The collective contribution of talent and resources allow for the generation of common goals and creative solutions. When a group has a common goal, this allows for designed roles and accountability within those roles while the whole group is contributing to the end result.

It is easy to take collaboration for granted, and you never realize how beneficial it is until you don’t have it anymore. I realized a true absence of collaboration during my Leadership course second semester of freshman year. In the Residential Leadership Community, there was a huge concentration of leaders. These were people who had always been the one to take ownership of projects, and many of us considered this a strength. However, when that was the only strength that we really knew well, and a bunch of people that were used to leading are put in a group to work together, we tended to butt heads. We had learned our strengths on paper during the leadership course the previous semester, but this semester project challenged us to implement them.  We started butting heads when a couple group members tried to take charge and ended up isolating themselves, making it more difficult to get work done.

We learned the importance of not only collaboration but of knowing what you as an individual bring to the table before needing to collaborate. When each person can effectively convey their strengths and weaknesses, working toward the common goal becomes much more manageable. You cannot expect people to read you mind, and this begins to get into the need for consciousness of self, further demonstrating how much the values of the Social Change Model truly compliment each other. Knowing how to collaborate proves to be significant in all sector of life, from relationships to careers.

In the future I will be working in a field where networking is imperative. Everyone knows everyone and you need to be able to get your point across effectively while quickly establishing a common goal and understanding of how that goal will be accomplished. The sales industry is all about relationships and achieving goals. When you have a group of relational, competitive, driven people, and then add in a collaborative element, they are a force to be reckoned with.