Collaboration

[wilsond]

Hello,

I am new to this discussion group and would like to kick off my first
contribution with a question that i would be very interested in
hearing your answers on.
We re currently in the process of putting together a coworking space
in Dublin, Irl which we are pretty excited by. I have read a large
amount of detail about coworking and the philosophy of it. But on a
practical level, how would the owners/managers of a coworking space be
best placed to ensure that their space would be one of collaboration.
What practical steps can someone take to foster this environment and
hopefully create the reputation/output that every coworking space
wants.

Thanks,

wilson

[thilo]

Hi Wilson,

great to hear that you open a space in Dublin, love the city, surley
will visit your next time I am there.

Here a some things we do to encourage collaboration.

- coworker meetups: once a month where coworkers can bring in their
ideas and projects for the space - informal, like dinner or beers so
that new coworker get to knew the others.

- host usergroup meetups that fit the identity of your space, e.g. we
have technical groups like ruby or frontend dev

- throw parties

- open space design, a sperate public area

- go out for lunch together

These are some of the things we do.

I guess people from the list come up with more.

Cheers
Thilo

---
development: http://upstre.am
coworking: http://co-up.de
coworking managment: http://cobot.me

[Alex Hillman]

Thilo is on the money, and I like to look at it from an 'environmental' perspective. Not like the earth's environment, but what in terms of how you can influence behavior by changing the variables of the environment.

Think of it this way: it may be your goal to encourage collaboration, but ultimately, what you REALLY want is collaboration to be more likely to happen on its own. So it's more of an indirect path to your goal. Here's how we do it.

We've operated on the thesis that trust and relationships are the most important precursor to successfully working together, and as such, we've worked hard to make Indy Hall a "Community of Trust", where events like the ones Thilo lists below serve a very specific purpose:

They get coworkers who otherwise might not be as likely to "bump" into each other casually to get to know each other outside of the working arrangement, but still in (or near) a working context.

By having work be the context, there's a mutual understanding that the potential for working together (or otherwise collaborating, learning, etc) is baked into their interactions, so they don't have to focus on pitching each other. Instead they focus on their personal relationship, what else they have in common, what shared connections they have, etc. Those bonds lead to trust, and trust as I've said is the precursor to collaboration.

If you take this environmental approach, I think you'll find that it's far more sustainable than shouting "COLLABORATE, YOU FOOLS!!!" at your coworkers, and the quality of life at your coworking space increases multi-fold.

With this in mind, you can take Thilo's list and see how it encourages this kind of behavior, and you can also brainstorm what kinds of events make sense for you and your crew!

-Alex

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group.
To post to this group, send email to cowo...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.

[Alex Hillman]

Also, I wrote an essay recently that takes this idea of relationship > work and expands a bit more:

http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/11/take-interest-dont-fake-interest/

I think they key takeaway that's relevant in this conversation is this one:

Business is an overlay for social interactions, not the other way around.

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

[Willie Morris]

I agree 100% with Thilo and Alex on collaboration, but I also think this extends to getting new members if you are a newer space like us.

We initially started having brainstorming sessions with pizza and wine on Thursday nights and a weekly wind down on Fridays on our deck to get all the members into the sense of community and become friends. For some reason, flipcup has become a favorite team building game here. Once we got everyone on the same page, we started inviting others from our local tech community to come see what we're doing. The response was great. We had our first real open-to-the-public party here last Friday and since have signed up 3 new members, become host to another usergroup, and some of our members have started scheduling things to do outside of work together.

Some other ideas for collaboration/promo are doing one project in house all the time. We recently did a mobile photo contest and had everyone tag photos #WTFoto on twitter to enter...when it was over we used all of our members to judge it. It didn't require a big time commitment from anyone, but it got everyone to work together and helped promote the space. 

Cheers,

-Willie

-WhiteTableFoundation.com

[Alex Hillman]

TOTALLY agreed, Willie. Members that have great experiences together will talk about those experiences, and want their friends to be a part of it. What's good for the members is also good for membership growth. 

And let's not forget about retention! Who cares how many members you have if they don't have any reason to stick around?

-Alex

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

[Willie Morris]

Yes retention is easy to overlook, but keeping people engaged is definitely important. Who wants high turnover rates for coworkers? Not us! :)

Cheers,

-Willie

[Angel K]

+1 to what has already been said and I'd also like to add that
sometimes I orchestrate situations that REQUIRE people to socialize.
This is a little different from "collaboration" but I think you have
to know each other fairly well before you can collaborate effectively.
I've been married to a hard core introvert for long enough to know
that small talk and meeting new people can be a serious drain on him.

Example, at our recent Waffle Day (I made waffles, they brought the
toppings) I put the food in the main work room where everyone sits and
works and I put the napkins and silverware in the conference room.
They realized right away what I had done and said, "seriously?! we
have to *talk* to each other, we can't just go back to our computers
and work while we eat?!" They were half joking/half serious but guess
what? They all sat together in the conference room, enjoyed a meal and
got to know each other a little better. Afterward, the introverts got
2 solid hours of quiet time to recharge their batteries! (yes, at
times I feel like a mother to the members but I kinda like it and I
think they do too!)

I'll also occasionally ask everyone to eat family style at the same
time/table during night coworking so we'll "all do better in school
and be more successful"--think after school special style. It's all a
bit tongue in cheek but no one has ever regretted the times when I
politely persuaded them to interact.
-A

[Susan Evans]

Hi all,

I'd chime in briefly to add a big-picture way to think about it, as we do here at Office Nomads in Seattle. Often I refer to our space in a variety of different ways as a platform. In this case, we do try to be a platform on which collaboration can happen. As others have said, we ensure that this idea isn't forced (because that's not why people come here), but instead that there is opportunity for it. 

This happens in a variety of ways around our office, but increasingly via:

• happy hours (because you know we coworkers figure out most things over beers)
• emails between members (we have a shared mailing list to the entire membership base at ON)
• chalkboards (no joke - we have 'em everywhere for folks to chalk their ideas up)
• knowing each other (our community cultivator, Alexandra, is great about introducing members she think would get a kick out of one another)

Again, I think of this idea less as something that can be solved programatically, but one that can be solved by creating a place for collaboration to happen and not getting in the way when it does. We've found that programming often gets in the way. Angel, I'm intrigued to hear about how required social events go for you -  I'm pretty sure that wouldn't go over very well at our office, but I am often wrong. :)  

Good luck, and great question!

Susan
__
Office Nomads
officenomads.com
206-484-5859

[Ryan Price]

I'd like to call out something I saw at a client's office once: The Thank You Board

It was just a simple whiteboard posted near the main hallway, so people had to look as they walked past.

The only messages were one person thanking another:

e.g. "Jane M, thanks for getting me those photos so quickly! - Sean"

Now extrapolate this to your Coworking space and members. Rinse and repeat. If the thanks is given publicly, the warm fuzzies go even farther.

Peace,
Ryan Price
rpr...@ryanpricemedia.com
@liberatr

[Alex Hillman]

This is an awesome idea. Love it. Thanks Ryan!

-Alex

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

--

[wilsond]

Hey,

Thanks very much all who answered my question.
Lots of ideas and practical suggestions.
hopefully be reporting back on some success with them and maybe credit
you guys too!

wilson

ps Alex, like the essay

On Nov 16, 4:30 am, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is an awesome idea. Love it. Thanks Ryan!
>
> -Alex
>
> /ah
> indyhall.org
> coworking in philadelphia
>

> On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 10:56 PM, Ryan Price <ucfbass...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'd like to call out something I saw at a client's office once: The Thank
> > You Board
>
> > It was just a simple whiteboard posted near the main hallway, so people had
> > to look as they walked past.
>
> > The only messages were one person thanking another:
>
> > e.g. "Jane M, thanks for getting me those photos so quickly! - Sean"
>
> > Now extrapolate this to your Coworking space and members. Rinse and repeat.
> > If the thanks is given publicly, the warm fuzzies go even farther.
>
> > Peace,
> > Ryan Price
> > rpr...@ryanpricemedia.com
> > @liberatr
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "Coworking" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to cowo...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > coworking+...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> > .

[Campbell McKellar]

Ryan, I love this idea! We will definitely put this to use in our new office. Thanks for sharing.

Loosecubes.com
Invite code: lovemonday
Follow us @loosecubes

[Angel K]

"Angel, I'm intrigued to hear about how required social events go for
you - I'm pretty sure that wouldn't go over very well at our office,
but I am often wrong. :)"

---Oh geez, none of our functions or events are mandatory. That would
send the members running for the hills!

On Nov 16, 6:20 am, Campbell McKellar <cmc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ryan, I love this idea!  We will definitely put this to use in our new office.  Thanks for sharing.
>
> Loosecubes.com
> Invite code: lovemonday
> Follow us @loosecubes
>