In general, the need to collaborate can simply be the necessity of dealing with uncertainty, or of having someone with whom to share our concerns, or of solving a very real, common problem. Collaboration is a necessary technique to master the unknown. 3 In our experience, teams are often formed with only a vague idea that if their members work together, good things will happen. In the absence of a strongly felt common purpose and a real problem to solve, these efforts often fail, degenerating into a collection of individual efforts loosely held together only by unproductive meetings. Intimacy What is often not clear is that once the need is present, collaborators must develop a sense of intimacy .
Good collaborators are able to speak openly about what they believe, feel, and think.
Successful collaborative activity demands a feeling of safety to share information and a commitment to be completely honest about a particular area being discussed. 4 Developing intimacy takes time. Executives choosing members of a Y2K planning group should pay careful attention to the previous interactions of the participants. The people leading these planning efforts have to be sensitive to creating an environment in which an honest sharing of information will flourish. We all have experienced situations in which the real issues are never discussed because there is no feeling of safety.