

We both laughed about this. Collab™ certainly does ask a lot from a team and perhaps seems almost utopian!
Then, Katya came across the Facilitator Role card. This was the first perk of what felt useful, especially when reflecting on her experience attending meetings. She explains, “I know people who are highly professional in what they do, they can really work magic, but when it comes to discussing something, they cannot stop talking (from one subject to the next) and are very much into listing out all of the possible details (what if this, what if we need this, what if this doesn’t work). This can be quite timely. I felt a facilitator role would be very useful for saving time and effort and frustration.”
She confesses that she continued to get lost in the details of this large map of Collab™. “Then, I came across Integrative Consent. And felt, it can help people stop this endless discussion.” She goes on, “You either have objections or not. So just get quiet if you don’t have anything. People… They like to share a lot. Me, too, by the way. Integrative Consent gives a pretty good instrument for such situations– a system with steps that are very useable. This and the Facilitator Role card were the most useful for me.”

Collab™ is indeed a complex system that works best when fully understood and utilized; and it takes time and practice to understand all the muscles, tendons, blood, and organs of this body and Communication Operating System that we call Collab™. Read more here.
I ask her, “Who else worked on the Collab™ Instructional in your company?”

Katya says they were excited about the material and so they wanted to give it a try! “The only problem is that all of us have a great work load of translation orders, both written and oral, to work on, and organizational matters are only processed during a free minute. So, we’ve been pretty slow.”
She goes on, “We had our first general meeting. I was the scribe and we did it in our living agenda. We set up a similar google doc system.” She and her team are implementing Collab™ one step at a time while attending to the needs of their company. Based on our conversations, I believe Katya will be bringing more of Collab™ to her team so that they can do their work together efficiently and respond to the rapidly evolving needs of their company.

After our conversation, we exchanged a warm hug goodbye and promised to maintain contact. Perhaps another visit? As I reflect on this conversation, I still have questions about how we can use structure to be our best selves and also fullest selves. I don’t believe that Collab™ can completely prevent harmful power dynamics in teams, but it does allow a clear way to redirect a team when that’s happening. I know that using a structure like Collab™ has helped guide my framework towards the bigger picture while also still allowing a personal context. How can we separate that anyhow? For now, I’m willing to try it and see what happens.