It’s not a box, it’s a lens

A few years ago I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days training and exploring different methods of collaboration with the partners at Innovation Labs. One issue that we were all wrestling with is where is the “magic” in collaboration? When you break collaborative process design into its core elements you’re left with a set of principles that on the surface look rather pedestrian, yet we’ve seen for years and years that when it all comes together there is a certain “magic” that happens. People’s passion and energy is unleashed, creative ideas begin to flow and people accomplish a ton of work on very complex issues.

We framed up this exploration with a question: “What is inside the black box?”

The idea is that at the kernel of this activity there is a “magic” that happens but we couldn’t really define it.

I would like to rethink the entire metaphor of the black box and articulate a new way of thinking about process design. I propose that the nucleus of collaboration, the “thing” that makes it all possible, is conversation. Two people conversing is the molecule of collaboration, the building block if you will.

Part of the skill in process design is developing the right kinds of conversations for people to be having. Conversations that explore different vantage points or that direct the conversation to the creation of “tangible work products” are the beginnings of great work. It is less about a magic box and more about providing a multiplicity of “lenses” through which to view and explore a problem.

It was after reading Peter Block‘s book, Community, that I pondered the connection between the “black box” model and Block’s model of change for neighbourhoods. In short, Block suggests that conversations about the “gifts” that people bring to a challenge, the desired future that people want to see and honest conversations about how each person is potentially inhibiting the creation of that future are all useful in an organizational context as well.