Entrepreneur - June 2012

GOING FORWARD

We’re better together

Weakness, conflict and doughnuts make for a perfect collaboration, says the Esquire guy

To collaborate with another person is to admit weakness. There’s no way of ge;ing around it. If you weren’t in a position of weakness, you wouldn’t need anyone else’s help. When engaging in a collaboration, you’re saying, I don’t know how to do this on my own. You’re both saying that. You’re co-failing, really. Which is the best way to start a partnership. Because along with vulnerability comes trust. And trust is everything.

KEY TECHNICAL MATTERS

When collaborating, a period of silence is an important tool for resetting creativity.

Unless those notes strictly
involve doodling.

Collaboration is 34 percent less effective when done via videoconference.

Unless it lasts for more than 30 seconds, in which case it is a staring contest.

Especially if the doodling involves concentric circles symbolizing the rings of hell.

52 percent less effective when done via phone.

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WHO TO COLLABORATE WI TH

There are two criteria. You want a peer,
obviously—you can’t have a true col-
laboration with someone who is above or
below you hierarchically. But more impor-
tant than a peer, you want a complement.
You need a Jobs to your Wozniak, a Hall to
your Oates, a rhino to your tickbird. You
want someone who knows as much as
you do, just not about the same things.
“The fact that I don’t have any techni-
cal background means I’m not impeded
by my knowledge of what it’s going to
take to build something, so I’m free to
just dream up features and ideas,” says
Cyrus Farudi, founder along with Omri
Cohen of Capsule, a web and mobile app
built for event planning, group interac-
tion and photo sharing. “Luckily, my
partner, who has a technical background,
has a very ‘yes, it can be done’ a;itude.
There have been screaming matches
when I’ve tried to get too involved in
something on the tech side.”
Related: It helps if your collaborator is
a person you don’t like all that much—or
at least is someone with whom you’re
always on the verge of arguing. Tension
can produce wonderful things. It has to.
“Collaborating is about co-laboring,”
says Nilofer Merchant, innovation ex-

Which is fine as long as your goal is to innovate new approaches to staring. Or contests. Or the eyes. Or the soul. Or inaction.

The best environment for collaborating is neutral territory: a conference room, a coffee shop, a bar.

71 percent less effective when done via literally yelling across a divide.

Collaborate is a verb.

During a two-person collaboration, the person taking notes is slightly less in charge than the person not taking notes.

The worst environment for
collaborating is non-neutral
territory: your office, your car,
a 4-by-4-foot area delin-
eated by masking tape and
labeled “The MeZone.”
Coendeavor is not a verb.