Focus and observe Radical Collaboration with PERFECT

Emphasizing specific things that partners can do, let’s Focus on observing how Radical Collaboration helps you hone PERFECT.

Focusing on Radical Collaboration will improve PERFECT

“Could you possibly finish a thought?”. If you know mathematics, you would observe my sentences involve a lot of “open parentheses” – the start of something, and then something else, and then something else. Closing parentheses, which allow thoughts to be processed and considered – those are not easy for me to do. What I look for in teams are people who observe that, and “help me” Focus … and be more PERFECT…

… building on yesterday’s article on partners who help you Reframe, the right ones also help you really Focus. Collaboration is the easier part of this vector – the hard part is Radical. In Design Thinking and in my own experience, you have to actively cultivate, nurture, and reward those around you that are VERY different. Background, perspective, culture, language, and yes, the new phrase we are all working towards “Inclusion”. That requires a very specific Focus on communication skills that are rarely taught, and even less often, modeled and practiced.

Focus on observing how Radical Collaborations changed music…

I skipped over Alan Lomax yesterday – someone we should Focus on, as without his Collaboration, we would not have any recordings of Son, and may or may not have had the Blues that are so common to all of modern music. He was born in Austin to an educated family, and with childhood asthma, was homeschooled before going to the University of Texas. There he literally became a Radical – reading Nietzsche, but more importantly, collecting “race” records which would have gotten him expelled if they had been discovered. He took dates to black clubs in Austin, and got involved in Radical politics. He eventually became the assistant in charge of Folk Songs for the Library of Congress, where he and his father were responsible for over 10,000 field recordings.

Delighted with the recordings discussed yesterday, Lomax returned the following year to re-record House. On July 17, 1942, among other new tracks, he recorded Country Farm Blues in which House made clear what went on in the plantations, “Down South, when you do anything, that’s wrong, They’ll sure put you down on the country farm (…) Put you under a man they call “Captain Jack”, He’s sure write his name up and down your back.” The Lomax recordings could not have been more significant, because afterward, House moved to New York and completely left the world of music for the next two decades, 1942 – 1962… JUST as everyone else was starting to Focus on Delta Blues…

Radical requires observation and Focus to get PERFECT Collaboration…

Challenging your Thinking does not happen without a clear focus on Design. If you don’t observe the perspectives that are different, even Radical, your team will start to all behave the same. Famously, research at Google showed teams that had an active Radical – who challenged thoughts and perspectives – achieved MUCH better results. And – when they were asked who they would want on their next team, that person was (like the members of KISS from last week) voted off the island. observe – lower performance is considered better than having a Collaborator who appears Radical.

observe Who Radical Collaborates with your Focus …

There is not a PERFECT answer to how to form Teams that deliver consistently great results. One common theme is always clear – they Focus on how to Collaborate – Radically – by CHALLENGING each other to always observe things differently. Each of the perspectives is needed to round out the view that helps all. And, notice in the lyrics of the song today, it is often punished by sending those who can help you best, down to the Country Farm.