Share First Profess Later
June 12, 2006
eek has a nice post about the concept of profession and collaboration. It's interesting: while collaboration is often very much about the creation of shared artifacts that help a group do something; a self-conscious profession, a professional society, often exists or is created to be the artifact that lets a group know they are attempting to do something. (Q3X)
Especially when they aren't doing anything. The existence of the society defends against the existential dread of who are we and what do we do. (Q3Y)
Professions and disciplines make me nervous, in a similar way to Eugene. What one does when collaborating is always more important than collaboration itself. (Q3Z)
In the ideal situation, collaboration disappears into the background. If you find yourself enmeshed in the details of how your group should interact, you've missed a step. Take a pause, and work on your Shared Language. (Q40)
Comments
Professions, or at least professional organizations, are often just TradeGuild?-s focused on blocking "unqualified" practitioners (competition). (Q41)
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/TradeGuild (Q42)
I think you need a SharedGoal?. Sometimes a SharedLanguage helps you define that, sometimes it comes *out* of it. (Q43)
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/SharedGoal (Q44)
And having a small group focused on that SharedGoal? is more important than any explicit/process that comes afterward. So a "discipline" of collaboration smells to me like trying to make a new SilverBullet? for a group that's doomed based on its failure to have that prereq. It's ConsultantWare?. (Q45)
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/SkunkWorks (Q46)
It says there are 2 comments but I can only see 1/2 (Bill's). How do I see the other comments? (Q47)
You know, it sort of sounds like you're saying that professions and disciplines make you nervous for similar reasons as why Eugene makes you nervous. But that isn't what you meant, is it? (Q48)