When I'm not building up the business or exploring the world of New Media, I like to work on the vegie garden that we're building at home. We started this a month ago as a way to both teach the kids about the wonders of growing things and to take vegies out of the shopping equation. So far we're doing pretty well, however I've learnt some lessons in building the garden that can definitely be applied to building a collaborative project.
1. Ensure Your Bed Is Built Right
Before you do anything else in a garden, you need to make sure that your bed is solid. This means you need to prepare the ground, build your frame and ensure the soil you will be using has been properly prepared. Translated into Collab speak, you need to ensure that you've got the basics of your project setup properly, clear lines of communication, a solid and easy to use technological foundation and a sense of tie in for all those involved.
2. Plant The Right Seeds
Once you've got your bed ready, make sure the plants you're trying to grow are suitable for your location and the season. You can't grow summer vegies in the dead of winter and you can't run a collaborative project properly if the conditions are not condusive to success. In both cases you need to ensure that you either change the conditions or wait until the right time.
3. Don't Set And Forget
While there are some plants that can grow without attention (my parents-in-law managed to get almost overrun by a pumpkin vine without assisting it in any way) you will always get the best results if you pay careful attention to your plants and ensure they have the best chance to thrive and grow. Once again, your collaborative project is the same. You can't just launch a project without the right management and expect it to thrive. You have to watch it and guide it, sometimes this means adding the right fertiliser or pruning errant branches/twigs and ripping out weeds that suck the life out of your project/garden bed.
4. Patience
The biggest key to both gardening and collaboration is patience. Plants take time to grow and flower, and so will your collaboration project. Don't try to rush things, otherwise you could end up with a very sick project.
5. Don't Be Afraid Of Getting Your Hands Dirty
Gardening requires that you get down in the dirt and really get to know your plants and beds. Don't be afraid to dig into your collaboration project with the same gusto. Besides getting dirt under your fingernails, you'll get a better understanding of the project and the people and issues involved.
I'm finding Gardening to be both an interesting an challenging venture, and it is really giving me a better understanding of how to approach other areas in my life, both business and personal.