Cooperation in 28 keywords: what to bear in mind ?

Coopération is sometimes misunderstood and hence rejected as a utopia or else as an idea which can not be implemented because of money or time constraints. But cooperation is above all to converge individual and collective interest. It can save time and money... or waste both ¹³. Depending on the context (search for innovation, involvement of people ...) and according to how it is implemented, it may be in some fields far more effective than other strategies.

It is not easy to remember all the 28 keywords. But fortunately this is not necessary. There are tools. Thus, a self-administered questionnaire¹⁴ shows each of the 16 facets that allow us to understand what happens in a group, under the form of questions. Rather than looking outside the group for answers, it is much more effective to ask the right questions (including to other members of the group) as the best answers crucially depend on a deep understanding of the group's peculiarities... and of the choices enriched by the diversity of points of view.

If it is useful to have tools to find 28 aspects which allow to understand cooperation, it is also essential to be able to keep in mind some observationtips which have to become a true reflex. There are three aspects to integrate. They constitute "the ICE conditions" (Implication, Commons, Exchanges):

• 1. The involvement of some persons: not of all of them because as seen before, observers and inactive persons are a majority in a group of more than 12 persons. However, it is essential to be sure that at least one person or more get involved in the group and behave proactively. Hiding behind tools which would create cooperation magically is a utopia in groups under several thousands see dozens of thousand persons.
• 2. Reachable commons: Are the fundamental of the group (objectives, rules of functioning, tools and methods used) accessible to all including new comers ? Are the productions of the group easily reachable and reusable including outside the group ?
• 3. Means of exchanging : It is important tohave several tools and rules of exchange to insure comunication between the participants who will allow to make the group converge : in face-to-face and remote, during synchronous meetings and in asynchronous (on-line exchanges for example), during organized exchanges and during informal relationships (the "coffee corner")...

These three conditions have to be organized in a effective but also diversified way (Robert Ulanowicz showed that the maximal durability of a system depended on the balance between two opposite aspects: 1/3 of efficiency and 2/3 of resilience by diversification ¹⁵.

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• ¹ MORIN, Edgar. les cécités de la connaissance : l’erreur et l’illusion. In : Les sept savoirs nécessaires à l’éducation du futur [online]. Paris, France : UNESCO, 1999. p. 5–14. [Accessed 27 January 2014]. ISBN 2-02-041964-5. Available from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001177/117740fo.pdf
• ² Le groupe Intelligence Collective de la Fing. [online]. [Accessed 29 January 2014]. Available from: http://ic.fing.org/
• ³ Règle du 1 %. Wikipédia [online]. [Accessed 29 January 2014]. Available from: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A8gle_du_1_%25
• ⁴ CLOSETS, François de. Le système E.P.M. Paris, France : B. Grasset, 1980. ISBN 2-246-00969-3.
• ⁵ Tanguy is a movie of Etienne Chatilliez telling the story of a young man of 28, making his own living but still living with his parents, despite their efforts to help him to settle down elsewhere. (Since then, we often speak of "Tanguy Phenomenon"). Phénomène Tanguy). Wikipédia [online]. [Accessed 29 January 2014]. Available from: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph%C3%A9nom%C3%A8ne_Tanguy)
• ⁶ Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike? 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0. [online]. [Accessed 5 February 2014]. Available from: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
• ⁷ Licences - Projet GNU - Free Software Foundation. [online]. [Accessed 29 January 2014]. Available from: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.fr.html
• ⁸ ILLICH, Ivan. La Convivialité [online]. Paris : Éditions du Seuil, 2003. [Accessed 29 January 2014]. Points Essais. ISBN 978-2-02-004259-8. Available from: http://www.seuil.com/livre-9782020042598.htm
• ⁹ See: "Mapping to get an overview"
• ¹⁰ See: "How to produce a document with several hundred persons"
• ¹¹ See: Des recettes libres pour documenter nos savoir-faire. Imagination For People [online]. [Accessed 29 January 2014]. Available from: http://imaginationforpeople.org/wiki/workgroup/animfr/les-recettes-libres
• ¹² See : GLADWELL, Malcolm. The tipping point: how little things can make a big difference. New-York, Etats-Unis : Back Bay Books, 2002. ISBN 0-316-34662-4.
• ¹³ See: "Cooperation explained to my brother-in-law: a redneck"
• ¹⁴ See the questionnaire: "Understand what is going on in your group"
• ¹⁵ ULANOWICZ, Robert E. A third window: natural life beyond Newton and Darwin. West Conshohocken, Pa. : Templeton Foundation Press, 2009. ISBN 9781599471549 159947154X. See also : "Cooperate, between efficiency and resilience"