Jean-Michel Cornu : Cooperation in 28 keywords
11. Skills of cooperation
JM Cornu - La Coopération en 28 mots-clés - 11. Les compétences de la coopération
We have seen that cooperation has various facets. They come up to 28 to understand what takes place in a group. We have also seen that some things depended on environment, depended on the structure of the group or depended on people of the group. We have seen that for a dozen facets, on environment, on the group and the people, plus 4 tiny facets on rather occult facets, a little bit more difficult to manage. So, on convergence as well as on conflicts, maturity, external constraints, we have browsed a certain number of things but it enable us to understand what is happening, the skills needed in order to manage this group. And here we have 12 other facets, 12 last facets to achieve the understanding of how to act in a group. And in order to do that, we are going to run into facets which depend on people, on the group, on the environment. For the group, simple. How do you start a group, for instance ? Good question. Or how can you keep it going on, because sometimes once it is started, it slowly pulls down. So, how can you keep it going ? How can you maintain it ? How can you map it ? We saw, when we talked about conflicts, the importance of mapping things, of giving an overview. But it is also true when you want to produce together. If you want to create collective intelligence don't rely on the one who speaks louder. Try to show all the facets of it. Therefore mapping is a technique which is extremely important, which can be learnt. And then, last thing on groups, evaluating or auto-evaluating could be learnt. It's not to external people to evaluate your group. The best experts can bring you questions but they can not provide the answers because the answers depend on what you know of the group. You will get the best answers from yourself and from the people of the group itself, and so an auto evaluation quiz from the people of the group will give the best answers.
The same thing can be done with people. How do you integrate new comers ? This means how can you join a group ? Beside, it's not just about managing groups but also to take part. How can I join? How am I introducing myself for example to the group, how do I behave ? How to behave in a group and how to help people behaving in a group to favor convergence ? That does not mean that you can't disagree, we saw that, a group is not necessarily just convergence, it can lead to opposition. How can infobesity be treated during peculiar small stages ? That is to say that in fact, today, we see that this group is necessarily made of a hundred, of hundreds of persons whom are going to be linked by a set of information, and what more, they are going to enter the group or quit it. In short, over-information. If you try to manage it, you get lost. So there is a way of managing the abundance of information and it can be learnt too. It can be very useful, not to try to control everything, which is meaningless in the group, but on the contrary, to try going forward. And, same thing also on the level of the group's positioning. In the end, are you proactive, reactive or maybe observer or even inactive in this group ? And don't worry, it doesn't matter if you are inactive. On the contrary, we saw that inactive people were also friends. Are you, maybe, a “negative leader” ? I mean the one who is going to mess around a little just when the group needs to go through its teenage stage, i.e. to reach its level of maturity where it can position itself to do something else ? So, it's a difficult part, but an important one. Maybe it's you. Or maybe your part is to make things converge or to coordinate, etc. Who are you ? What is your position ? Which part is yours ? Or else Who are you ? Besides, as we have seen it, it's more about parts than about persons. If we see things from an environment point of view, your group is going to produce things related with environment. So it will produce, produce. How can it produce ? It's interesting because one can produce enormously with contents to write, with several writers, today it is even possible to have hundreds, even thousands of writers. How can we do ? These skills can also be learnt. You can also create events, things that a group can do for the outside world, beside the production of contents : text, broadcasting or else. And it can also be an event like a party, a congress or whatever. How can it be organized ? Same thing. There are skills to acquire. You can also do a very interesting thing : you can produce documents on “How to produce”. That is what is called “free recipe”, i.e. a recipe as in cooking. How did I start my group ? How do you gather a group on the planting of artichokes in Tibet ? Or on gathering people who are keen on Botanics. How do you do this ? How do you organize an event ? Etc. Those recipes, if you share them with others, you are going to be extremely rich. Why ? Because others are going to enrich them and this will allow you to have information from everywhere. Why ? Documentation is important. It's something rather new on which a lot of work is done at the moment.
And the fourth aspect of environment, brand new too, is how is your group going to scale up ? Or you grow as big as a mammoth, and as you know, dinausors find it hard to live nowadays, or you try to set a network with others to become a network of networks, so that what you locally do with 100, 1000 people, rather than becoming the king of the world, which usually doesn't work – Empires for 1000 years did not last very long – you do it with hundreds of groups of 100, 1000 people to scale up. This scaling up is one of the current question on the aspects of cooperation in order to try to understand better how to go further, how to build networks of networks, for instance, how to share with others, so you can get richer too. So, after seeing all the facets to understand what is taking place in the groups, here are the 12 facets on : “How to act? “Which skills acquire ?”
