GENUINE COLLABORATION: Building Trust

By Ali Pavlich

My earliest memories of collaboration begin with my mom, specifically painting my childhood dresser. I vividly remember newspapers spread out on the floor and an old dresser in the middle of the kitchen. 

My mom told me that we could do anything I wanted to the dresser. She sketched out the dresser and she let my imagination run wild. One drawer had polka dots, one cute squiggles, one side had stars, and there were yellow checkers on the top and legs. In that moment, I felt empowered to choose to create art that made me happy. I remember feeling like my mom and I were using both of our brains and skills to accomplish the same goal. I wasn’t the best artist at that age but my mom gave me some outlines to help grow my skills and guided me with her experience. 

We did so many projects like this together that made creativity and collaboration a fun part of my childhood.

Balancing Trust & Recognition of Strengths

Not every collaboration has been as rewarding as working with my mom. I have had plenty of experience where my own emotions and pride got in the way of genuine collaboration. As I reflect on those experiences, I realize that there was an imbalance of trust and recognition of others’ strengths. 

A couple of years ago, I was at a job where I don’t think they trusted my abilities. I kept bending and trying to mold my strengths to fit the desires of this new manager. I know what you are thinking, well that’s your job. But they kept telling me that I was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. Working this way for so long was draining and actually made me bad at collaborating because I didn’t even trust my own strengths. Thankfully, after a couple of years in roles where genuine collaboration happens most of the time, I am able to see how beautiful of a process it can be. 

Supplementing Strengths

As I approach collaboration, I now try to recognize how each of my growing edges can be supplemented by the strengths of the others in the process. If I only focus on my strengths, my focus is limited, perspective is missed and collaboration is not genuine. More importantly, the success of projects feels better when the process itself feels inclusive and empowering. 

My encouragement to you as you approach your next collaboration is to take some time to understand where those you are collaborating with can enhance the process. If we are able to recognize our own weakness and use the strengths of the other contributors, genuine collaboration can happen.