An Ethic of Collaboration

Most people have heard the phrase "work ethic," but the idea of a "collaboration ethic" may be less familiar. Recent research has helped label and define the dimensions of collaboration. Camp professionals can use the insights gained through this research to understand ways they are collaborating within camp, within the camp community, and with other camps.

Collaboration Ethic Model

A collaborative community is a function of two dimensions: person-centered attributes and organizational-level elements (Haskins, Liedtka, and Rosenblum, 1998). The person-centered attributes include expressing a caring attitude, developing a conscientious stewardship, feeling a calling for one's work, and utilizing creative energy. The organizational-level elements revolve around the heart of the mission and how the systems support the mission (coherent intent, congruent systems, and capital for relationship building and learning). When these elements and attributes are well represented, they generate the energy for a collaborative community.

Through increased understanding of what generates a collaborative ethic, you may be able to find more comprehensive applications to increase the benefits you make through camping. With the collaboration ethic model in mind, let's look at ways camps foster collaboration.

A Model in Action

The process involved in building community at camp each summer illustrates the elements and attributes described in the model. In terms of human resources, camp directors and administrators attempt to hire staff who possesses the person-centered elements and then foster further growth in these areas. Directors make an intentional effort to support staff with effective systems (feedback, infrastructure and programmatic), intent (mission), investment in learning, and relationship building (training and resources). A broader interpretation of the collaboration ethic suggests the importance of multiple levels of collaboration: within camp, among friends of the camp (alumni, community, siblings and parents), and between camps.

Within camp

Within camp, children and adults have daily opportunities to develop and experience the person-centered attributes of the collaboration ethic. In what ways does your program foster caring attitudes among individuals? Can you be intentional about building in or deepening those opportunities? As you foster loyalty to camp, what is the focus of the stewardship? How can staff be positively reinforced for listening to the "calling" of their work? How can your programs channel campers' energy into creative projects that build on the previous elements of care, stewardship, and finding a calling?

A starting point is investigating the many ways in which campers can be involved in doing for themselves and working together. The interaction involved in being on a committee to plan an evening program or choose the cookout menu, in leading a friendship circle discussion, or in taking turns doing cabin chores offers ways for campers to understand the effects of their actions upon others. By simply recognizing these small opportunities as being part of an overall process, you can magnify the power of the simple actions of collaboration.

Friends of the camp

Tangible opportunities for alumni, camper families, and community members to be involved in camp support and reinforce the collaborative community. Individuals can contribute in many ways, increasing the coherent intent of the organization. Volunteer advisory boards give parents, community members, and former staff the opportunity to provide direction for values and operations. Work weekends allow camper families to invest personal labor, get to know staff, and share an inside viewpoint of camp workings. Staff interview weekends give potential applicants a better picture of camp and yield deeper insight into the applicant.

During orientation, invite a panel of parents and community leaders active in child development to provide a forum of expectations and a real-life perspective for staff. This interaction will also demonstrate to the community the camp's serious commitment to its campers. As staff move on from summer employment, they create networks in their own communities, which can generate prospective staff leads, increasing the capital for building relationships which will then strengthen the overall organization.

The Internet and e-mail offer new opportunities for staying in touch and building alliances. Brainstorming, problem-solving, and sharing happy and difficult news increase outsiders' awareness of what is happening in camp and allow for contact to stimulate creative partnerships.

Between camps

To better serve campers and families, many camps have worked together to create plans that incorporate the unique strengths of each camp. For example, camps have compiled a list of resources (from backhoes to buses, media spokespersons to technology) for use in emergencies; when an emergency occurs, each camp shares the groundwork that has previously been laid. This honest sharing of problems and statistics helps camps learn from others' mistakes.

Staffing is another area where camps can collaborate. Sharing staff-training ideas encourages learning from others and reinforces the good that is occurring in each camp in different ways. Trading staff members for a day or week adds expertise; the result is renewed perspectives and ideas at each venue. The sharing of staff and camper contacts once slots are filled, collective marketing, Web sites, and even introducing alumni to age-appropriate opportunities at other camps are ideas that can help spread the goodwill of camping for all. These between-camp supportive acts feed into the model's organizational elements of capital building, systems, and coherent intent of serving campers.

The Research Foundation

Using in-depth interviews, the researchers of the studies reviewed for this article investigated successful professional service firms to identify the elements of a collaboration ethic (Haskins, Liedtka, and Rosenblum, 1998). Researchers represented the person-centered attributes and organizational-level elements as two concentric circles supporting the core collaborative community. The simultaneous transfer of action and energy between and along the circles is analogous with the fusion concept of joining people to work together. The researchers use the example of thermonuclear reaction processes of fusion and fission to express their conceptualized model:

* These three professional service firms have succeeded where physicists have not. They have been able to move beyond the process of fission (splitting the organization into smaller components . . . to release energy) and into fusion (releasing energy by uniting the individual components into a newly integrated whole). (p. 38)

* By looking beyond the "controllable," the service firms were able to achieve a more sustainable energy source to fuel their work ethics leading to a collaborative community.

The Next Step

Viewing your programs and actions in terms of collaboration can help you deepen person-centered attributes and organizational-level elements. How do you communicate to the "non-camping" world that this ethic of collaboration is one of the ways camp gives kids and adults a world of good? With staff, can we describe these skills in the same way we describe responsibility and organization as we write references? Can we help staff better articulate in job interviews and resumes the value of the skills gained by working at summer camp? For parents trying to choose between the array of summer-activity options, would a year-long involvement with camp deepen their knowledge of mission and influence their decision to return to the same camp while also increasing their ability to share with other parents the value of the camp experience?

Annison and Wilford (1998) discuss the reasons for collaboration as being strengthened communities, policy and operations defined through the process of emerging alliances, and improved practice. They continue with the benefits of collaboration: learning and increased effectiveness. In camping, as in other fields, you can learn from yourself, from colleagues, and from those outside of the field. Research can help capture models and give us a common vocabulary for discussing ideas and concepts. In the case of collaboration, the cyclical model demonstrates how each element feeds upon each other, and the fusing of the elements creates that energy of joining and feeling a part of something important. As a camp professional, you are doing that. Share camp's value . . . spread the word . . . let the circles grow.

References

Annison, M.H. & Wilford, D.S. (1998). Trust Matters: New Directions in Health Care Leadership. Josey-Bass: San Francisco.

Haskins, M. E., Liedtka, J., & Rosenblum, J. (1998). Beyond teams: toward an ethic of collaboration. Organizational Dynamics, 34-50.

Gwynn Powell is currently a doctoral student in park, recreation, and tourism management at Clemson University in South Carolina. She has fourteen years of professional experience in camping. Please e-mail her at gwynnp@clemson.edu for further information regarding article content or to share research ideas.

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