My first assignment as an
instructional designer presented many challenges. As an instructional designer it is important
for me to be able to effectively collaborate with others in order to reach our
goals. The first two weeks I spent in
IDD I trained with a senior designer. I participated
in classroom training meetings and I did a considerable amount of research on
innovative ways to present content in the online learning environment. This was a build up for me to work with my
first developer.
Once I received my first
assignment I was very excited to work with my developer. I reached out to him and we got to know each
other a bit. We talked about our
expectations, goals, and commitment to completing this project together. As part of designing courses, part of my job
is making recommendations and suggestions.
I communicated changes to my developer and he refused them all. I didn’t give any push back because he was
the subject matter expert. I took his
feedback and continued building our course.
However, a pattern began to emerge.
Every recommendation and suggestion I made was met with resistance. I was uncertain how to move forward with this
developer because he was not interested in collaborating. It was his way or no way. I had to decide what to do. I felt strongly that some of the changes I had
requested were in the best interest of the course. DeGraff (n.d.) wrote “The benefits to joint
innovation efforts are plenty: the global scale of the initiative, the rapidity
of experimentation, the reservoirs of outside talent, the guaranteed wider
array of solutions.
But with each of these upsides
also comes a downside: the chaos of implementation, the disruptive power of
clients, the difficulty of serving solutions, the uncertainty of constantly
changing course” (para. 2-3). This
collaboration was coming unraveled and I had to determine how to proceed.
The first thing I did was involve
my senior designer. I had her look at
the suggestions I made for our developer and asked what her thoughts were on
each. I felt that she could offer some
suggestions to better communicate with this developer. I didn’t want to overstep and I didn’t want
to offend this person either. My senior
designer looked at the revisions I requested and felt they were valid. I shared the email chain between the
developer and myself with her. The
language in his responses were a bit harsh.
It didn’t leave any grey area for tone, he made his thoughts known
clearly about my suggestions.
My senior designer felt it was
best to involve our director. Our
director felt this situation warranted the attention of our senior director
(who is the highest level in our department).
Under his guidance he recommended that we let the College determine what
the next step was going to be. He
recommended that an academic review be requested for the content that was
completed so far. I was advised that another
of our team members was having the same experience with this individual. I requested a review of the course from the
Program Chair. A few days later she
returned her edits. A majority of the
recommendations I had made (and then some) were in her review. She directed the developer to make the
changes as she had outlined. The
developer flat out refused. The
Department Chair stepped in and the developer’s refusal to collaborate became
an HR issue. Strauss (2013) wrote “It is
important to note that research in other institutional settings has also shown
that high degrees of collaboration focused on responding to problems identified
by data produces improved outcomes, such as higher productivity and better
quality output” (para. 16). I involved
all levels of my team to help me with this issue. I made the decision in the best interest of
the work I was attempting to do. In my
quest to resolve this issue I collaborated with others in an effort to move the
course design along. Reaching out to the
various stakeholders did the following:
- It established that an issue was preventing the best possible product.
- It showed that I was not willing to compromise the content of the course I was designing.
- It showed me that I could rely on my team.
- It gave me different perspectives to approach this issue from.
- I was able to gain knowledge from different stakeholders that had shred similar experiences in their careers.
After HR conducted their
investigation, it was decided by the university to let the developer go. He had become increasingly hostile over the
last few months to a majority of his peers and it seems his unwillingness to
work collaboratively with myself and others became his undoing. I feel that I did a good job of involving my team
the way I was supposed to. Instead of
going directly to the Department Chair, I went to my superior and along the
ranks until the issue was resolved.
Three things I learned from this experience were:
- It’s better to keep others involved from the beginning rather than wait for a problem to occur. Now, when I start a new collaboration I advise the developer that all communication are done transparently and both my senior developer and director are going to be CC’d on all emails.
- Giving others the benefit of the doubt is conducive to collaborations however there is no certainty that others will behave in the manner they prescribe. I feel like I was fooled a little by my developer. Face to face he was cordial and polite. However, if you would have read his emails you would have thought differently. Relationships are crucial to collaborations but they definitely take time to establish.
- Trust your instincts. The developer’s refusal to work with me was a red flag but I wanted to believe he was going to live to his end of the bargain. I should have anticipated sooner that his reluctance to collaborate would have such a negative impact on our working relationship. It ultimately pushed back the production of the course.
DeGraff,
J. (n.d.). The Good, the Bad, and the Future of Creative Collaboration.
Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/jeff-degraff/collaborative-innovation-the-good-the-bad-and-the-future.html
Strauss,
V. (2013). Why collaboration is vital to creating effective schools. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/02/why-collaboration-is-vital-to-creating-effective-schools/
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