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Last month, I attended the first event of Liquid’s Future Led series on the future of the world and how it impacts us as an organisation. An hour of deep conversation was not enough for our first topic – capitalism crisis. The initiative itself is significant, however, because it underlies one of our attempts to prepare and stay ready for what lies ahead.

A good form is like a good recipe. Too little information, and the results are going to be half baked. Too much, and the cook’s going to be overwhelmed with all the steps, get frustrated, and put the turkey in the toaster. The trick is asking for just the right amount of information while presenting it as simply as possible.

In our recent work on the Australian Government’s My Aged Care website, a lot of thought went into how we could find this balance with the Apply online feature. Fourteen weeks, 12 prototypes, multiple hospital and call centre visits, and countless user testing sessions later, we found the winning recipe.

Without the right underlying values, you can’t collaborate

Whenever we talk about collaboration we tend to talk about quite specific actions:

• Let’s put all these people in one room!
• Let’s hold regular knowledge sharing!  
• Let’s put this information online so everyone can use it!
• Let’s create team incentives!

Another audience question from our Open Studio - Collaborating for success was in relation to business as usual during the pandemic. While it wasn't always smooth sailing, we managed to learn a lot about our ways of working -- what worked, what didn't and what could be enhanced with some adjustments. 

Q: “I'd love to get some insight into how you've navigated collaborating during a COVID (remote working) world. Do you have any go-to digital tools for this? Did you find that you can emulate the experience in the same way as collaboration with tangible tools and methods?”

Following on from our latest article “When do you start collaborating”, this next one answers another question asked during our Open Studio - Collaborating for success. 

Q: “How do you manage collaboration among disparate skill levels and work styles, both at individual and interdepartmental or inter-institutional levels?”

We recently hosted an Open Studio panel discussion about effective collaboration, and received a few audience questions on the topic which were both interesting and chunky. While the team touched on them in the conversation, we had a lot more to say so we've turned our answers into a series of blog posts - here's the first one.

The side-effects of COVID

COVID messed up the events industry, but Nadine and Lisa at Something Digital gambled on being able to do some kind of hybrid in-person/remote event, and I think that gamble paid off because the anti-plague format actually worked really well.  

Talk about timing. Just as we were discussing whether 2020 had changed the digital divide at the Something Digital Festival, the 2020 Australian Digital Inclusion Index was published.

Many of the themes it raised were echoed by the panel's own observations. We all agreed that the pandemic had accelerated digital take-up. But access, affordability and skills are still sadly holding us back.

Why is it that some teams are more collaborative than others?

It’s not something in the water. There’s no training course that instantly made them all great collaborators. So what’s the secret? Nailing the four essentials that make the right culture for collaboration to bloom.

It’s October and Spring has well and truly hit Brisbane. There’s a buzz of positivity at Liquid as we start to see the Brisbane studio come back to life where people are working together IRL!