42 Rules for Successful Collaboration (2nd Edition): A Practical Approach to Working with People, Processes and Technology by David Coleman

by David Coleman

In “42 Rules for Successful Collaboration (2nd Edition)” you will learn that whether you are a 5-person team or a 50,000 person company, some of the same rules for successful collaboration apply. The more you share what you know the more it is worth; understanding a person’s local context is more critical to successful collaboration than any technology you may use. Based on years of research, and encyclopedic knowledge of collaborative technologies, and a realization that collaboration is hard to do successfully, the author provides a holistic view on collaboration and through a variety of contributions from his social networks, others have contributed their best rules for collaboration based on their experience. The holistic approach (people, process, and technology) is the organizing principle for the book and each rule can be found in the appropriate section. Managers, CEOs, Venture Capitalists, or anyone that has to work with other people at a distance every day can get great benefit from this book.Readers of this management book by author David Coleman will walk away with a much better idea of how to be successful in their interactions with others via the computer. It will help people who are on teams separated geographically, as well as managers and executives. The book is filled with high-tech nuggets of wisdom for programmers and IT professionals, but it also has practical rules that apply to anyone who works with others…which is most of us.

Paperback

First published May 22, 2009

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 of 50: I picked up the book in part because it's a course requirement, but I did read it. The first section really deals with people and the rules of succesful collaboration. It was well written, clear, and persuasive. It will be helpful in any team dynamic. Section two is referring to process and policy of collaboration. Professionally the rules are logical. Make people your focal point and set collaboration as the expectation. The third section is more specific to technology. Great pointers that make sense in our current world. F2F meetings are no longer the norm, but technology can foster collaboration. Use it wisely! I'll be incorporating some of these tips into my work life as a leader.

[Apostolos · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I forgot to check off this book as read a few days ago. The book was OK, and it was a fairly fast book to read, not weighed down by disciplinary jargon. That said, some of the rules are quite helpful, whereas others don't really seem to fit in all that well. I see collaboration as about human-to-human connection, fundamentally that is. Some rules were quite helpful in exploring that fundamental aspect of collaboration, whereas others (like most of the rules in the 'technology' section) were pointless, awfully reductive, and lacking solid connections to those fundamental aspects of collaboration.