Collaboration? Cooperation?

Crossfit competitions always have a way of opening my eyes to the human capacity around me. I competed in an "End of Summer Throwdown" this weekend with three of my fellow gymmates. I train alongside them all the time at our gym, but for whatever reason, the thought of competing with these three that I respect so much was freaking me out! I stressed out over being able to keep up with their pace during the workouts, lifting as much weight as they could or as I needed to so I could hold up my end of the partnership, wondering if I'd be able to stick with the strategy we'd developed together.....    And then it was "go time." As the first workout ended, I felt relieved. Did I put up as much weight as the others? No. But did they encourage me and correct my form while I lifted? YES. Were they ready for me to tag them in when I couldn't lift anymore? Absolutely.   Then the second workout...a sprint relay. We don't run that often at the gym, but we run enough to know each other's strengths so we plotted who would take each distance of the relay and hit the pavement. No biggie. Workouts 3 and 4 were lung busters!!! Too much jumping, lifting, throwing to name but what resonates with me the most is that each time I jumped off the pull-up bar, my teammate didn't miss a beat before getting up to knock out 20more reps. Or when my quads weren't going to let me squat, another teammate swooped in without hesitation.

How did they know!? How were our transitions so flawless?! How did we manage to support each other when we were all SO EXHAUSTED!?!?  I'll tell you how:

• We have spent time (pre-competition) getting to know one another's strengths and areas of weakness
• We never ONCE hesitated to say "This isn't my strongpoint, can you back me up?"
• We intentionally spent time before the workouts to talk about the process...the strategy... that would get us through each workout
• We took on the responsibility of picking each other up when we needed support 
• We celebrated together...during and after each workout. And left each workout developing a plan for any modifications to our previously mapped out strategy based on strengths shown in the moment. 

That's COLLABORATION, my friends!!!! We weren't just cooperating by moving through the work together then expecting each of us individually to figure out our own next steps.  But that didn't happen overnight. Years ago...we were cooperating...figuring each other out and how to best support one another. With a challenge in front of us though, that required all of our input to solve...we finally found ourselves collaborating. 

In your classrooms, do students sit together and learn alongside one another only to complete their own "pieces" of the project (cooperating)? or are they actively working together to create a solution to a problem (collaborating)?  What environment do you aspire for them to operate in?  How are you/have you supported them in cooperating with one another so they are able to have a culture strong enough to support their learning in service of a common mission?   ...which begs the question, how are you operating among your staff? Are you still working in isolation or are you at least cooperating by leaning into the learning? Perhaps you've already begun collaborating by thinking and learning with your colleagues in service of a common dilemma.   Here's a little visual from OnPointClassroom.com that might help you think through both:

Peace, love, and intentional teamwork,

Sarah