Do Talk Do – What Collaboration Looks Like

Collaboration is one of those words that gets used a lot and practised very little.

Real collaboration has a shape. I call it Do-Talk-Do.

Do – start with action. Don’t wait for the perfect plan. Do something small. Build something. Ship something. Create a prototype. Get something real into the world.

Talk – then talk about what you did. Reflect. Share. Get feedback. Invite others into the conversation. Let them see what’s been done and respond.

Do – then act on what you learned. Do more, or do differently. The talking informs the next round of doing.

This is the opposite of Talk-Talk-Do, which is how most committees and organisations operate. They talk until they’ve talked themselves out of any action at all.

And it’s also the opposite of Do-Do-Do, where people act without reflection and never improve.

Do. Talk. Do. That’s what collaboration actually looks like.