The Taste of Netflix

The collaborative project has taken me on an adventure that made me grow individually and as a team. To sum up, what makes the collaboration successful are mutual respect, inclusion, clarity, and sincerity.

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Looking back at the journey, it is surprising to find how the mode of collaboration has resonated with Kaats and Opheiji (2014)'s framework of 5 essential characteristics of cooperation, namely: a high degree of interdependence, an obscure center of power (the group didn't have an official 'leader' that dominate, instead, we worked in a flat structure that welcomes contribution from anyone and allows members to pick up any task they like freely), the need to define a new reality (we endeavored to identify the context of the brief), heterogeneity (team members from different cultural and professional backgrounds) and a context in constant flux (we have been redefining our aim and focus constantly depending on new findings and insights each week).

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Apart from fulfilling the necessary conditions for collaboration, the team had been actively creating a friendly environment that is conducive to collaboration, such as being open-minded and respecting each other opinions or inputs, as demonstrated in our brainstorming processes and showing sincerity in building trust and developing a collaborative relationship by being mindful of each other's interests and welfare. Most importantly, we have established a clear shared vision of the project's ultimate aim that keeps us motivated against all the challenges, ambiguity, and conflicts. Although we will have to work with different people on other occasions that may not have the exact synergy as this team, this takeaway will always be a key to effective collaboration.