Productive collaboration requires more than just putting people in the same room. In my experience just getting people together hasn’t helped all that much. Done poorly, "normal" collaboration builds half-baked ideas, half-heartedly supported by some team members. When productive collaboration isn’t taking place, there is too much noise or too much quiet, too much argument or too little discussion. Too much time is invested for such poor results. 

Retired judge and Holland Rotarian Andrew Bissonnette told about cases over which he presided which had unexpected happenings.

 

A 16-year-old was charged with reckless homicide because he caused the death of his friend after driving into a power pole. Andrew presided over the hearing to determine whether the case would be tried in adult court. The mother of the boy who died described hell as never being able to hear her son's laughter again.

 

A man walked into the Waupon police station to report that he had just killed his wife. His wife was a paranoid/schizophrenic and they had moved to Waupon to be near her family so they could help care for her. Unfortunately, the family had a falling out and the husband lost his job because he had to spend so much time leaving work to help his wife. He was desperate because he knew that his wife would get even worse living in a homeless shelter. At the trial, the wife's sister, who didn't live nearby, testified on behalf of the husband saying that he truly loved his wife and thought he was doing his best to care for her.

 

During a child visitation case, the mother argued that she would not allow the father to take the son for visitation. She reasoned that the father lived in Milwaukee where there was too much crime and the father refused to follow the mother's directions on what foods were allowed for the son. She only allowed him to eat cheese pizza, white bread with the crusts trimmed, hot dogs, and macaroni and cheese.