Free online course

Structured Collaboration Foundations

Take one interface in your own work, from a handoff that costs you time to a Structured Collaboration Canvas^™ that fixes it.

Six modules, about 4¼ hours in all. For team leaders, managers and senior leaders. Free for now, and open to everyone: no account needed. A free account keeps your notes and progress on every device.

Start Module 1

What you will be able to do

Explain why work breaks at the interfaces between people, teams and functions, and why that calls for updated management structure rather than less of it.
Place an interface on the Continuum of Specificity and judge whether it is over- or under-specified.
Describe the six stages of the Continuum of Collaboration as habits, and tell C5 from C6 by evidence rather than belief.
Write an operational definition, and read a heavy meeting load as a sign that one is missing.
Choose the structure an interface needs, record it on the Structured Collaboration Canvas^™, and stop there rather than pushing everything towards C6.

Your progress and notes

Mark each lesson complete as you finish it. Your progress, check scores and notes are kept in one place, on your device and in your account when you are signed in.

Open My course notes

Modules

Module 1Why collaboration needs structureMost lost effort in knowledge work sits at the interfaces between people and teams. The answer is to update management structure for how people work now, not to abandon it.Four lessons · about 30 minutes Module 2The Continuum of SpecificityWhen to be precise about the words people use across an interface, and when general language is enough.About 25 minutes Module 3The Continuum of Collaboration, C1 to C6The six stages of the Continuum of Collaboration as habits, how to read the mix across an organisation, and how to tell C5 from C6 by evidence rather than belief.About 50 minutes Module 4Operational definitionsHow to write a definition two reasonable people would apply the same way, how to agree it across an interface, and why a heavy meeting load is often a sign that one is missing.About 35 minutes Module 5Structured collaboration artefacts and the canvasWhat the Structured Collaboration Canvas^™ records, how it sits beside a process map, and a practice exercise on Harbourline’s canvases.About 55 minutes Module 6Matching structure to your own interfaceChoose one interface in your own work, give it the structure it needs on a canvas, and plan the conversation with the other side.About 70 minutes

How the course works

One organisation throughout

Every lesson uses Harbourline Services, a fictional IT company of 250 people in Cork, Kraków, Pune and Hartford. You follow its handoffs, then apply the same ideas to your own work.

Two versions where it matters

Some lessons come in two versions, one for team leaders and managers and one for senior leaders. Each is marked, and you only need the one that fits your role.

Try it, check it, note it

Short exercises and checks let you test your understanding as you go, and reflection prompts ask you to note what you see in your own work.

The companion course, Business Execution Canvas^® Foundations, shows how the whole organisation is designed to execute, from the six foundations to the five pillars. Nine lessons, free for now with the same account.

This is the open version of the course. Your notes, progress and check scores are saved on this device, and in your account when you are signed in.