Several dynamics interplay to make a successful collaboration.  Ian Broom, co-founder of Launch48 enjoys the buzz that is created at weekend events where entrepreneurs, designers, coders, and marketers form collaborative teams.  He is amazed however, at how teams often disregard the tried and tested methods that have yieled strong results in the past.

Many times, the obstacles to team cohesion are resolved naturally, and the true colours of the team surface as members gel to compliment one another.  And yes, sometimes it goes the other way and things don’t quite work out so pretty.  The key is to continue a dialogue with collaborators in real-time and acknowledge when something is working and when it is not, trying out new things, and perhaps most of all – letting go by identifying when it’s time to move on.  Few practice this better than Quincy Jones.

While producing Michael Jackson’s seminal Off The Wall album, Jones expertly harnessed and curbed Jackson’s unrelenting yelps, shamons and heeeeheeee’s.  If Jackson was the thick and spicy chili soup, piping hot, and bubbling over – Jones was the master chef in the kitchen keeping the lid on the pot, and ensuring the right mix of spices and cooking temperature for optimum flavour.

The outcome is arguably one of the slickest and most epic recordings of funk/disco/jazz – over 20 million copies sold and acceptance into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  But it was Jones who not only enlisted others including Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and Rod Temperton – but he also urged Jackson to go on to collaborate with others.  The wisdom that Jones imparted was that their were plenty of other masterchef’s on the market: Don’t Stop ’till You Get Enough.