“Why is collaboration so damn tough?” asked Victor Hernandez in his wrap-up 50 Things We learned from the Collaboration Culture Symposium, a recent two-day gathering at Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.

The director of innovation at Banjo and RJI Fellow raised the provocative question near the end of his review of highlights, trends and developments presented by various speakers.  

He noted that mobile and audience engagement both are easily tracked through analytics. “We can measure success…traffic, engagement, reach, brand visibility… a lot there from a data standpoint."

How do you adequately measure collaboration? Hernandez said you may look at outcomes but that may not be the whole story if the meetings in so-called collaboration reach a goal in spite of meetings, not because of them. If 10 people in the project reach finish, does each person get 1/10th of the credit? How do you gauge that contribution?  He described it as a big moving ball that is not necessarily quantifiable.

Adding to all this is the fact that media companies and entrepreneurs are no longer in driver’s seat when it comes to creation, production and distribution. The audience is in the driver’s seat and that requires a collaborative approach that is not always easy or comfortable to navigate. "Change ain't easy," as Hernandez noted and we all know.