I’ve been back in Boulder nearly six weeks. All of those weeks have been full, absolutely brimming with the people I love to see and the activities I love to do. There has been light hiking, karaoke singing and tango dancing late into the night.

On the work front, I’ve learned more over this month and a half than I did in a semester of college. I’m learning a lot about productivity, and this is what I’m finding. The secret to productivity is not to work in isolation. The key is careful collaboration. Working with others that share similar work ethics allows you to find your flow more easily. None of us exists in a vacuum, so the more we practice collaborating with others, the better web and knowledge workers we become.

Last week I wrote two posts that went through a series of edits before they reached your eyes. The first, a guest post for NCWIT (National Center for Women in IT), received minor edits from someone within NCWIT. The tweaks made me sound wittier than I am, and therefore were very much appreciated. The second, a review of the New Tech Meetup, was a collaborative effort between myself and another prolific blogger, David Cohen (he once wrote around a hundred posts in a 72 hour period). David’s feedback helped shape the piece and was promptly incorporated.

This is what I’m discovering about feedback in collaborative situations. Feedback is best when it’s:

Instant
Honest
One-on-One

Instant means you let someone know (if you ask permission to do so, or if that permission is already implicit between you two) as soon as you notice they have made an error or omission, for instance.

Honest means it comes from the heart and, even if it’s tough love, it gets the point across. It helps if you can drop it immediately after mentioning it, too.

One-on-One means that, although group situations can increase productivity, I’m finding that folks take feedback a lot better in intimate situations.

Socialthing! is one startup that I’ve observed doing some careful collaborating. Ben Brightwell and Joel Longtine share sentiments about the value of Pair Programming (Kent Beck has more to say on this). According to Joel, “it’s good when it’s good, it’s bad when it isn’t” because it’s hard to get into a flow state with another person. But once you’re there, you can accomplish much more than you can in a solo programming environment.

The bottom line is we’ve entered a new era. The social web requires social interaction. Practice, my tap dance teacher Eddie frequently reminded me, makes better.

To get some practice, join us at a few tech events. There are a couple happening tonight, even.

Show your face. Introduce yourself. Putting yourself out there is the only way to get feedback from your peers. And feedback is how we grow. Come find a new tech workout partner.