Although collaboration is always an effective approach (as the saying goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together) in times of disruption like we are currently living through, collaboration can be not only an effective strategy, but a lifeline.
There were three workshops during Skoll Week in Oxford that I attended where the benefits and challenges of collaborations were discussed.
In a session focused on a re-imagined democracy participants shared some lessons learned from a collaboration of traditionally risk adverse funders:
- There can be safety in collaboration allowing participants to take risks they wouldn’t take on their own;
- Collaboration among those that have seen each other as competitors doesn’t come easy, but some early successes can demonstrate the value.
From a session on pathways to sustainability:
- Know your ‘know’ and ‘no’ – what is your expertise and where are your gaps?
- Be clear about who you are as an organization. What position do we occupy and what do we offer? What can’t or shouldn’t we do? How do we align with others?
And at a session that week that I co-facilitated we discussed some practical challenges to collaboration and shared some lessons learned:
- With disruption also comes opportunities for new collaborations;
- The importance of articulating the value of collaborating to key stakeholders;
- Expand your networks and where you look for partners;
- You may have some false tries before finding the right partners;
- Clarify expectations;
- Stick with your own organizational values even as they may be challenged;
- Put effort into ways to keep the collaboration together and maintain momentum;
- Not all support is financial – the knowledge exchange and transfer between collaborators has a value as well.
Participants in all these sessions emphasized that collaboration can be hard and efforts have to be intentional and sustained, but with effort and some risk the benefits can be great.
