We’re good at gathering, in person and now virtually, and sometimes we’re even good at following up, but the ties that are needed to connect and nurture various efforts over the time they may need to come to fruition are often weak.  What skills, models and infrastructure do we need to strengthen our on-going ‘connective tissue’ that will better enable us to strengthen our collective impact?

I came from some great conversations during Skoll Week in Oxford early this year thinking that there needed to be more attention to the ‘in between’ of in person gatherings and discussions. I thus organized and co-facilitated a session in NYC during UN Week in September 2026 on this topic.

Some key questions we set out to discuss

  • How do we turn promising conversations into sustained collaboration?
  • How do we keep momentum for collaboration in between the in-person gatherings?
  • What helps a collaboration remain useful when the initial energy fades?
  • What can we do without more external funding?
  • How can we impact eco-system thinking – making a significant difference in how things are done?
  • Where might tension arise that we should be aware of and manage?

During the discussion, although we tried not to dwell on the challenges, we did highlight some:

  • It’s not always clear that we all mean the same thing when we say ‘collaboration’. We need to be clear about why are we collaborating.
  • There are so many factors that encourage competition. How do we limit competition among the collaborators in the competitive environment in which we operate (more elbows down and less elbows out)?
  • We are usually ‘transactional’ – ‘we need this’; we need to change the paradigm so that we are relational and make the time for building relationships.
  • It’s hard to take off our organizational hats long enough to actually meet each other at what we can do collectively as opposed to what we feel we need to do to sustain our own organizations.

We shared some ‘works well’ that we have learned

  • Focusing on a small number of things we could do together helped us to keep momentum and not get overwhelmed by all that we would like to do. “Let’s just agree to start doing X together”.
  • Sharing values is extremely important, and periodically re-anchoring in the common purpose.
  • Think intentionally (and cross-sectoral) about collaboration – who should we be having a conversation with? We questioned our assumptions and tried not to automatically assume that a group wouldn’t be a good partner.
  • Individual trust leads to organizational collaboration.
  • It’s okay that collaborations evolve over time – acknowledge the shift and where it’s going. Individual members exiting is okay as is a full winddown if that is where you are and momentum can no longer be sustained.
  • Recognize that people/organizations can play different roles – not all need to be as active; other actions to support the group’s purpose and goals can be equally helpful.
  • An exploratory network beginning to collaborate example that was shared. The group agreed to: (1) Develop a coherent voice and amplify each other; (2) Share what meetings they plan to be at so they could have small in-person meet-ups; (3) Share information (4) Analyze what is working and what isn’t about the collaboration and discuss what to do when conflict comes up.

More from the Civil Society and Testing Change project  (2013-2024) that some of these lessons came from.

And then we brainstormed some new ideas:

  • Underscoring what we share, and our humanity (especially in an increasingly digital/AI world) can help with building trust.
  • Tap those who are skilled at listening for ‘good alignment’ signals when looking for potential partners.
  • The first step should be creating community and then agreeing on ways to hold each other accountable. When you have those committed to each other and the group’s purpose, the accountability will be more durable.
  • What are each partners strengths and weaknesses? Articulate what we bring to a collaboration as well as weaknesses.
  • Develop guidelines about how to compete when partners may need to (as noted above in challenges, we do exist in a competitive ecosystem) so that it strengthens trust and transparency.
  • Consider having different goals for different stages of the collaboration (for example initial, then fundamental/on-going).
  • Acknowledge what you will do together; and what you won’t. A helpful metaphor: Climbing a mountain.  You all want to get to the top together, but you may take different paths and go at different speeds.
  • Look at what we can realistically share to build trust such as some back office operations or knowledge gained from webinars, attending conferences, or feedback from donors. Another example was sharing information about feedback from funders so we all have more equal opportunities.
  • Make the value of relationship building more explicit. “This stuff matters.”  What is the language/messages to use to raise its value and gain more support?  If we can make collaboration a higher priority/value in our own organizations, it would allow us to dedicate more time with fewer external resources.
  • Part of aligning expectations is meeting people where they are and modifying our own expectations and assumptions of what needs to happen.
  • There are different roles that can be played. Not everyone needs to participate in the same way.  We need those who ‘think out loud’ together as well as ‘quiet allies’.  Don’t expect the same energy from everyone.
  • Create a comfortable, fun environment so people enjoy working together.

Some key take-aways

  • If you are thinking about collaborating going forward, be clear in what you want to collaborate for – align expectations with potential partners.
  • Build relationships before moving quickly to collaboration.
  • Focus on just one or two things you can start doing together.
  • Cooperation (eg sharing information) can be a useful precursor to collaboration (on a project) which can be harder.
  • Have some regular initial meetings to establish the practice of working together (these can be virtual and/or in-person).
  • Have someone or a core group who will keep the group on track.
  • It should be enjoyable and fun so people will want to stay engaged.
  • Recognize when it may be time to wind down.

Follow-up from the session

So what’s the next step in continuing to build on these conversations and ideas?  Here are some that we are exploring:

  1. Virtual ‘World Café’ – this variation of the World Café method would have a few of the people who were at one session take the information that had been shared to a new session (wherever it may be – in person or virtually) so it can be built on.
  2. Identifying some exploratory collaborative efforts and learn together.
  3. Conversations on social media around topics such as different concepts/types of collaboration.
  4. A google doc or website so learnings can be more accessible to others

Stay tuned so we can continue to learn together!