Global Social Enterprise Forum Panel Presentation: Effective Collaboration September 14, 2006

2 “All men (and women) seek one goal: success or happiness. The only way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society. First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal – a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends – wisdom, money, materials and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. - Aristotle

3 What is Collaboration? A mutually beneficial well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve common goals. Collaboration is the process of various individuals, groups, or systems working together but at a significantly higher degree than through coordination or cooperation. Collaboration typically involves joint planning, shared resources, and joint resource management Partnership approach that relies on an open exchange of information. It is dependent on mutual respect, and is aimed at supporting service users to gain some control in decision making. Literally: "to labor together" A process in which two or more entities work together to achieve their independent and collective interests through a joint problem solving process.... nativenetwork.ecr.gov/ nativenetwork.ecr.gov/ The process by which people/organizations work together to accomplish a common mission. wind.uwyo.edu/sig/definition.asp wind.uwyo.edu/sig/definition.asp

4 Why Collaborations Fail Lack of agreement/understanding of outcomes/goals Unclear roles/performance expectations Uneven sense of participation; “free rider” syndrome Uneven sense of benefit Colliding motivations Benefits fail to match expectations Bad Politics Power struggles; poorly defined decision making responsibilities Cultural tension/disconnect In effective leadership relationship building Ineffective communication No effective exit strategy Other?

5 Making Collaborations Work Be highly selective in who you work with; do your partner due diligence Build a win-win mindset from the outset Create a common definition of success with key performance indicators to track success Know and communicate your non-negotiables Be transparent with critical information Be clear up from about the rules of engagement Leverage complementary and supplementary core competencies; build your Value Chain Actively build peer relationships; find opportunities to grow partnership mindset Learn how to speak each other’s language Celebrate successes! Have and execute an exit strategy

6 Key Collaboration Questions What are the expected outcomes? How will each party achieve its success objective? Who does what? Why? What are the barriers to/enablers of our success? How do we hold each other accountable for results? What is the communication strategy (internal and external)? What is the decision making process? Who owns what? What is the exit strategy? Other?

Ed Robinson President & Founder Capacity Building Solutions Inc. 301/