1. Collaboration’s Essential Ingredient: Leadership
skills for creating ENDURING, Positive Community Change
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

2. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
About Me
Experience:
Philanthropic collaboration
Cross-sector collaborations
Civic leadership development
Strategic communications
Passions:
Enduring, Positive Change
Fly Fishing
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

3. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Today’s Workshop
Civic Systems & Organizations
Collaborative Civic Leadership
Skills Practice & Development
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

4. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
COMMUNITY
Public
Private
Non-Profit
Philanthropic
CIVIC
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

5. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Civic Priorities
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

6. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Civic Systems
Communities create organizations and institutions to address civic priorities. Together these independent players make up our civic systems.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

7. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
What systems have evolved to address the Valley’s civic priorities?
What system do you care enough about to commit to disrupting the status quo and improving outcomes?
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

8. Complex Civic Systems
Multiple, diverse stakeholders

9. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Name the Stakeholders
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

10. Complex Civic Systems Multiple, diverse stakeholders
Challenges are adaptive

11. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Technical & Adaptive
The single most common source of leadership failure is that people treat adaptive challenges like technical problems Heifetz & Linsky
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

12. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Technical
Adaptive
Solution is clear
Solution requires learning
Authority to solve
Engaged stakeholders needed
Optimize execution
Iterate and adapt
Examples
Build a stadium
Create a vibrant neighborhood
Job training program
Demand-driven talent system
Launch a venture fund
Catalyze entrepreneurship
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

13. System ID Exercise Name Your System Identify 3 Issues
Describe to Your Partner
Is the Issue a Technical Problem or an Adaptive Challenge?

14. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
What happens when we use technical solutions to solve adaptive problems?
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

15. Complex Civic Systems Multiple, diverse stakeholders
Challenges are adaptive
Absence of control

16. Complex Systems

17. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Complex Civic Systems
No one is in control of everything
Many are in charge of something
Progress depends on nearly everyone being engaged
In summary, you know you’re dealing with the complex when no one is in control of everything; lots of people are in charge of something and nearly everyone needs to be engaged to achieve our shared goals. There is a word for the last bullet point; it is “collaboration”
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

18. Cross- Sector Collaboration
Independent stakeholders from diverse sectors assume shared responsibility for achieving mutually beneficial, shared goals.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

19. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
An unnatural act among non-consenting adults.*
One of the many reasons why collaboration is indeed an unnatural act among non-consenting adults is that we are well trained in organizations, not systems. We bring organizational experience, skills and mindset to a systemic challenge.
*-Council on Competitiveness
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

20. Organizations & Systems
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

21. Organizations & Systems
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

22. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Organizations
Systems
Clear lines of authority
Diffuse influence
Explicit policies & procedures
Implicit rules of interaction
Set roles & responsibilities
Evolving roles & responsibilities
Defined goals & objectives
Emergent goals & objectives
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

23. Defining Collaborative Leadership*
An action many can take, not a position few can hold
Taking responsibility to work with others on shared goals
Practice of values that engage commitment from others
* -- Paul Schmitz, Leading Inside Out
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

24. Collaborative Leadership Skills
Practice Inquiry
Collaborative Leadership Skills
Assess Context
Build Trust
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

25. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Practice Inquiry
Collaborative leaders use inquiry to understand:
Priorities & Motivations
System Performance
Opportunities for Change
In organizational settings we expect leaders to advocate, but in collaborative environments leadership demands inquiry.
Inquiry is an explicit acknowledgement of the three most important words when working in complex systems “I don’t know.”
Inquiry is the skill of asking others how they see the world/system and then listening to them intently.
We use inquiry to better understand our assumptions and to challenge them.
Inquiry is an essential skill to exercise collaborative leadership. Inquiry is an approach to leadership that is about emergent ideas and ways vs. traditional top-down hierarchical “pull” of standard organizational leadership.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

26. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Compelling Questions
Inspire creativity
Improve decision-making
Create a learning opportunity
Direct focus
Engage others
Influence thinking
There are many elements to inquiry, but they all start with being able to ask compelling questions that surface the key issues that will either make collaboration possible or make it clear that the time isn’t right for collaboration.
Compelling questions aren’t just open ended questions. They are open-ended questions with a specific purpose. We can get better at asking compelling questions by practicing them.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

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Compelling Questions
Foundational
Aspirational
Compelling questions help us develop the foundation for a shared understanding about the system and the respective perspectives of the players in the system.
Foundational: Explore what we value, what we desire and what assumptions need to be abandoned
Aspirational: Explore what will be different, what we will learn and what is possible
Procedural: Explore what conditions need to be in place, what would we do differently, what is missing
They help us explore what we could do together and what we aspire to achieve.
And they help us understand what will be necessary for stakeholders to take the risk of entering into a collaboration.
Procedural
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

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Examples
Foundational: How should we determine the boundaries of the system we want to change? Aspirational: What change is possible if funders agreed on a common goal? Procedural: When should we consider inviting other potential funders to join us?
Help participants to practice asking compelling questions of each other and/or leaders with a track record of collaboration.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

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Practice Inquiry
Exercise: You are a grantmaker interested in catalyzing a new collaboration within your community and you know you need to win over other funders (philanthropic/public/private). You’ve scheduled a meeting with one such funder. You believe this funder is open to the idea, but skeptical. Craft one foundational, inspirational and procedural question that you think will help this other funder think differently about the prospect of supporting a collaboration to create change.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

30. Asking Compelling Questions
What compelling questions helped your current collaboration move forward?
What compelling question do you wish you would have asked sooner?
What compelling question do you need to ask next?
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

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Assess Context
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

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Draw Your System
Priorities
Functions
Organizations
Exercise: What are the priorities of the civic system?
What functions/actions/activities that need to be performed well to get the kind of outcomes we want in our communities?
What are the organizations/institutions/programs that perform those functions?
How are these related and connected to each other; what functions are inter-connected? What are the boundaries of the system?
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

33. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Systems Maps & Context
One key to assessing context is self-reflection on what is my role in the system. Where do I fit in the system. What do I do that contributes to the present outcomes. What could I do to alter those outcomes. Identify your organization on the map. Draw your connections to others. Where do you exercise the most influence. Where do you need to exercise the most influence. Are they the same?
A compelling question to ask about your map:
Does my map help me understand why, despite all of our good intentions, we are still unable to achieve the outcomes we want from the system?
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

34. What Does the Map Tell Us?
What assumptions are embedded in the map?
Where is the greatest opportunity for collaboration?
Where is the greatest need for collaboration?
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

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Assess Context
Climate
Chunkiness
Capacity
In addition to being able to understand what the system looks like – the map drawing exercise – leaders should also assess the climate for change.
Assess where there is greatest opportunity for leverage within the system to achieve early wins. But not QUICK FIXES.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

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Context & Inquiry
What compelling questions could we ask to:
Improve the climate for collaboration?
Identify the initial chunks of work?
Build support for collaboration capacity?
Reflect back on a collaboration you were apart of. What compelling questions were asked early on. Now in hindsight, which questions do you wish you asked. Share with a colleague.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

37. The Currency of Collaboration
We also use compelling questions to better understand what it will take for stakeholders to trust each other enough to enter into a collaboration. Collaborations by their nature are risky propositions. We are much more willing to take a risk with those we trust.
Trust is what makes collaboration possible. Collaborations move at the speed of trust.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

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Collaboration & Trust
Collaboration moves at the speed of trust.
Trust is built one-on-one first, then in groups.
Trust levels are variable.
Within complex systems power and authority are not nearly as relevant as is our ability to build trust so that we have more credibility and influence with other players in the system. Collaboration moves at the speed of trust – if there is low trust stakeholders spend valuable time checking up on each other. If there is high-degrees of trust stakeholders are willing to make more significant contributions to the collaboration effort; allowing the collaboration to go further, faster.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

39. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Build Trust
Trust builds slowly over time; like sedimentary rock, but erodes precipitously. Broken trust lasts forever; unless it is restored through leadership. To build trust, and restore broken trust, we need to understand the elements of trust.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

40. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
The Trust Equation
One effective way to view the elements of trust is through the Trust Equation.
If no one in the room has seen the Trust Equation before we spend a few minutes having them guess what the letters stand for. Once you give them C is for Credibility they usually get R is for reliability. No one gets I is for intimacy and then I just give them Self Orientation.
Source: Trusted Advisor
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

41. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Source: Trusted Advisor
Credibility: Relates to our words and is revealed in our credentials and our presence.
Reliability: Relates to our actions and is revealed by keeping our promises.
Intimacy: Relates to our emotions and is revealed by how comfortable others are working with us.
Self Orientation: Relates to our caring and is revealed in whether our focus is on ourselves or on the needs of others.
Exercise: Participants pair up and share with the other what is the one element of the equation that is most important to them when it comes to deciding whether or not they will trust someone. The partner then reflects back to the other how they might act to build trust. The point is to demonstrate that there are specific actions we can take to build trust with people.
If time permits, ask the group whether any of them value a different element the most when it comes to having others trust them. For example, do they look for credibility in others, but do they hope that others will value their high-degree of reliability or their self-orientation. Why might that be? This helps emphasize that all of the elements are important and how we view trust varies depending on whether we are trying to figure out whether to trust someone or if we are hoping others will trust us.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

42. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
Trust & Inquiry
What are the compelling questions we could ask to:
Understand the level of trust within the system?
Build trust with funders?
Build trust with others within the collaboration?
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

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Breakfast Session
You are meeting with a skeptical peer that you hope will become engaged in a collaboration you are excited about. What are a few compelling questions that you could ask that would help you figure out what it would take to build trust?
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

44. Leadership & Collaboration
Absence of control increases demand for leadership
Collaborative leadership requires specific skills
Collaborative civic leaders practice these skills
Emphasize that philanthropy is well positioned to provide this leadership.
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC

45. Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC
CONTACT
Chris Thompson Civic Collaboration
Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC