1. Collaboration 101 Faster Alone, Farther Together
Some things That Nonprofit Organizations Interested in Collaboration Might Find Helpful
Alberta Association of Services for Children and Families
Edmonton, February 18, 2010
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

2. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Helping citizens work and learn together across sectors to build caring, prosperous and healthy communities.
For more information on Tamarack, see our website at
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

3. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Today
Introduce concepts and lenses that will create ‘shared’ language for participants.
Share patterns and themes that may ‘reduce your learning curve’ for participants.
Answer questions you might have.
“You don't see something until you have the right metaphor to let you perceive it.” Thomas Kuhn
“Believing is seeing.” Karl Weick
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

4. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
When colleagues in a neighborhood childcare center were looking for some space to create an after-school program, they felt they had a pretty good chance of finding it in a neighborhood with so many beautiful facilities. Yet, when the group approached the institutions managing these facilities, it turned out to far more difficult they had imagined. Why? At least two reasons:
The institutions were highly specialized – church groups wanted their facilities to be used for faith-based activities, schools wanted the facilities to be used for education work, recreation groups wanted to focus on recreation.
The rules, regulations and institutional processes that determined how these facilities were used were cumbersome, slow moving and limiting.
The people managing these facilities were from ‘outside’ the community and/or accountable to people or processes from ‘outside’ -- very few members of the churches were from the neighborhood, the schools followed rules established by school boards, recreation facilities were managed from city departments – and made them less trusting and flexible than they might otherwise be.
While the group reported progress with some of the institutions, they ultimately gave up – exhausted by the extra ordinary effort required to access them.
A very small community with over one hundred million dollars in facilities had trouble accessing those facilities: the challenge was not a lack of resources, but rather how those resources were managed.
Is this possibly a small example of the general challenge we have lately of trying to build what seems at time communities not as healthy as they could be?
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

5. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Definition
Collabra (Latin) – to strive or labor together.
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

6. The Working Together Continuum
Looser
Tighter
Compete
Co-exist
Consult
Cooperate
Coordinate
Collaborate
Merge
Purpose
Members
Structure & Process
Communicate
Resources
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Environment

7. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
The Simple Case
Silos: Fractured responses lead to fractured solutions lead to fractured outcomes.
Collaboration: operate on the premise that ‘joined up problems’ require ‘joined up solutions’
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

8. Phases of Collaboration
Maturity
Phase
Mobilization
Phase
Exploitation
Phase
Creative Destruction
Source:
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

9. From Lifecycle to Cecile in Collaborative Efforts
The Performance Loop
The Renewal Loop
Source:
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

10. Entrepreneurial Leadership Charismatic Leadership
Creative Leadership
Strategic Management
Exploration
Phase
Maturity
Phase
Development
Phase
Creative Destruction/
Initiation Phase
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Charismatic Leadership
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

11. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Exploration
Development
Maturity
Creative Destruction/
Initiation
PURPOSE
To expand the number of innovative ideas in a way that improves the conditions for their successful development.
To develop a pattern of working together that turns promising ideas into effective strategies.
To conserve a pattern of working together on proven ideas in an efficient way.
To dismantle pattern of working together on non longer productive ideas to clear the way for new vision, relationships and directions to emerge.
LEADERSHIP STYLE & GROUP CULTURE
Creative, inclusive and mission-driven.
Entrepreneurial, adaptive and outcome driven.
Management, risk-sensitive and productivity oriented.
Charismatic, visionary and values-based.
MEMBERS
Large, diverse, often unusual mix of participants, with stable core group.
Smaller number & variety of members focused on particular areas of work.
Few, highly specialized, regularly participating members.
Smaller number of core members, relational.
STRUCTURE & PROCESS
Informal, time limited, overlapping, loose task groups and teams. Multiple layers of participation.
Tasks, roles and relationships become explicit. Patterns emerge for process and structure.
Hierarchical structure, standardization, institutionalized roles and procedures.
Informal, loosely connected, flat, eclectic and sporadic connections.
ACTIVITIES & PRODUCTS
Community conversations. Idea generation. Best practice research. Experiments. Simulations. Planning. Developmental Evaluation.
Pilot projects & prototypes. Adaptive planning. Begins with formative evaluation ends with summative evaluation.
Preparing, monitoring and adjusting detailed work plans. Performance measurement.
Reflective learning. Scanning of trends. Relationship building with key stakeholders.
Visioning.
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12. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Creative Leadership
Strategic Management
Chronic Disaster
Trap
Exploration
Phase
Maturity
Phase
Rigidity
Trap
Scarcity
Trap
Development
Phase
Creative Destruction/
Initiation
Parasitic
Trap
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Charismatic Leadership

13. Four Transitional Traps
Transitional Traps in Collaborative Efforts
Traps
Description
Typical Challenges
SCARCITY
The group struggles to ‘birth’ something likely to lead to outcomes and garners the support of the larger community.
The ideas are not compelling. Underdeveloped decision-making process & criteria. Members disagree on which options to pursue. Members have insufficient credibility. Energy spread too thin across many directions.
PARASITIC
The group seem unable to sustain or grow their work because it is ‘parasitic’ on the host's) that gave it birth.
Over reliance on key – often founding – members of the group. Dependence on start-up pool of resources. Approach works well only at a certain scale or in unique context.
RIGIDITY
The group is unable or unwilling to change or dismantle an approach that no longer fits the evolving context in which they operate.
Psyche of immediate return. Fear of uncertainty. Self-Interest. Lack of clear exit rules. Concern about perception of failure. Pressure to continue by entrenched constituency (e.g. ‘too big to fail’).
CHRONIC DISASTER
The participants find themselves ‘spinning’ and unable to get traction on a compelling new vision and set of values for moving forward.
Inability to let go of the past. Weak trust amongst members. Difficulty in agreeing on shared vision and values. Volatile environment.
Four Transitional Traps
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

14. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Exercise
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

15. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
In which areas of the ‘eco-cycle’ do you feel most comfortable and energized? Least comfortable and energized?
Describe a project or activity that illustrates each answer.
Preferences!
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

16. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Eight Big Ideas
Form Versus Essence: the essence of working collaboratively is not the same as the form or manifestation of that essence at any point in time.
The Importance of Entire Eco-Cycle: the performance and renewal phases are important to the overall health of the collaborative effort.
Resilient – Versus Sustainable – Collaborative Efforts: the importance of continually adapting – rather than sustaining – the manifestation of the collaboration to reflect the demands of different phases and internal and external changes.
Robust Collaborative: not all collaborative efforts are robust enough to make it through the entire eco-cycle. The challenge is to improve the probabilities of their evolution, but to ‘let go’ when necessary in order to release energy for new manifestations.
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

17. Seven Big Ideas continued
Situational Leadership: the need to use leadership styles and culture that ‘fit’ the unique phase or area of work.
Patch Dynamics: collaborative efforts are more resilient when they are partly operating in all four phases or area of the eco-cycle.
Enabling Environment: the opportunity to strengthen the policy and investment environment to appropriately support all four phases of the eco-cycle.
Collaboration if necessary – but necessarily collaboration: sometimes co-existence and competition is more productive than collaboration.
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

18. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Reflection
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

19. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Think (5 minutes, alone)
What ‘aha’s’ did you have today?
What new questions emerge?
What's one thing that you think you might do differently in your work?
Pair & Share (10 minutes)
Find a colleague and take a few minutes to share your responses with them.
Think, Pair, Share
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

20. Collaboration Resources
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement

21. Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement
Eco-Cycle Lenses
Brenda Zimmerman. From Lifecycle to Cecile
Crisis & Renewal.
David Hurst
The Upside of Down.
Thomas Homer-Dixon
Getting to Maybe.
Frances Wesley
Brenda Zimmerman
Michael Quinn Patton
Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement