mechanisms of collaboration and engagement

04/18/23 1 Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa

Collaborative Co-Governance: Collaborative Co-Governance: A checklist approach to A checklist approach to

collaborationcollaborationPresentation & Panel discussionPresentation & Panel discussion

to the to the 64th Annual Conference of IPAC, 64th Annual Conference of IPAC, ““Navigating Uncharted Waters: Embracing the Tides of Change,Navigating Uncharted Waters: Embracing the Tides of Change,””

St. John’s, NFLD, August 19 – 22, 2012St. John’s, NFLD, August 19 – 22, 2012..


Top Ten Tips

1. Don’t depend on agreements but on people & a collaborative process of inquiry

2. When no one is in charge, leadership is usually the problem3. Expect failure. Prepare for it and be saved by it.4. The problem doesn’t lie in changing someone else’s behaviour

but in creating shared ownership & changing our own 5. Answers are not more important than questions. Answers get in

the way. Experts don’t listen. Action is not better than dialogue. 6. The vitality of any partnership depends on its diversity and the

integrating conversations that go on among its members7. The assumption that ‘government knows best’ is false 8. We don’t need more rules, stricter accountability & harsher

punishments. We need accountability to be accepted & mistakes to be learned from

9. We can not compel people to voluntarily collaborate10. Collaboration is not too hard or too difficult. It’s just that we don’t

understand how to do it. Mostly we indulge in fantasies


Cooperation Continuum

• The degree of cooperation we choose, should align with the issue complexity and level of our inter-dependence – As complexity & interdependence change, the form of

cooperation should also change• The form of cooperation should be chosen to help

mitigate the tendency towards rational self interest & being caught in “social traps”

Competition Coordination Cooperation Collaboration Partnership

▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲

Increasing interdependence & interaction


Does your experience of collaboration sound like this?

1. You and your partners clearly share a common purpose

2. Your meetings are focused on collective learning, understanding the issue, and prioritizing your options -- not on making decisions

3. You look forward to your meetings because you are excited by them, they are both creative and productive

4. When you meet together, there are moments of collective transcendence when things just ‘click’ and you all experience new degrees of clarity, energy and enthusiasm

5. You work effortlessly by consensus

6. Your work saves both time & money & creates new resources

7. Your work produces more comprehensive & innovative outcomes

8. Your work produces better quality outcomes

9. Your work ensures stronger support during implementation

10. It is likely the collaboration will lead to life-long friendships


Or is it more like this?1. We were forced into it2. Collaboration was an act of desperation

– “Collaboration is an unnatural act between non-consenting adults.”3. People keep asking “why are we all here?” 4. You’re tired of repeating yourself; having your partners complain

they don’t understand you; & that you don’t understand them 5. You feel that you only have a ‘token’ presence 6. “We all say we want to collaborate, but what we really mean is that

we want to keep doing things the same while others adapt to what we’re doing”

7. You spend most of your time trying to make decisions w/o really understanding what’s going on

8. Partners frequently don’t show up at meetings and then they complain that decisions were made without them.

9. The commitment of your partners disappears right when it’s time to get down to the real work

10.Nothing seems to have been accomplished by all of this. The sooner we’re finished with this experience the better


If not the former, why not?


Top Ten Practice Barriers1. Unclear purpose

Online this may mean an unclear prototype / possibility

2. Unable to continually demonstrate value for effort3. Lack of champion (s)

There is there no one responsible for building trust & moving info around

4. Unwillingness to invest in relationships not paying enough attention to people or incentivizing their participation

5. Unable to listen to each other How do people know they have been heard?

6. Spending too much time on decision making And not enough on learning

7. Inappropriate decision making processes Use of coercion, selling, voting, rushing to action instead of consensus. No failsafe mechanisms

8. People fail to treat partners as partners9. People are too trusting of contracts 10. Your (their) organization does not fully support the decisions

of the partnership.


We Don’t Understand How to Collaborate

• We use incorrect assumptions• We lack the appropriate skills• We suffer from a Collective Learning Disability

• To collaborate better we need:– A new organizational paradigm– To make use of heuristics– To collect a ‘tool box’ of affordances– To apply an inquiring system of collaborative

governance


Top Ten Incorrect Assumptions1. Collaboration will be spontaneous

– we won’t fail so we don’t pay attention to reasons for failure– we have faith that a well written contract will protect us

2. We need to avoid conflict3. Better leaders are needed to make better choices4. The challenge is in changing the behaviour of others5. We believe we have all the knowledge needed

– answers are more important than questions– if we can solve the problems of the past we can predict the future

6. We are not all equal (in particular, government is special)7. Good leaders make good collaborators8. Action is the key to success9. Collaborative relationships come at a high cost

– although less than the cost of implementing w/o consensus

10.Experience is transportable. Each case is unique.


Collaboration Skills• Socialization practices

– Pre-collaboration, getting to possibility, shared purpose, trust building• Design practices

– Structuring the process w/o structuring the outcome• Engagement practices

– Empowerment, personalizing, building ownership & commitment• Trust practices

– Building confidence in each other, re-affirming trust & moral contracting• Governance practices

– Purpose, principles, people, concepts, structure & processes– Working to consensus & multiple accountability

• Operational practices– Appropriate & fair sharing of risks, rewards & workloads

• Information practices– Satisfying learning, contingent cooperation & multiple accountabilities

• Learning practices– Developing an inquiring system– Developing common language & knowledge– Prototyping, experiential learning, connoisseurship,


Our Collective Learning Disability

• 3 Handicaps a) a tendency to wallow in oversimplified stylizations of

complex systems

b) the reluctance to abandon worn-out conventional management practices

c) the tendency to slip into fanciful thinking when it comes to how successful collaboration will ultimately materialize.


Does the situation

need changing?

What is the problem?

How can wework

together?

How do we learn together &

evaluate our progress?

Info GatheringRelationships

TrustLearning

DoingFeedback

Investigative

Observational

Relationship Design

Learning While Doing

An Inquiring System for Collaboration


A Collaborative ChecklistDoes the situation need changing?

What is the problem? How will you work together?

How will you learn together & evaluate your progress?

1. Are there any detectable anomalies?

2. What are the salient features of the issue domain?

6. What is the task at hand?

7. What are the non-negotiable constraints within the community or society?

STRUCTURAL DESIGN

10. What practices of collaboration and social learning can you use to produce short term success & long term commitment?

12. What feedback & informational loops do you need to enable social learning?

13. What processes of formal and informal collective learning do you have in place?

3. What are the causal mechanisms at play?

8. Who are the stakeholders that must be included and how will you involve them?

CULTURE OF COLLABORATION

11. What are the conventions & moral contracts required to maintain a culture of collaboration?

14. How will you gauge ongoing performance and partner contributions objectively?

15. How will you gauge changes in attitudes & behaviours among partners?

4. Can this be resolved by a single actor?

5. Who are the key stakeholders?

9. What are the risks and potential rewards among the various partners, and how will these be aligned?

16. How will you resolve conflicts?

17. What failsafe / safe-fail mechanisms are in place?

18. At what point would you dissolve the collaboration?


Blind Men & the Elephant


Thank you

Christopher [email protected]

Tel: 613-355-6505

mailto:[email protected]


Appendix – Creating a Collaborative Toolbox

• Does the situation need changing?• What is the problem?• How will you work together?• How will you learn together & evaluate your

progress?• Helpful Definitions• List of heuristics

Effective collaboration is all

about creating opportunities for

effective co-learning


Does the situation need changing?• Generosity

– Demonstrate your cooperativeness by sharing what you know/have.• Shopping the idea

– exploring vs deciding• Scenario exercises – “what if…”

– Change assumptions & where does that lead you?• Stakeholder mapping

– Value networks of tangible and intangible exchanges• The invitation conversation

– Invite them to explore an alternative future– no prior commitment– Not just invitation to talk but may lead to joint work & shared

contributions– Allow them to say “no”

• Set the agenda for your 1st on- or off-line meeting together • Recognize what each participant brings to the table

– Potential gifts & assets of organization and/ or person– Identify everyone’s cost of participation– Each person’s contribution to the problem– Tabling ‘your story’

If you’re not part of the problem, how can you be

part of the solution?

http://www.designedlearning.com/sixconver.htm


What is the Issue?• The possibility conversation

– What is the future you would like to bring into reality?• Use discussion papers, online mock-ups, “photo shopped” pictures• What new value will be created for everyone? • What issues, problems, harms must be avoided & what can be mitigated?

• Business planning– What milestones need to be achieved?– What are the assumptions you are working with & how will you tell if they are right?– Define the ‘pains & gains’ for each partner– Who is best positioned to deal with what risk?

• Which stakeholders do you include in the process?– Those who will contribute; those who can block; those affected by your decisions; & those with

relevant knowledge– How will you mobilize their support?

• Always invite them– Circles of involvement

• Let them choose when and how they want to participate

• The commitment conversation – What are the promises am I willing to make to this enterprise? – What is the price I am willing to pay for the success of the whole effort?

• Reject lip service

• Contracting & MOUs– Define the tangible & intangible risks / benefits for everyone?– Treat as learning opportunity to discover your partners

Task ForceCorePeriodic

Meetings & Consultations

Public & Media


How will you work together?• Structural design

– How will you be together?• Changing how you are together today, changes the future you want

to share– Build stewardship over leadership

• how can I help?– Work by consensus

• Agreement by most, acquiescence by the rest • Avoid voting & arbitrary decision making except as failsafe

– Use empowered and devolved decision making– Structure more time for learning than deciding

• Questions vs answers• Have 50-70% of time dedicated to learning

– 360o accountability• Formal accountability, mutual accountability & imposed

accountability (media, public)– Formalize how collaborative decisions are transferred to home

organizations

Working together takes attention


How will you work together?• Culture of Cooperation

– Use brokers / trusted mavens & connectors– Use more endogenous (value laden) feedback as interdependence

increases• Informal meetings, face-to-face, coffee, meals, networking

– Practices of generosity • Don’t take exclusive ownership, you’re not in charge• There is profit from having a reputation of generosity

– Monitoring• Coordinator, staff exchanges, co-location, reporting, networking, forums

– Application of sanctions• Willingness to confront & deal with deception and misinformation • Define the penalties of non-cooperation

– Define & use failsafes • What are the unacceptable conditions if collaboration fails• Who makes the decision if the group can not?• Establish conflict resolution method upfront, contract conditions

– Have you created safe-fail spaces?– Celebrations

• Define & publicly celebrate milestones


How will you learn together?• Contracting & MOUs seen primarily as tools for mutual

understanding not for forcing compliance• Build common knowledge resources, shared language• Use action as a tool for co-learning

– Don’t rush to action– Baby steps to build confidence & mutual understanding – Set up feedback mechanisms to monitor progress

• Bricolage – Trial & error (heuristic problem solving)– Action, assessment, evaluation & adjustment– Double loop learning

• How does implementation change your business model?• Build in necessary staff training

– Training in collaboration skills, practices and mechanisms– Change management & technical training

• Prior distribution of materials & documents w/ appropriate lead times before meetings– Make meetings mostly about learning


How will you evaluate your progress?• Contracting & MOUs

– Vehicles for goal setting, targets and baseline data• Adopt a developmental evaluation approach

– Learning as you go• Establish agreeable metrics

– Metrics for trust– Metrics for learning– Metrics for results– Re-visit regularly the efficacy of the metrics you use

• Establish coordinator / champions– Use as channels for moving both codifiable & tacit knowledge

• Coffee, meals, networking– Informal info exchanges often have the biggest payoff

• Electronic info exchanges, wikis– Ensure ownership remains with partners & not any one group

• Regular reporting– Use champions to circulate


Helpful Definitions• Consultation

– Process of obtaining input from the public (usually 1-way) on matters that affect them. In state of disrepute: those consulting pretend to listen & those consulted pretend that their input matters

• Cooperation– individuals or organizations support each other in a common interest, instead of

working separately or in competition. Informal & often commitment-lite• Collaboration

– individuals and/or organizations work together towards some defined common goal. Collaboration is usually to accomplish together what could not be done independently — cooperating in decision making, resource sharing and action. Some joint governance (steering committee) and agreement (MOU) implied

• Partnership– a collaborative entity in which participating ‘partners’ formally and legally agree to

share risks, costs, benefits and decision making with each other. Joint governance is required & that is usually spread throughout the organizations

• Networking– the various practices involving interacting, exchanging and building relationships

among people including formal and informal meetings; social media; professional exchanges, etc..No commitments implied.

• Social traps– Where people engaged in cooperation act ‘rationally’ to obtain short-term

individual gains (free-rider), which in the long run lead to a loss of value for them & the group as a whole – everyone loses

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_traps


Heuristic Strategies• Meta-heuristics

– Change / Vary; Cycle / Repeat• Master Heuristics

– Build up / Eliminate– Work forwards / Work backwards

• Strategies for Set Manipulation– Associate / Classify– Generalize / Exemplify– Compare / Relate

• Strategies for Involvement– Commit / Defer; Leap in / Hold back; Focus /

Release; Force / Relax ; Dream / Imagine; Purge / Incubate

Source: How to Make Collaboration Work, David Straus, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, 2002

http://www.amazon.ca/How-Make-Collaboration-Work-Consensus/dp/1576751287/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301329215&sr=1-1


Heuristic Strategies (cont’d)

• Strategies for Manipulating Information– Display / Organize; List / Check; Diagram / Chart;

Verbalize / Visualize

• Strategies for Information Retrieval– Memorize / Recall; Record / Retrieve; Search / Select

• Strategies for Dealing with the Future– Plan / Predict; Assume / Question; Hypothesize /

Guess; Define / Symbolize; Simulate / Test

• Strategies for Physical Manipulation– Play / Manipulate; Copy / Interpret; Transform /

Translate; Expand / Reduce; Exaggerate / Understate; Adapt / Substitute; Combine / Separate

mechanisms of collaboration and engagement

Business

university of ottawa

form of cooperation

experts dont

partners complainthey

degree of cooperation

tides of change

withthe issue complexity

better quality outcomes