Collaboration in Practice
One Day Workshop
There’s more to collaborating well than we might think — and, like most things, it’s something we can work on and get better at.
Most of us have spent years developing the knowledge and skills required for our profession. Far fewer of us have had the opportunity to deliberately develop our ability to collaborate.
Yet much of the work that matters now depends on people working effectively across teams, professions, organisations and stakeholder groups, often in situations involving uncertainty, different perspectives and no obvious right answer.
Collaboration in Practice is a practical one-day workshop for anyone who spends a fair bit of their time trying to get things done with other people. It will be particularly useful for leaders, managers and professionals whose work depends on bringing people together, working across boundaries or helping groups find a way forward.
Is this workshop for you?
The workshop is for people whose work involves getting things done with others. You may be leading or supporting change, managing projects, coordinating work across organisational boundaries, building partnerships, working with diverse stakeholders or simply trying to improve the way people work together.
It may be particularly useful if you find yourself wondering:
• Why are capable people still working at cross-purposes?
• How can we make better sense of complex collaborative situations before jumping to solutions?
• How can we make better use of the different perspectives around the table?
• How can we turn good conversations into shared understanding and coordinated action?
• What can we do when collaboration becomes difficult or uncertain?
No previous training in collaboration or facilitation is required.
Bring a real challenge
For the Collaboration in Practice workshop, you'll bring a genuine collaboration challenge from your own workplace and use it as a thread through the program.
Before the workshop, you'll complete a short Pre-Workshop Reflection and then use a Collaboration Snapshot to take a closer look at your challenge before bringing it with you to the workshop.
During the day, you'll revisit it from different perspectives, practise new approaches and use your Participant Workbook to capture your thinking and apply what you're learning.
The aim is not to leave with a long action plan. It's to identify one or two useful things to try when you return to work, notice what happens and learn from the experience.
The Learning Journey
The workshop follows a deliberate learning journey. It provides a structure for developing collaborative capability while recognising that real collaborative work is rarely neat or linear.
The Learning Journey
See Collaboration Differently
Look more closely at what is involved in collaborating well, and at the individual and organisational factors that can help or hinder people working together.
Understand the Situation
Look beneath the surface of a collaboration challenge. Explore assumptions, different perspectives, relationships and the wider context before rushing towards solutions
Think Together
Strengthen listening, inquiry and dialogue. Explore how better questions can improve the quality of thinking and how different perspectives can become a resource rather than simply a source of disagreement.
Work Together
Explore what helps turn shared understanding into coordinated action: clarity of purpose, roles and relationships, shared responsibility, communication and the practical coordination of work.
Learn Together
Use reflection and experience to learn while the work is unfolding. What are we noticing? What are we learning? What might we do differently?
Learn Forward
Return to the collaboration challenge you brought with you and identify something useful to try back at work. Then notice what happens and learn from it
What might Change
The answer will be different for everyone.
Some people may realise they have been moving too quickly towards solutions. Others may become better listeners, start asking different questions, or become more interested in perspectives different from their own.
You may become better at making sense of complex collaborative situations, developing shared understanding and turning it into coordinated action.
Or you may simply become more confident about how to proceed when collaboration becomes difficult or the answers aren't obvious.
These can seem like small changes, but small changes in how people understand, listen, enquire, think and respond can make a significant difference to how a group works together.
More than a One-day Workshop
The workshop itself lasts one day, but the learning begins before you arrive and continues afterwards.
Before the Workshop
Complete a short Collaboration Snapshot and identify a genuine collaboration challenge from your own work.
During the Workshop
Work with that challenge throughout the day and use your Participant Workbook to capture ideas, reflect on your practice and apply your learning.
Back at Work
Try one or two useful things, notice what happens and learn from the experience.
Follow-up Coaching Session
Take part in an individual coaching session, either online or face to face, to revisit your challenge, reflect on what happened and consider what you might try next.
Collaboration isn’t learnt simply by understanding ideas about collaboration.
It develops through practice and review.
Go Deeper
If you’d like to know more about the thinking behind the workshop, you can read:
‘Some Thoughts on Collaboration, Capability and Practice’ [Download the Background Paper →]
Or, if you’d like more information or would like to discuss whether the workshop is right for you, call Matthew on 0431 529 233.