Collaboration - A Summary

Collaboration: "a process through which parties who see different aspects of a problem can constructively explore their differences and search for solutions that go beyond their own limited vision of what is possible." (Gray, 1989: Collaborating: Finding Common Ground for Multiparty Problems)

Collaboration is the natural state of (effective) communities. Collaborative communities are typically structured horizontally rather than vertically. There is less concern regarding traditional job roles, with influence gained through expertise, local knowledge, and context, together with strong networks across surrounding teams and stakeholders. Communication, where possible, is face-to-face, with processes transparent and visible.

Collaboration, creating collaborative communities, best serves systems focused widely on learning to create outcomes, rather than those focused more tightly on processes to more predictably deliver outcomes. At their best, collaborative communities tend to be more loosely structured, have the capacity to be highly adaptive, and consequently inherently creative.

Three elements emerge as key to building a collaborative community – ‘shared purpose’, ‘supportive structure’, and ‘trust’. It has been found that developing collaboration between the health and care sectors and the VCSE and grassroots sectors requires a commitment to a long-term approach and acceptance that different approaches must be taken. These approaches must be based on relational ways of working, and trust becomes the currency on which effort is ‘traded’. Relational working is best based on humility and discovery as the primary mode of operation.

Much of the work to be done is unknown and uncertain simply because the contexts in which the work happens are forever changing, the issues being dealt with are complex, and the space between people and organizations is an unknown quantity until it is shaped by those participating. Managing roles in uncertainty becomes a core capacity required from all people involved. However, despite these areas of uncertainty, the Healthy Communities Together programme has continued to validate and reinforce the areas we can be certain about.

There are two broad levels to the work. The interpersonal - methods to encourage and stimulate self-awareness, meeting structures that encourage all voices to be heard, meeting cycles that provide critical space for reflection, and tools that prompt the important conversations about how we work together are all areas of great certainty. The technical - Governance structures, contracts, insurances, financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and programme management are all areas of technical work. Whilst the programme has deepened the insight and developed some tools to support in these areas, much more work needs to be done to design the tools that support relational working - otherwise, too many times, they pull the work back into traditional ways.