Writing a weekly blog has its ups and downs. The downs include at times struggling to find inspiring content and dealing with the sometimes-empty comment areas.
Sitting at my desk mulling over what to write about this week, I decided to cast about the Internet. Sure enough, I found a nugget that connected with my thoughts.
The nugget is a comment posted on a September 2010 Chronicle of Philanthropy blog written by Garvester Kelley, entitled Finding Incentives for Nonprofit Collaboration. Kelley has written a very insightful piece, and I plan to write about it in a separate blog.
stevenbert posted the comment. I don’t know stevenbert, and I sliced the following excerpt from his full statement, which you can read on the link above.
….There is also the issue of why collaboration is important in the first place. When collaboration is rooted in what is possible rather than a place of fear and scarcity, success is more likely. When the motivation is not “We could save so much money!” but instead, “We can accomplish so much more together than separately,” change happens smoothly and gracefully and logically…….
Here! Here! stevenbert wherever you are!!!
What caught my eye was “We can accomplish so much more together…..”
My thoughts exactly.
My meditative thinking around this question began around two months ago—at a foundation convening, hosted by La Piana Consulting, the Tides Center and the Foundation Center.
The final session focused on taking a fresh look at challenges that face us all and create a dream initiative. My team’s strategy was around this question: What can we all do together that we can’t do alone?
We came up with a goal — a healthy baby — symbolic of lifting out of poverty. To get there, government, foundations, the community, business, and nonprofits must all work together. We acknowledged that to change outcomes, there will be significant roadblocks and that risk-taking would be necessary to transform the status quo. The reward, however, is beyond words — a healthy baby — who has every opportunity in the world to grow into the best person he/she can be. This is why collaboration is important.
“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
What do you think? Do stevenbert’s words inspire you? Do the children in the photo inspire you? Let the words flow and fill up the comment area!
Excellent post, Pam. It begins with laser-sharp planning, strategic design and above all else, trust and mutual respect. When fear seeps in, success is compromised…for what? The loss is felt by the whole.
“When collaboration is rooted in what is possible rather than a place of fear and scarcity”…This sentence really reached out and grabbed my attention. Working towards what is possible, for the benefit of all, sans fear. A great way to start my morning, Thank you, Pam.
I agree that that the benefits of collaboration are tremendous and much more effort needs to take place to encourage nonprofits to take advantage of collaborative opportunities. There is a “but”…however. The devil is in the detail. Care needs to take place from the outset to deal with the legitimate fears, concerns and trust issues that occur when collaborative activities are presented. Issues surrounding allocation of staff time, financial and other human resources can be sticky, especially when multiple organizations of different size, history, culture, and finances are involved. Often there is a Gorilla in the room. He/she may be a lay leader, funder or exec of one of the parties who uses their power and influence to steer the collaboration more to their own rather than the group’s benefit. This is why the PROCESS of establishing a collaboration is as important (if not more) than the specific collaboration plan itself. Taking the time to deal with as many of the issues as possible in advance and establishing memorandum of understandings (contracts) that are approved by all parties, is so important prior to implementation. Bottom line….Collaborations require a lot of hard work and time, but they can be VERY beneficial when the process is handled as well as the tasks related to the collaborative goal.
Pam,
This is a great question to pose to people considering collaboration. Increasingly I see in my own consulting work that efficiencies are really not enough to bring and keep people at the table; it’s the vision of what they will create together that compels them forward and keeps them rooted in the process when things get tough that is critical.