A Practical Approach to Collaboration
Posted by on September 9, 2005
[posted from Public Education Network newsblast]
A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO COLLABORATION
You don’t have to agree on a set of aesthetic principles in order to have a good time going to the movies with someone. You just have to agree on a movie. You don’t have to agree on fundamental issues of community in order to share an apartment with someone. You just have to agree about how some things will get done around the house. You don’t even have to agree completely about child rearing values in order to raise children with someone, to everyone’s reasonable satisfaction. You only have to have some minimal boundaries about parental behavior and a respect for a diversity of styles. So why is it. asks Michael C. Gilbert, that so many nonprofit organizations, especially social change and activist organizations, act as though they must agree on all principles and values in order to collaborate successfully? The great secret of successful collaboration is this: The only agreement you have to have is on what you are all going to do. That’s it. You have to agree on actions. You don’t have to bring the visions and missions of your organizations into alignment. Usually, you don’t even have to bring your strategies into alignment. So long as you
can find an operational overlap, you can forge a successful collaboration.
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