A recent conversation with the leader of a nonprofit organization made clear how challenging it can be to collaborate amid rapid growth. For this organization, rapid growth had resulted in new team members, new roles, new programs, and new priorities. While such growth bodes well for the organization’s ability to advance its powerful mission, it also presented strategic, relational, and operational challenges: The leader had noticed repeated and specific examples of program l

Show of hands – how many of you have in place a communication plan for your complex, multi-stakeholder initiative? A well-designed and well-executed communication strategy can mean the difference between: Smooth rollout vs. Choppy rollout People feeling in the loop vs. Unpleasantly surprised Productive stakeholder engagement vs. Disengagement that undermines success On time and on budget vs. Overtime and over budget CollaborGREAT vs. Collabor(h)ate Here’s my handy list of the

Can you answer this one simple question from the perspective of every single person involved in your collaboration: “ “What’s in it for me?” Implementing complex collaboration is a messy, iterative, non-linear process. There is no unified field theory of change management, no checklist to work through that will ensure successful enduring collaboration. Incentive is an often-overlooked collaborative tool for navigating that messiness. Here’s why: Everyone needs something speci

A philanthropic client and I were brainstorming topics for an upcoming workshop her foundation is hosting for nonprofit leaders in their region. I asked what challenges they’re seeing when it comes to building and sustaining inter-organizational collaborations. She shared an interesting insight: people struggle to see others as potential collaborators. She explained, “There seems to be this idea that collaboration has to happen between similar programs. That’s not always the