The Collaboration Continuum:
A Framework for Collaborative Work
What is the Collaboration Continuum? How is collaboration different from coordination, cooperation, or networking?
The Collaboration Continuum is a practical framework that helps leaders identify the type of partnership they need, the capacities required to support it, and the organizational investments necessary for success.
Too often, collaboration is used as a catch-all term to describe any working relationship between individuals, departments, or organizations. But true collaboration isn’t a one-size-fits-all concept. It exists on a continuum* of inter-organizational models, each with distinct attributes, required capacities, and necessary institutional supports.
Understanding where your work falls on The Collaboration Continuum can help ensure that partners share the same expectations, invest in the right supports, and choose an approach that matches the challenge at hand.
Different Ways to Work Together
Immuring
Conducting activities without input from or exchange with other organizations. The term immuring comes from the idea of being walled off. On The Collaboration Continuum, it refers to organizations or teams that operate independently, without intentionally seeking information, resources, or support from others.
Networking.
Exchanging information for mutual benefit. Information exchange is relatively easy because it requires a low initial level of trust, limited time availability, and no sharing of turf.
Coordinating.
In addition to exchanging information, participants in coordinating groups alter individual activities for mutual benefit and to achieve a common purpose. This station on The Collaboration Continuum requires more organizational involvement than networking, along with a slightly higher level of trust and some sharing of turf.
Cooperating.
In addition to exchanging information, cooperating involves sharing resources (e.g., human, financial, space, technology) for mutual benefit and to achieve a common purpose. More formal than coordinating, cooperating requires increased organizational commitment and greater alteration of individual activities (indeed, existing positions may need to be modified to provide time for participation). As a result, this station on The Collaboration Continuum may involve written agreements, such as Memoranda of Understanding. Cooperating also requires a substantial time commitment, a higher level of trust, and significant sharing of turf.
Collaborating.
Collaborating involves substantial organizational commitment, a very high level of trust, and extensive sharing of turf. The qualitative difference between cooperating and collaborating is that collaborating partners demonstrate a public enthusiasm for—and commitment to—the value of learning from one another to become better at what they do collectively.
Collaborators are clear: the importance of their partners’ success is as great as their own, and their own success depends on their partners’ success. Rather than simply aligning activities or sharing resources, collaborators actively invest in one another's growth and effectiveness. They recognize that the whole can become greater than the sum of its parts and intentionally work to create that added value together.
Collaborating partners willingly share the risks, responsibilities, resources, and rewards of the work—what Arthur Himmelman refers to as the Four Shared Rs of Collaboration. This level of partnership often produces the greatest potential for impact, but it also demands the greatest investment of time, trust, attention, and organizational commitment.
Integrating.
Completely merging operations, administrative structures, and budgets such that the entities become indistinguishable from one another.
A Few Notes
echnically, neither immuring nor integrating are forms of working together because both are ultimately versions of a solo operation. If two organizations have become one organization, there are no longer two organizations across which work and relationships can unfold. I choose to keep them on The Collaboration Continuum as an always-present reminder that going it alone is an option.
A particular station on The Collaboration Continuum is not inherently better or worse than another. Each station can be exactly right for a particular circumstance. Sometimes it may be sufficient to network by, for example, providing accurate and up-to-date information on programs and services. In other circumstances, organizations and teams may need to develop more complex relationships to meet objectives and needs more effectively.
Importantly, the stations of The Collaboration Continuum build upon one another. Coordinating cannot exist absent networking; cooperating cannot exist without coordinating; and collaborating cannot exist without cooperating.
As we move along The Collaboration Continuum, we increase our potential to accomplish together that which cannot be achieved alone.
Resources and Inter-Organizational Capacities Needed
Understanding where your initiative sits on The Collaboration Continuum is only part of the equation. Many organizations struggle not because they choose the wrong station on the continuum, but because they attempt a higher-order form of partnership without the capacities required to support it.
Each station on The Collaboration Continuum requires different resources and inter-organizational capacities to do well. Below, I briefly inventory the resources and capacities needed for the four stations in the middle of the continuum—those that involve working with others.
Networking
-
Clear communication channels across organizations
-
Strategies for identifying interested others across organizations
-
Administrative support to connect people, collect data, prepare publications, and maintain websites
-
Potentially, agreements regarding how information will be used
Coordinating
-
Stated objective
-
Known leadership structure through which activities and adjustments are managed
-
Plan for regularly evaluating the success of the work
-
Clear pathways for making needed adjustments
-
Facilitation support to convene people and advance projects
-
Professional development opportunities related to articulating shared objectives, leading across organizations, collaborative action processes, and program evaluation
-
Process for writing and approving foundational documents
-
Incentives for participation
-
Funds for implementation
-
Staff to coordinate activities and conduct assessments
Cooperating
-
Stated process for managing shared resources
-
Agreement regarding how decisions will be made
-
Written agreements
-
Professional development opportunities related to budgeting and working with staff
-
Shared templates
-
Explicit pathways for writing, endorsing, and documenting agreements
-
Direct liaisons to decision-making bodies
Collaborating
-
Deep understanding of one another’s interests and goals
-
Regular opportunities to come together for reciprocal learning
-
Headspace to learn about, from, and with collaborators
-
Additional resources (e.g., facilitation, budget, space, time) to support meaningful convenings
How to Leverage The Collaboration Continuum
Before launching a complex, multi-stakeholder initiative, consider these three critical questions:
-
What type of “working together” do we actually need? Are we networking, coordinating, cooperating, or truly collaborating? Is there alignment among partners regarding the type of “working together” we want to pursue?
-
Are the right capacities in place to support this level of partnership? If not, how might we put those capacities in place to help the work succeed? Or should we, perhaps, scope our ambitions to better align with the capacities available?
-
Are the right inter-organizational supports in place to sustain the effort? If not, how might we put those supports in place to help the work succeed?
Failing to properly define and resource collaboration—and other forms of “together work”—is one of the top reasons complex initiatives struggle or fail altogether. Taking the time to assess these factors upfront can make all the difference in setting partnerships up for success. The Collaboration Continuum helps leaders match their ambitions to the type of partnership, capacities, and supports required to achieve them.
If collaboration is a priority for your organization—but it’s still feeling harder than ideal—I’d be glad to talk through whether this tailored, leader-led approach could work for your team.
Explore More Resources
