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Leading beyond organisational boundaries

Emanuel Gatt

Managing Director

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Collaborative leadership is different: leading beyond boundaries and authority

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‘Collaborative leadership is the art of pulling people together from different units or organisations to accomplish a task than none of them could accomplish – at all or as well – individually.

By definition, collaborative leaders have no formal authority over their peers. They must use persuasion, technical competence, relationship skills, and political smarts to get and keep the coalition together and produce the desired goal’.

Russ Linden (2003) The discipline of collaboration, Leader to Leader No 29, Summer 2003

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‘Leaders are those who articulate a vision, inspire people to act, and focus on concrete problems and results.

(But) collaboration needs a different kind of leadership; it needs leaders who can safeguard the process, facilitate interaction, and patiently deal with high levels of frustration. Collaboration works when…leaders …keep the process going.’

Chrislip and Larson(1994) Collaborative Leadership

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The ‘do’ and ‘be’ of collaborative leadership

How do you lead collaboratively? How can I be a collaborative

leader?

Building a collaborative advantage within your

organisation

(Six killer Questions Exercise)

Creating the right environment to

collaborative culture

(The collaborative Leader checklist)

Developing common purpose and recalibrating the partnership relations

(DEAL and RELATIONSHIP

Exercise)

Dealing with Uncertainty. What does it feel like

working in partnership?

(The 7 perspectives Exercise)

Within

Be

Across

Do

EXERCISE

Building a collaborative advantage within your

organisation

(Six killer Questions Exercise)

Within

Be

Across

Do

EXERCISE

Six Killer Questions (External)

Are you confident that you have a clear answer?

Do you have misgivings or uncertainties about your answer?

What factors are driving you to explore new ways of working in partnership with others?

What type of problem or challenge are you seeking to address – wicked or not?

Who are the stakeholders and to what extent to they share an interest and willingness to collaborate with you?

(Internal)Do you have a strong culture of collaborative working within your organisation?

Have you considered how the collaboration will impact on your organisations purpose and business model?

How ready and prepared is your organisation to collaborate? 10

EXERCISE - Do/Within

Developing common purpose and recalibrating the partnership relations

(DEAL and RELATIONSHIP

Exercise)

Within

Be

Across

Do

EXERCISE

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Deal Relationship

From my organisations perspective – what is on and off the table?

What kind of relationship do we need to build together to make this deal a success?

How big is the prize if we secure a wider collaboration?

What will this mean for my organisation?

What does my organisation want out of the deal?

How will we lead the change?

What is my organisation prepared to put on the table to realise the deal?

Do we have sufficient common ground to secure a mandate to process to next steps?

Where are my organisations redlines? What should the next steps be?

What is our vision (a shared narrative)

What are the risks?

EXERCISE - Do/Across

Deal Are you confident that you have a clear answer?

Do you have misgivings or uncertainties about your answer?

From my organisations perspective – what is on and off the table?

How big is the prize if we secure a wider collaboration?

What does my organisation want out of the deal?

What is my organisation prepared to put on the table to realise the deal?

Where are my organisations redlines?

What is our vision? (a shared narrative)

What are the risks?

Relationship What kind of relationship do we need to build together to make this deal a success?

What will this mean for my organisation?

How will we lead the change?

Do we have sufficient common ground to secure a mandate to process to next steps?

What should the next steps be?

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Creating the right environment to

collaborative culture

(The collaborative Leader checklist)

Within

Be

Across

Do

EXERCISE

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The Collaborative Leadership Checklist

EXERCISE - Be/Within

Dealing with Uncertainty. What does it feel like

working in partnership?

(The 7 perspectives Exercise)

Within

Be

Across

Do

EXERCISE

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What does it feel like to work in this partnership? (7 perspectives)

What does this mean for us and our organisation?

We must have common aims but we can’t agree on themSharing power is important but people behave as if it’s all in the purse stringsTrust is necessary for successful partnerships but we are suspicious of each other We are partnership-fatigued and tired of being pulled in all directionsEverything keeps changing

Leadership is not always in the hands of leadersLeadership activities continually meet with dilemmas and difficulties

EXERCISE - Be/Across

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The ‘do’ and ‘be’ of collaborative leadership

Top Tips……

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Why collaborative?

Collaborative leadership is all about working with others to achieve outcomes that you can't deliver on your own. But….The opportunities to collaborate are real, but so too are the barriers. Therefore if you can do it on your own - don’t collaborate. If you can’t do collaborate.

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The challenge dictates……

Today’s ‘wicked problems’ can’t be managed or heroically lead. Messy problems = messy solutions = collaborative leadershipCollaboratively leadership is based on shared ambitions. These must be systematic not piecemeal or divided into silos.

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if….

If you are doing collaborative working on your own, your doing it wrong.Remember its a co-creative, innovative and highly participative processIt creates its own chaos and uncertainty…. Be comfortable not having all the answers… Give the have-a-go hero’s ‘air cover’ to do things differently

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It’s all about trusting relationships

Collaborative leadership is all about getting the right balance between the RELATIONSHIP and the DEAL. Remember it's the relationship that is more likely to scupper the deal, not the other way around.Organisations that are good at collaboration – have a collaborative advantage This is based on ‘trusted individuals’ who enable the collaborative processes.

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Leaders job is to create the right environment for collaboration to flourish………

What are you doing to create the right collaborative environment within your organisation, with your partners and across your communities? Today’s new models of partnerships are less like hierarchies and more like social networks

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Collaboration a social activity

According to Myron Rogers the five maxims for collaborative leaders to understand when seeking to nurture the ‘right’ environment across system/social networks are: ‒ Real change happens in real work ‒ Those who do the work do the change‒ People own what they create‒ Start anywhere, follow it everywhere‒ Connect the system to more of itself.

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Do, Be. Do, Be, Do

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Understand the partnership Where is the partnership today?

What’s on and off the table?

Shared DestinationWhere do we see the

partnership in 5 years time?How big is the prize?

Reality check - Where are we now?

What are the first steps to shared destination

Understand my organisationWhat this will mean for my

organisation? What does my organisational want out

of the deal ?

Partnership PrinciplesWhat kind of relationship do we need to build together to make

the deal a success?

Leading the changeHow will we lead the change?

RELATIONSHIP DEAL TRUST

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Emanuel Gatt – Managing Director

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