Trusted Partner and Collaborator

Leadership, at its core, is the bond we create with others that engages their enthusiasm to serve, to act and to persevere as we pursue our worthy goals. Oftentimes those actions and goals cross boundaries and call for the involvement of people across an organization and across a community. An effective leader, then, is an individual who hones and refines the skills and abilities to build bonds and work collaboratively with colleagues, co-workers, peers, partners, more senior leaders and other contributors for mutual benefit and common interests.

Elements of Dialogue

Collaboration relies on personal interactions among individuals. More precisely, it relies on an exchange of ideas, the aim of which is to arrive at alignment around common interests and a means to further those common interests. With this in mind, I start this seminar with an exploration of the elements of dialogue — an exchange of ideas using a set of dynamics among individuals that allows for meaningful results and unique workable solutions. Our examination of the elements of dialogue is a necessary prerequisite for the rest of the seminar — learning and applying an interactive framework for collaboration – for working together.

Build Trust

The framework for collaboration is designed to help you both build trust with your partners, and concurrently to build alignment with them as you collectively pursue your common interests. Building trust demands first that you be truthful with yourself about your intentions before you approach a potential collaboration partner. In the first part of the framework for collaboration, then, I pose a series of questions to help you get clear on your intent, and the common interests that will be served by the collaboration.

Build Alignment

The second part of the framework for collaboration offers a logical progression of talking points to prompt and guide the dialogue that you will have with your potential partner. My aim, here, is to help all of you align on your mutual commitments to move forward. It is my hope that through regular and repeated use and application of the talking points, you will develop more finely honed skills to engage both your own enthusiasm and their enthusiasm as you commit to the interactive dialogue to pursue your mutual interests and worthy goals.

Framework for Process Improvement Dialogue

I complete the seminar with an additional framework of questions structured to help you move quickly, efficiently and thoroughly through the essential elements of process improvement. I know from my years of management consulting that a broader focus on process improvement rather than a narrower focus on problem solving is oftentimes the need and nature of collaboration efforts among and across groups in an organization or community. Here, I strive to equip you with the essential questions to consider, so that you can invest your time on a rigorous process improvement dialogue to develop unique and workable solutions, rather than on wondering what the right questions might be to ask in the first place. Again, I want to help you build bonds of trust and build alignment with your partners so that you can move forward and make meaningful contributions to your community.

As you work your way through the frameworks of Trusted Partner and Collaborator, I will be encouraging you to consider how you can actually apply them to a current initiative or situation in which you need to or would like to build or strengthen your bonds, and work collectively with colleagues and co-workers, and with individuals in other parts of your community or organization.