Case Study

Capacity Building Through Collaboration

An African proverb suggests “if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together”. The same principle can occur in farming.

What is collaboration?

Collaboration refers to two or more people or organisations with a collective goal working together for the benefit of all involved. This may involve, for example, a group of local farmers combining resources and equipment and working together to collectively market their product. Collaboration is about working together to achieve much more than each could do alone. Working collaboratively can build business resilience, increase competitive advantage, and achieve economies of scale or better market access. In fact, according to research undertake by Deloittes¹, businesses who collaborate are twice as likely to outgrow their competitors; and more likely to improve their profit.

Why Collaborate?

Dealing with many of the complex challenges we face today is often beyond the capacity of any one individual or business. It calls for a different approach to ‘business as usual’ through identifying issues, setting goals and acting. Collaboration is one proven way the agricultural sector can respond to this complexity; turning challenges into opportunities.

Collaboration may not be easy but the results can be spectacular.

When to Collaborate?

Collaboration is only one of several forms of working together. While collaboration can deliver results beyond what could be achieved alone, it can be challenging to implement and therefore is not an appropriate approach for every situation.
Collaboration can help if your aim is to:

reduce duplication and overlap,
access limited resources,
create or expand opportunities,
increase efficiency and effectiveness,
improve organisational and brand legitimacy,
resolve complex problems, and or
complete complex projects.

Are we Ready to Collaborate?

Collaborations can bring benefits but they can also create complexity for member businesses. New challenges need to be weighed against business-as-usual practices. Forming a collaboration does not necessarily solve all the problems.

Shifting the way your organisation functions is not easy. In effective collaborations, individuals or businesses give up some autonomy, they share power and resources, and work for the collective good. The viability and credibility of the collaboration rests on understanding and assessing your business’ tolerance for risk and participation and determining your level of commitment and capacity.

Tips to Start Collaborating

Collaboration aims to include multiple stakeholders in a collective conversation, to develop a broader understanding of the problem and solutions and to find ways forward to achieve shared goals. This big-picture approach enables groups that might not have previously worked together – and might even have been in opposition or competition – to join forces in creating resolution and new directions.

Collaboration is not a short-term, easy solution, you need to go in with a long-term mindset. The start-up phase is especially important. Time and effort spent planning, organising and building an agreement in starting out are essential for achieving goals. Five steps to help develop a well-structured, well-managed collaboration are outlined below:

Clarify purpose and structure
Determine membership
Set terms of engagement and outcomes
Build and nurture relationships
Organise and manage effectively

Managing Successful Collaboration

Working together in new ways necessitates good management, even before the group is formalised. This means ensuring you have the right conditions and strong relationships. While collaboration in business can take many different forms and structures and be at any stage of development, at the heart of any successful collaboration are the people and their relationships.

Collaborative Leadership and Trust

Effective collaborative leadership is a particular type of leadership that draws on unique elements of the collaborative process. Leaders set an example for new ways of interacting and are able to tap into members’ strengths. Leaders also keep a watchful eye on the groups’ processes and monitor progress. This approach differs from ‘being in charge’ and ‘directing’, which are the focus of traditional leadership. Check your skills in the list below.

Traits and Abilities of a Collaborative Leader:

initiating and nurturing relationships including with detractors
getting members to share ideas, resources and power
interpreting and protecting collaborative processes
promoting advantages in collaborative approach and work style
networking in and across sectors and with decision makers across groups
supporting or intervening in processes and actions when needed
bridging diverse cultures and displaying big picture vision and goals
building agreement around the collaborative vision
taking risks and encouraging others

Evaluating a Collaboration

Any new business or community initiative should be monitored from the beginning to assess the value of changes, demonstrate return on investment over time, and provide insight into where strategic changes can be made to further enhance value.

One key difference of collaboration evaluation compared to more traditional evaluation is the combined focus on the more tangible outcomes such and number of items sold, or percentage membership increase, as well as the softer ‘people’ focused outcomes such as enhanced strength and quality of member relationships.

Assess Your Collaboration

Relationships and processes:

Are there good relationships, committed members, clear processes for building bonds, and mechanisms for sharing ideas and resolving conflict?
Is communication frequent, does it occur openly, in a context of trust?
Is there a culture of learning, information and power sharing?
Is time spent on relationship building, such as members getting to know each other’s strengths and limitations?

Participation and structure

Do all members participate in decision making and resource provision?
Is there a process for member engagement? Could there be barriers?
Is the structure too tight, too loose or … just right?
Does the group structure encourage action as well as consensus decision making? Does it suit the aims?
Are decisions made democratically?
Is external support (parent organisations; stakeholders; relevant community members) monitored? Are the feedback loops effective²?

References

^{1. Deloitte. (2014). The Collaborative Economy https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-economics-collaborative-economy-google-170614.pdf}
^{2. Adapted from the work of Professor Robyn Keast by Amanda Scott, Southern Cross University}