Leadership and Vision

Five Good Ideas about collaboration: Moving forward, together

Anne Gloger

Published on March 30, 2015

To work in today’s complex world and solve today’s complex issues, collaboration and collective approaches are not only desirable, they are critical. Working together can bring the best of our collective wisdom to bear on the toughest of problems, it can foster a sense of belonging and galvanize hope. So why do so many collaborations end up so dysfunctional? Whether the framework is collective impact, learning labs, partnerships or networks, there are some fundamental truths about working together that can slow our work down or make it soar.

On March 30, we explored fresh ways of thinking about working together and discovered some underlying secrets to creating inspiring and successful collaborations.

Five Good Ideas

Take responsibility for choices and respect choices of others (autonomy)
Walk a mile in each other’s shoes (empathy)
Demonstrate that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (purpose)
Make working together easy (enabling environment)
Make collaboration a very human process (connectedness)

Five Good Resources

Getting to Maybe by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman and Michael Quinn Paton
Empathy: RSA Animate – The Power of Outrospection
Collaboration Coach
Changeology by Les Robinson
The Story of Change

Bonus resource:

The Little Community That Could: If you want a new way of supporting meaningful change in your community and impacting the lives of people living there, read this book. In it, East Scarborough Storefront shares the practical lessons learned from a decade of building community together in Scarborough, Ontario, considered a “priority neighbourhood.”

Anne Gloger

Strategy Director, Catalysts’ Circle

Anne Gloger has spent her career delving deeply into the whys and hows of effective community development and engagement. She does this work from a deep belief that communities are the foundation for addressing the urgent issues of our time: racism, climate change and economic inequities. Anne believes that it is intentional, meaningful and authentic investment in communities, relationships and equitable processes that will create the kinds of transformational change that our world so desperately needs.

As Strategy Director at the Catalysts’ Circle, Anne supports a wide variety of change catalysts from communities, organizations, institutions and governments to design and implement strategies that truly centre communities. She does this by leveraging more than 3 decades of work with and in communities, and especially from her roles as founding Director at the East Scarborough Storefront and Centre for Connected Communities.

Anne’s work is deeply grounded in the innovative community development framework the Connected Community Approach (CCA) which she co-created with hundreds of community members, community development professionals, academics, designers, funders and planners. CCA encompases both theoretical and practical ways of thinking and acting with and in communities so that people can effectively and meaningfully work together towards a more equitable and healthier society.

Anne’s early career in Early Childhood Education, her unique educational experiences at the Toronto Waldorf School, University of Waterloo (Social Development Studies) and Wilfrid Laurier (Business) all contributed to her current work coaching, mentoring and helping others to live into the principles and practices of Connected Communities.

Anne has been the recipient of many awards for her work including the Jane Jacobs prize, the Courage to Lead Award, the William P Hubbard Award for Race Relations, Leading Women Building Communities, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal, and Vital People.