On Cats, Rafts & Collaboration

Herding cats is an analogy often used to describe cross-sector collaboration. Catalyzing alignment among diverse players ranging from residents to public officials to non-profit and business CEOS to foundation leaders is akin to trying to round up a litter of frisky felines. I’ve always asserted that facilitating collaboration is more than just herding, it also requires getting all the cats into a skull and getting them to row together.

But thanks to this wonderful essay from Mille Bojer of Reos Partners on why collaboration is so difficult, I can upgrade my analogy. Bojer writes: “Collaboration … is more like rafting than rowing. We are in the same boat, highly dependent on one another, somehow managing to move more or less in the same direction, but context is interfering, people’s capabilities vary, emotions are at play, and alertness is key.”

Indeed, cross-sector collaboration is white-water rafting through Class V Rapids, which are described as “long continuous rapids that often flow into each other with almost no interruption.” The rapids are the context interfering. The context includes the entrenched power interests (the biggest of boulders) that prefer the status quo. It also includes the complexity (swirling currents) of wicked, persistent problems that are often the focus of a collaborative. For example, what needs to change to improve workforce development outcomes:

-          The quality of job training programs?

-          The motivation of job seekers?

-          The behavior and hiring practices of employers?

-          Access to transportation and/or child chare?

-          All of the above?

That’s a lot of currents to navigate. And how is it that we transform some of those boulders in the river into cats and get them into the boat working with us, rather than resisting system change?

Obviously the cat and raft analogy only goes so far, but I think it is a lot more accurate than just rowing across a smooth lake. Collaboration, like rafting down rapids, is risky. It’s demanding. But when done well, it’s exhilarating…even transformative.