Thinking about… collaboration

Written in March 2011 by: Ben Cairns and Margaret Harris, Romayne Hutchison

Despite unprecedented levels of policy-driven interest in collaborative working involving voluntary organisations, we know from our work that individuals and organisations can experience practical difficulties when trying to work collaboratively with others. Finding themselves asking:

• Who should we collaborate with and why?
• What form should collaboration take?
• What do we need to do to make collaboration worthwhile?
• How can we minimise the tensions which seem to accompany attempts to enact change in organisations?

This 2011 publication attempts to shed some light on these enduring puzzles.

The Thinking about… series is primarily aimed at staff and trustees of small to medium sized voluntary sector organisations and is intended to help practitioners to make informed decisions about changes they may be considering.