The challenge of collaboration
The challenge of collaboration
20 April 2022
Collaboration allows the capacities of multiple stakeholders to work on complex problems and has transformative potential. It is the way God has designed the body of Christ with different parts and different gifts working together.
Collaboration is not rocket science. It is much harder!
We are regularly encouraged to collaborate with others – including people in different teams and people that are very different from us. Even people we don’t like! A key to Local Mission Delivery is our ability to collaborate in holistic mission.
However, it is not easy, and part of the difficulty is not being clear about what it means. What is the difference between cooperation, coordination, and collaboration? The first two are not too challenging – collaboration is much harder.
What is collaboration?
Collaboration refers to any joint activity by two or more parties for the purpose of linking or sharing information, resources, activities, and capabilities to achieve aims that no single party could have achieved separately. (Butcher, John R. and Gilchrist, David J. Collaboration for Impact: Lessons from the field. Canberra: ANU Press, 2020.)
Language of collaboration
For Local Mission Delivery and Area Leadership Teams (ALT), it is useful to distinguish between three categories of relationships:
1. Cooperation: sharing of information and/or expertise, and in which each mission expression remains independent and interacts only when necessary to harmonise their efforts.
For example, when a Moneycare financial counsellor or Doorways case worker share information with a corps officer about the services they provide and make warm, appropriate referrals.
2. Coordination: mission expressions interact and plan with each other to better align what they are already doing but remain independent and operate in their usual manner.
For example, when mission expressions learn they were all planning to have a presence at a local NAIDOC Week event and agree to share the same marquee.
3. Collaboration: a recognition of interdependence and a mutual commitment to working in new ways with the other members of the ALT to effect system changes in an area.
For example, when the mission expressions in an ALT agree to work together to develop an art exhibition for Anti-Poverty Week. In 2021, six corps in Perth worked collaboratively with the Doorways and Moneycare teams to provide art materials and canvases for community members to express their understanding of poverty. They worked together with the Perth Mint to hold an art exhibition – something ‘that no single party could have achieved separately’.
Mission expressions in Perth worked together on an art exhibition during Anti-Poverty Week last year.
ALTs that are ‘collaborative’ involve active participation and engagement. Different opinions and conflicts will naturally arise as expressions work together to address an issue in the area.
It is helpful to acknowledge these differences and recognise that, depending on geography and other factors, there are times when it is appropriate to engage in all these types of relationships.
Why collaborate?
Collaboration is not an easy answer to hard problems but a hard answer to hard problems. It allows the capacities of multiple stakeholders to be brought to bear on complex problems and has transformative potential. It is the way God has designed the body of Christ with different parts and different gifts working together.
The collaboration challenge
Although it is easy to talk about collaboration, it is hard to do. We can call people to ‘go forth and collaborate’ and pay little attention to the collaborative capacity in their mission expressions. Some mission expressions have greater capacity for collaboration than others.
Collaboration means placing greater priority on understanding and improving relationships across mission expressions and taking more participatory approaches. For many, this represents a departure from past practice. The diverse geographical spread of our ALTs also impacts how teams can collaborate in a geographical area.
Success factors in collaboration
Research on collaboration indicates it is successful when healthy relationships exist between our mission expression leaders. When different leaders feel valued and appreciated, we have a supportive environment for people to work together and collaborate.
The role of the Area Officer as the missional leader is key to encouraging and intentionally promoting effective collaboration. They use their skills to facilitate supportive relationships, promote collaborative plans, and encourage implementation and evaluation.
Another success factor is when collaboration is valued and celebrated in an organisation. With Local Mission Delivery, The Salvation Army has set up a model that seeks to do that. Stories of missional collaboration are shared and celebrated.
At the same time, intentional collaboration is for mission and is not an end in itself. As Territorial Commander Robert Donaldson has said, “Collaboration is for a purpose; that is, serving the community better and strengthening connection with faith pathways. These are the end game.”
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