The Collaboration Journey

Collaborative Working is not just another way of saying ‘team working’ – even though an effective collaboration is in essence a bigger team effort.

Collaborative working is often mistaken as a euphemism for ‘being nice’ and this often leads to people feeling they can’t challenge or express dissatisfaction, frustration or anger as it would undermine collaboration.

One of the main benefits of effective collaboration is that it promotes effective dialogue and challenge – primarily through skilled behaviours.


Effective collaborative working rarely happens by chance. It is often asserted that collaborative working is in place based on the absence of conflict, the fact that everybody seems to ‘get along well’ or that delivery is good.

In many cases these assumptions mask underlying issues with regard to trust, intent, behaviours, money, performance and competence. At times these issues bubble to the surface and at other times they explode in various forms of conflict or adversarial behaviour.

We support and facilitate the various parties in establishing robust relationships to enable great performance. This bedrock serves not only to identify and reinforce what is good but also to allow challenge and innovation to flourish. This development process is defined in and designed through the ‘collaboration journey’.