Ed Morrison · BFD Learning Moment: The challenges of collaboration

June 14th, 2009

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Last week, we launched an experiment. Three federal agencies, deeply involved in assisting Michigan adjust to the collapse of the auto industry, sponsored a Strategic Doing workshop.

The objective: Could we find some practical collaborations among the different federal partners in Michigan? The answer, I think: “Yes, with practice, patience and some small steps…initially.”

(One of the counter-intuitive insights of guiding strategic action in loosely connected networks: “Go slowly, so you can go fast.”)

I came away with a clearer understanding of the challenges facing Michigan. Collaboration is a deeper commitment than most of our participants appreciated. Collaboration is not “knowing” or “connecting” or “networking”. It is not surface. it is not simplistic. It is not easy. It is not an event.

Collaboration is a civic habit. A set of overlapping networks, quickly shared. A pattern of behavior that builds trust and mutual respect. A commitment to transparency and truthfulness. A relentless focus on experimentation, action and learning “What works”.

These features do not simply appear. They must be cultivated. They grow with time.

My impressions — taken from 60 people across the state in just one day — suggest that Michigan has a way to go. There is more grieving to do.

But more important, Michigan needs a break from its past. It’s a truism in economic development that a community or region’s civic life mirrors its underlying economic structure.

In Michigan’s case, both government and civic action are unnecessarily constrained by hierarchical thinking that no longer serves the needs of a younger generation. The sooner Michigan expands the experiments in open collaboration, the better.

Like Cleveland, Michigan needs places, practice and a process that stimulate coherent, complex thinking…the type of thinking that can generate the ingenuity we need to transform our economies and meet the challenges ahead.

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