Innovators in Rural Community Economic Development

Collaboration

In September 2014, I was invited, along with my colleague Judy Anderson, to present a 4-hour Board Summit for the Land Trust Alliance on collaboration. The workshop provided an introduction to collaboration, using Himmelman’s continuum of collaboration, which moves from network through coordination and cooperation to collaboration. With Judy Anderson’s help, we were able to showcase examples of land trusts and their work in these different levels of collaboration.

We also led participants through a variety of individual, pairs and group exercises designed to get them thinking about their strengths and weaknesses and how they might have something to offer around their strengths and something to gain around their weaknesses through collaboration. Overall, the seminar was very well received.

I’ll be offering a very short presentation about collaboration at the upcoming Association for Community Health Improvement annual conference in Dallas, TX on March 5. And I’ll also be offering a longer workshop at the Designing a Strong and Healthy New York conference March 19 in Albany, NY.

Because this workshop was so successful, we are now prepared to offer workshops about collaboration for conferences, trainings, or for individual organizations. These can span 1 hour, a half day, or a full day.