Definition - collaborator

As a collaborative policy practitioner...

you establish relationships and partnerships internally and externally, seek consensus and co-create solutions.

To highlight the possibilities for joint efforts by sharing information.
To more effectively deploy limited resources and generate more benefits.
To establish bridges between the various sectors as well as between government departments and society.
To understand the source of the boundaries between groups and between projects and to minimize them in order to circulate information.
To strengthen and use existing relationships.
To better align the efforts of various players, the various means deployed and the work processes based on the problem to be resolved and the objectives to be achieved.
To better understand the organizational needs and establish profitable connections between the organizations involved in the delivery of a service in order to put in place optimal solutions.

Mobilizing multiple players in a meaningful and effective manner around a problem.
Improving coordination, dialogue and mutual engagement by sharing ideas and information.
Dealing with complex problems by making use of the strengths of all players.
Taking into account the needs of the stakeholders at all stages of a project.
Expanding operational capacity.
Strengthening the legitimacy of the strategic objectives and supporting their achievement.
Encouraging the pursuit of a common objective and strengthening engagement for unified action.
Constructing authentic and sustainable relationships from a large spectrum of players.
Disseminating information to offer a common base of knowledge to parties who are not in the habit of collaborating with each other.
Helping the parties to better understand one another by using common language and communicating openly, clearly and in a constructive manner on points of friction or elements of divergence.

Lack of trust and mutual respect.
Misunderstandings and conflicts.
Competition for resources and their use.
Effort duplication.
Risk of obscuring the inter-dependency between government departments and sectors in the area of service delivery and performance.
Simplistic vision of the world and consideration of a restricted number of points of view.
Obstacle to any form of innovation.
Lack of project legitimacy.
Low support from the stakeholders who have been ignored.
Work limited to simple and linear problems.

Working on common objectives.
Understanding the organization’s overall objectives and the importance of working together with other fields to achieve these objectives.
Analyzing failures to learn lessons; celebrating and communicating successes.
Going beyond the members of your team and actively seeking contributions from other players.
Openly expressing your opinions, listening to those of others and not being afraid to change your mind.
Recognizing and strengthening collaborations with various sectors that are essential to success.
Freely sharing knowledge and information.
Engaging with various stakeholders by keeping in mind the limits of policies and their scope.
Adopting collaborative approaches, such as co-creation, in order to bring people together and integrating ideas, keeping in mind the limits and scope of the initiatives and projects undertaken.
Encouraging the sharing of responsibilities through active listening, iterations and the recognition of organizational needs.
Establishing connections between the policy problem, the options and the implementation in order to make sure the solution is doable.
Listening to and accepting the ideas of others.

Risk of working in silos.
Tendency of giving priority to management directives, to the detriment of the organization's objectives and the quality of the public service.
Lack of openness to possible partnerships and contributions by other people.
Withholding of information.
Restrained relations between co-workers, limited to the expression of your needs and requests for information.