We work by supporting effective collaboration.
Our work requires people to come together across boundaries and differences to build community, make decisions collaboratively, and do hard and complex work together.
Our collaborative leadership model guides how Willamette Partnership helps our partners move from shared intention to joint action. We use this model to help people solve problems in a way that builds community, whether we’re helping communities build a green schoolyard, plan for climate change in a coastal community, or protect their drinking water.
We also use this model to guide our own organization’s work internally, so our team works together in a way that reflects the kind of collaborative leadership we want to bring to our partners and communities.
Willamette Partnership’s Collaborative Leadership Model is adapted from work on collaborative governance to “engage constructively across the boundaries of public agencies, levels of government, private and civic spheres, in order to carry out a public purpose that could not otherwise be accomplished.”
Discovery: Building a shared vision that meets the needs of partners involved and communities that could be impacted. This vision defines and motivates future phases.
Definition: Building the collaborative tables and processes needed to refine and work toward that shared vision.
Deliberation: Managing information, processes, and relationships needed to make good decisions together.
Determination: Making and communicating the decisions needed to launch partners into joint action.
Joint action: Building on the unique skills and mandates of different partners to actively work together toward the shared vision.
We use this model to help design and facilitate collaborative processes that are inclusive, effective, and cohesive. The model can help partners with different backgrounds and experiences find a shared language, understand the collaborative work they have already done, and map out the steps they have ahead of them. Even groups of people working together that don’t think of themselves as formal collaboratives can benefit from the sense of structure and momentum this model provides.
Discover how we’re using the collaborative leadership model in action to support the Eugene-based Pure Water Partners.
Check out our other initiatives of work.
Cover photo of the Oregon Water Celebration in 2021 by Mesa Communications.
