Insights
Field notes from the science and practice of collaboration.
What the evidence tells us. What we have learned designing collaboration in the real world. And what becomes possible when people, organisations and systems learn to work better together.
Start here
Four articles that set out how we think about collaboration — as a design discipline, a system, and a measurable return.
Collaboration Is a Design Discipline
Why the quality of the connections matters as much as the quality of the people.
02Collaboration Is a System, Not a Soft Skill
Trust matters. So do purpose, information flow, governance, coordination and the way the whole system fits together.
03What Happened Because We Collaborated?
A practical way to think about Return on Collaboration — the value created that could not have been created alone.
04Psychological Safety Is Necessary. It Is Not Sufficient.
Psychological safety helps information surface. Collaboration becomes powerful when safe voice is paired with productive challenge, accountability and the ability to turn truth into action.
The science of collaboration
What the evidence says about how groups actually perform together.
- Collaboration Is a System, Not a Soft SkillTrust matters. So do purpose, information flow, governance, coordination and the way the whole system fits together.
- Psychological Safety Is Necessary. It Is Not Sufficient.Psychological safety helps information surface. Collaboration becomes powerful when safe voice is paired with productive challenge, accountability and the ability to turn truth into action.
- Positive Psychology Has Something Important to Teach Collaboration SciencePositive emotion, meaning, relationships, strengths and agency are usually discussed at the individual level. Collaboration design asks what happens when we treat them as resources for collective capability.
- The Hidden Cost of ConsensusGroups often equate harmony with collaboration. But premature consensus can suppress information. Strong collaboration preserves difference long enough to improve the decision, then uses clear rules to move.
Designing collaboration
Turning intent into conditions, structures and practice.
- Collaboration Is a Design DisciplineWhy the quality of the connections matters as much as the quality of the people.
- The Facilitator Is Becoming a Collaboration Systems DesignerThe workshop is only one intervention in a collaboration system. The next generation of facilitation designs stakeholder composition, governance, information flows, technology and follow-through around the room as well as inside it.
- From Convening to Collective ActionA room full of aligned people is only potential. Collaboration creates value when alignment becomes coordinated action.
- Data Does Not Create Transparency. Relationships Do.A shared dashboard cannot fix a relationship in which participants have good reasons to withhold information. Collaboration design has to make data sharing purposeful, safe and mutually valuable.
Systems and planetary scale
Coordination problems that no single organisation can solve alone.
- Humanity's Biggest Problems Are Coordination ProblemsClimate, biodiversity, water, food, pandemics and AI governance are not owned by any single actor. Their difficulty comes partly from fragmented authority, incentives, knowledge and time horizons.
- The Sustainable Development Goals Are Really a Collaboration ArchitectureThe 17 SDGs are usually treated as a list of outcomes. Their deeper value may be as a shared language for coordinating governments, business, finance, academia and communities across interdependent challenges.
- Stop Building Partnerships. Start Building Collaborative Systems.Partnerships connect two organisations. Systems collaboration asks how many independent actors can share enough purpose, information, governance and infrastructure to become collectively capable.
- Multinationals Are Not Just Companies. They Are System Shapers.A multinational's impact is not contained by its legal boundary. Procurement, standards, investment, product design and partnerships can cascade through thousands of organisations and regions.
All insights
30 insights
- 01Design & Practice
Collaborative Governance Is Infrastructure, Not Administration
Collaboration often begins with energy and goodwill. It becomes durable when purpose, decision rights, roles, information flows and accountability are deliberately designed.
CollaborationGovernanceSystems ViewRead insight → - 02Science & Evidence
Does Sociocracy Actually Work?
Sociocracy can distribute authority, widen voice and speed some decisions. The stronger question is not whether every organisation should adopt it, but which principles improve the collaboration problem in front of us.
GovernanceOrganisational CollaborationHuman PotentialRead insight → - 03Science & Evidence
Psychological Safety Is Necessary. It Is Not Sufficient.
Psychological safety helps information surface. Collaboration becomes powerful when safe voice is paired with productive challenge, accountability and the ability to turn truth into action.
Psychological SafetyCollaborationHuman PotentialRead insight → - 04Science & Evidence
Positive Psychology Has Something Important to Teach Collaboration Science
Positive emotion, meaning, relationships, strengths and agency are usually discussed at the individual level. Collaboration design asks what happens when we treat them as resources for collective capability.
Positive PsychologyHuman PotentialCollaborationRead insight → - 05Applied Collaboration
Is Your Culture Quietly Killing Collaboration?
Collaboration problems are often blamed on attitude when they are rational responses to organisational design. Culture changes when the system sends different signals about information, incentives, power and recognition.
CultureOrganisational CollaborationLeadershipRead insight → - 06Human × AI
Human x AI x Human: The Workshop Is Changing
The most interesting use of AI in workshops is not replacing facilitation. It is helping groups hear themselves - synthesising patterns across conversations and feeding them back into human sensemaking.
AICollective IntelligenceFacilitationRead insight → - 07Design & Practice
The Facilitator Is Becoming a Collaboration Systems Designer
The workshop is only one intervention in a collaboration system. The next generation of facilitation designs stakeholder composition, governance, information flows, technology and follow-through around the room as well as inside it.
FacilitationSystems ViewCollaborationRead insight → - 08Science & Evidence
The Hidden Cost of Consensus
Groups often equate harmony with collaboration. But premature consensus can suppress information. Strong collaboration preserves difference long enough to improve the decision, then uses clear rules to move.
Productive DifferenceDecision MakingCollaborationRead insight → - 09Design & Practice
Power Is Always in the Room
A seat at the table is not the same as influence. Collaboration design has to account for differences in authority, resources, status, dependency and the ability to absorb risk.
GovernanceEquitySystems CollaborationRead insight → - 10Science & Evidence
Return on Collaboration Should Become a Management Metric
Collaboration consumes time, money and attention, yet organisations rarely measure its additional value. Return on Collaboration makes the counterfactual visible: what happened because we worked together?
Return on CollaborationMeasurementStrategyRead insight → - 11Applied Collaboration
Scope 3 Is the Darling of the Collaboration World
Scope 3 turns decarbonisation into a collaboration problem. Emissions sit across independent organisations, so progress depends on influence, data, procurement, financing, capability and shared innovation.
Scope 3Supply ChainsClimate ActionRead insight → - 12Applied Collaboration
Stop Asking Suppliers for Data. Start Helping Them Decarbonise.
Supplier climate programmes often stall at data collection. The next step is designing a maturity pathway that helps suppliers measure, build capability, access incentives and change operations.
Supplier EngagementScope 3ProcurementRead insight → - 13Applied Collaboration
Procurement May Be One of the World's Most Powerful Collaboration Tools
Procurement is often treated as a transactional function. Used strategically, it can aggregate demand, reduce market uncertainty and create collaboration between buyers, suppliers and innovators.
ProcurementInnovationSupply ChainsRead insight → - 14Design & Practice
Data Does Not Create Transparency. Relationships Do.
A shared dashboard cannot fix a relationship in which participants have good reasons to withhold information. Collaboration design has to make data sharing purposeful, safe and mutually valuable.
Data SharingTrustCollaborationRead insight → - 15Systems & Ecosystems
The Sustainable Development Goals Are Really a Collaboration Architecture
The 17 SDGs are usually treated as a list of outcomes. Their deeper value may be as a shared language for coordinating governments, business, finance, academia and communities across interdependent challenges.
SDGsCollective ActionPlanetary CollaborationRead insight → - 16Systems & Ecosystems
Humanity's Biggest Problems Are Coordination Problems
Climate, biodiversity, water, food, pandemics and AI governance are not owned by any single actor. Their difficulty comes partly from fragmented authority, incentives, knowledge and time horizons.
Planetary CollaborationSystems ViewCollective ActionRead insight → - 17Systems & Ecosystems
Multinationals Are Not Just Companies. They Are System Shapers.
A multinational's impact is not contained by its legal boundary. Procurement, standards, investment, product design and partnerships can cascade through thousands of organisations and regions.
MultinationalsSupply ChainsSystems ChangeRead insight → - 18Systems & Ecosystems
GDP Measures Economic Activity. It Does Not Measure Whether We Are Thriving.
GDP is valuable for measuring economic production, but it was never designed as a complete measure of social progress. Collaboration needs the same discipline: measure outcomes and capabilities, not only activity.
ValueEconomicsHuman PotentialRead insight → - 19Applied Collaboration
Collaboration Can Be a Source of Competitive Advantage
Competitive advantage is increasingly shaped not only by assets inside the firm but by the quality of the networks, partnerships and ecosystems the firm can mobilise.
StrategyInnovationCompetitive AdvantageRead insight → - 20Systems & Ecosystems
Stop Building Partnerships. Start Building Collaborative Systems.
Partnerships connect two organisations. Systems collaboration asks how many independent actors can share enough purpose, information, governance and infrastructure to become collectively capable.
EcosystemsSystems CollaborationCollective ActionRead insight → - 21Design & Practice
Collaboration Is a Design Discipline
Why the quality of the connections matters as much as the quality of the people.
CollaborationOrganisational DesignRead insight → - 22Science & Evidence
Collaboration Is a System, Not a Soft Skill
Trust matters. So do purpose, information flow, governance, coordination and the way the whole system fits together.
CollaborationGovernanceRead insight → - 23Science & Evidence
What Happened Because We Collaborated?
A practical way to think about Return on Collaboration — the value created that could not have been created alone.
CollaborationMeasurementRead insight → - 24Design & Practice
From Convening to Collective Action
A room full of aligned people is only potential. Collaboration creates value when alignment becomes coordinated action.
CommunitiesGovernmentClimateRead insight → - 25Systems & Ecosystems
Competition and Collaboration Can Coexist
The most powerful ecosystems know where to compete, where to cooperate and how to design the boundary between the two.
InnovationDefenceProcurementRead insight → - 26Innovation & Collective Intelligence
Diversity Is an Input. Collective Intelligence Is an Outcome.
Different perspectives create possibility. Good collaboration design turns that difference into better thinking.
InnovationCommunitiesRead insight → - 27Systems & Ecosystems
The Most Important Work Happens Between the Boxes
Complex challenges cross organisational boundaries. Collaboration design makes the interfaces visible and workable.
GovernmentSupply ChainsClimateRead insight → - 28Human × AI
Human × AI × Human
AI can help groups hear more, synthesise faster and see patterns they would otherwise miss — while humans retain context, judgement and responsibility.
AIInnovationRead insight → - 29Applied Collaboration
Your Supply Chain Is a Collaboration System
The strongest value-chain transformations are built with suppliers, not merely pushed through procurement.
Supply ChainsProcurementClimateRead insight → - 30Innovation & Collective Intelligence
Innovation Dies at the Handoffs
Finding an idea is not the same as getting it adopted. The hard part is coordinating the boundaries between discovery, testing, procurement and scale.
InnovationProcurementDefenceRead insight →
Better collaboration can be designed.
If you are working on a challenge where the outcome depends on people, organisations or systems working differently together, we should probably talk.