F1: M., researcher EUR
Many collaborations start with a “coalition of the willing,” but ideally you need a “coalition of the needed”—those required to solve the problem. Coalition of the needed are the parties you truly need to solve the problem. The coalition of the willing are the ones who want to join; they’re not always the same.
F2: F., researcher barca
identify a purpose and convey it to stakeholders, define some preliminary governance
F3: M., Digi
Collaborations can start in two ways: either a client comes to us with an assignment, or we at DigiCampus identify an opportunity ourselves and then look for funding or an enthusiastic client to take ownership. So it varies. When it comes to where I add the most value, it’s in the connecting role. We work with many different organizations, and naturally, each tends to focus on their own piece — sometimes even keeping their work behind closed doors. I invest energy in breaking through that, making sure everyone collaborates and communicates openly. Bringing those organizations together is what I see as my most important contribution.
F4: M., Digi-ICTU
At the start of any collaboration, I try to set up a clear governance structure: who is responsible for what, how decisions get made, and how to escalate if things don’t go as planned. What those agreements look like depends on the scale — a few-month project with two partners is very different from a three-year EU-funded program with a consortium of seven. The latter requires nearly a year of preparation before you even start, with KPIs and deliverables already written into a grant agreement. Changes are possible, but require formal approval.
F5: A., PBA
It starts with translating the initiating party’s goals — often framed in their own language and interests — into something all partners can agree on and contribute to. An NGO and a multinational will look at the same objective very differently, so part of the work is finding the version they can jointly own, with each bringing complementary strengths.
F7: L., PBA
In theory they say, build relationship and then do something.
In reality you build the relationships by doing something. Until you do something to share your value, it’s hard for the stakeholders to believe this party is actually going to add value instead of just talking about it or doing something they assume would help but is not actually needed.
Tend to get further with 1 on 1 conversations. In group there is a lot of hierarchy involved. When a senior partner is invited in the room, the rest won’t say anything anymore. Try to do individual meetings first and have a group meeting later in the process.
F9: J., Novum
At the start of a new project, the Innovation Designer establishes working agreements, role definitions, and a shared understanding of the challenge — he explicitly acknowledges that not everyone sees the problem in the same way, and that bringing those perspectives together is one of the first steps. He does this by designing a programme, always in consultation with the client. The scale and format of that start-up phase varies per project: a session with twenty people requires more preparation than one with four. Furthermore, the start-up phase is already prepared from a portfolio perspective by the PM, who has verified the right people, ownership, and preconditions at the front end before the project actually gets underway.