DO/ABLE partners with Cambridge Neighbourhood Organizations (CNO) to build a collaborative culture – and the underpinnings to action it.
By Kris Cummings & Suhanya Ketheeswaran
For years, Cambridge Neighbourhood Organizations (CNO) was a network that evolved organically. Its membership grew as new neighbourhood organizations came into existence. And its purpose expanded as the group discovered new ways to collaborate. Leaders within the CNO offered mutual support. They coordinated some common events and activities together. And they partnered on certain fund development opportunities.
A network decides to level up
The challenge: In 2019, members of the CNO collectively decided they wanted to become more intentional about how and when they collaborate. Doing so would allow them to build on the projects and experiences they had shored up over the years. But first, they would need to define a shared purpose – and build the other core capacities a network needs to function well.
The solution: The CNO engaged DO/ABLE as an external consultant to support them in their journey. This allowed the group to fully participate in the process without having to self-facilitate. The CNO was also able to tap into DO/ABLE’s subject matter expertise to help them build new competencies for working as network.
The work started with the identification of a common purpose. This allowed the group to define a shared aspiration and key objectives. DO/ABLE then delivered learning workshops on the core capacities of well-functioning networks. The CNO discovered how they could operationalize multiple strategies, share the work, and adapt to changes in their environment.
Through continued learning and sense-making, the group started putting these competencies into practice. This yielded entirely new structures within the CNO. The way the group came together to make decisions changed. And smaller “pods” with fewer members were created to lead and implement the results of shared decisions.
Throughout the process, DO/ABLE provided individual coaching to help leaders overcome hesitations and anything they identified as getting in the way of them practising shared leadership. And on a case by case basis, DO/ABLE also provided tools and additional facilitation to help implement strategy management.
The outcome: Cambridge Neighbourhood Organizations’ purpose comes into clear view – and a new toolkit of competencies builds each leader’s capacity within (and beyond) the network
The CNO’s work with DO/ABLE was funded by the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation as a 3-year project. The ebbs and flows in the project’s momentum, shown in the diagram below, often mirrored the ups and downs of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the multiple lockdowns that upended operations at community-facing organizations.
Even still, the CNO persevered. With each new shock, the group became more resilient. And multiple benefits emerged:
- getting crystal clear on the CNO’s shared purpose – this allowed the group to consistently refocus all of their collaborative efforts on that one big goal. This meant making faster progress on fewer competing things.
- building a mindset and skillset for sharing leadership – this allowed the group to scope and make decisions together, and then distribute task leadership based on each individual’s skills and interests. The big win from all this: the group made decisions together, but then relinquished control and built trust in their colleagues’ efforts.
- reflecting and documenting all the lessons, both good and bad – the CNO learned that building a collaborative culture requires perseverance, along with fast, bold, and transformational change upfront and careful learning and incremental change over the long-term. And because no one likes having to learn the hard way, these lessons (and more) were pulled together into this playbook to help other networks along their journey.
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