E-book: 8 building blocks for effective interdisciplinary collaboration

01
Ambitions

The first step is to explore the goals, ambitions, and expectations of all partners involved. Along with the available resources and important upcoming developments that require everyone’s attention. This exploratory phase takes time, but is crucial to laying a solid foundation and assessing feasibility.

What are the shared challenges and ambitions, and how can you go further and faster by joining forces? Are you taking a defensive approach by focusing on compliance and risk management, or are the partners more willing to go on the offensive and seek out innovative opportunities? Perhaps all partners are faced with the same challenges and can exchange best practices and lessons learned. Or maybe they have compatible resources and challenges and can provide smart solutions for each other.

1.1 Assess the shared dependencies

There are many ways to identify risks and opportunities, including the international regulations and directives on (sustainability) reporting and accountability. De Geyter et al. (1) describe three steps to go through this process:

First, identify your internal and external dependencies. These are often linked to the positive and negative impact an organization has on its environment, and they work in both directions: the societal and environmental impact that the organizations have on their environment, and societal and climate developments that impact the organization.

Second, analyze the impact and probability of these dependencies, for example, by evaluating their financial consequences, along with the probability that they will occur and over what period of time. Third, select and prioritize the risks and opportunities that you want to actively invest in and engage with.

1.2 Add focus with a shared vision

Define a shared vision of what matters most and where real impact can be created. This takes time to develop but generates real buy-in from the participants in the collaboration. Clarity on priorities is even more important when there is less formal structure within the collaboration.

There are many ways to bring hierarchy to all these individual priorities, like the Eisenhower matrix, where urgency (x) and importance (y) are mapped out along the axes. Or a matrix with effort (x) and impact (y) along the axes (Allen and Lamont). Discuss and brainstorm until you have defined your vision, objectives, and principles.

Encourage each other to be bold and brave, but remain realistic about financial resources, available man hours, and the play field. If the objectives are too bold and perceived as too much of a risk, the partners might hesitate to commit. If they are not bold enough, the effort might result in mediocre results and a waste of time.

1.3 Write the project outline

Solidify the what, how, when, and with whom of the collaboration in a few pages, and get a firm commitment on this project outline from all the partners involved.

The fruitful discussions in the first phases produce a lot of if’s and maybe’s. By narrowing down the priorities, you gain a set of principles and objectives against which decisions can be assessed. They keep focus and allow for critical questioning in every next phase. It is important that everyone is clear on what made the final cut and that nothing gets lost in translation.

This project outline also provides a tool for all partners to discuss the collaboration internally. You might consider leaving a blank space at the end where every partner can summarize ‘what is in it for them’. The final shared version may require a feedback round or two, but this is worth it if everyone was able to gather the necessary mandate and back-up. Finally, a project outline is a solid basis for productions that follow down the line, like project proposals or stakeholder communications.

Ambitions: questions to answer

What are the main common challenges and how can you solve them collaboratively?
Which topics require short-term action to sustain business operations, such as compliance with new regulations or changes in operational procedures?
How can you complement each other to maximize positive impact and reduce negative impact?
What are the (mis)alignments between shared and individual partner priorities?
When would you consider the collaboration to be a success?
What are the most important deliverables of this collaboration—such as guidelines, dialogue, product development, conservation efforts, or exploring new market segments?
What are you not going to do?

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