Many of us have come to understand that we need to reach out to new allies and partners if we’re going to make progress on the complex challenges we face. The Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015 offer an inspiring shared vision for humanity, but to practically realize them, we need a transformative approach that entails new levels and forms of collaboration.

But real collaboration is often much more difficult than we expect. Those that we need to work with are different from us. They may think differently and their ways of working, needs, values, and interests may be different than ours. Even if we have common interests and obvious reasons to work together, moving forward together can be challenging every step of the way.

This workshop will be a deep dive into the challenges and practices of collaboration. We will examine common misunderstandings and look at real life examples of effective cross-sector partnerships and multi-stakeholder alliances. We will learn how to create just enough structure for both agreement and disagreement while finding our way forward together. We will apply what we learn to our own context.