services
Many communities face complex health, social and economic challenges that can only be solved through systems-level approaches. Often, they have tried to collaborate to address these challenges but have failed to see results. Liminal Collaboration helps individuals, groups, and communities collaborate more effectively and navigate the uncertain and ambiguous space between identifying a challenge and seeing positive results.
We help create collaborative environments that are safe and open, support experimentation, and challenge established norms – encouraging people to tap into their collective creativity, work across boundaries, and generate innovate solutions.
Collaborative Leadership Facilitation and Training
Collaboration Lab in the Dan River Region (NC/VA), Class of 2023
Our research and experience, along with the collective wisdom of others, has led us to a set of key ingredients that we have seen repeatedly lead to a collaborative’s success. We used these ingredients to develop a framework which follows three concurrent pathways that, if attended to, can help groups work together much more effectively.
We have also explored the mindsets and skillset that it takes to lead and facilitate collaborative groups. We use the principles of co-design to provide trainings and learning opportunities that blend these two concepts – both the “how tos” of collaboration and an opportunity to enhance collaborative leadership skills.
Most notably, we developed a cohort-based model that takes groups on a learning journey over a year to initiate a collaboration or enhance an existing effort, all while activating each participant’s leadership potential. We also provide individual training, shorter intensive programs, and customized learning opportunities.
Group Coaching
We provide guidance and support to communities who have identified a complex issue and know they must work across sectors to solve it. Often, individual people or organizations have tried and failed, and the community knows that a new and more collaborative approach must be taken. However, they are uncertain about how to take the first steps.
We help communities navigate the collaborative process, which is unlike traditional methods of planning. It requires bringing together a diverse and reflective group of people and organizations, developing an open and credible process, and collectively moving toward action – as peers. It requires building trust, sharing power, and embracing the mess that will inevitably follow.
No two collaborative groups are alike, and we spend the time to deeply understand the context and nuances of each, which helps us fine-tune the support we share to take individual groups farther in their process and realize their goals.
Technical Assistance for Leaders
Many organizations and community leaders are looking to embrace a new style of leadership, including more people in making the decisions that affect them, gaining more diverse perspectives on issues, and engaging those not typically at the table. We work with funders, government agencies, nonprofits, and civic organizations to shift to a more community-driven and collaborative approach.
This looks different for each organization and can include direct coaching and/or organization-wide planning efforts. We guide organizations through a process to operationalize their missions through strategies and tactics that bring people together, build collaborative muscle, and involve community in helping shape policies and practices.
Resource Development
As people and organizations put collaborative approaches into action, it can be helpful to have supplemental content, tools, and resources to refer back to and serve as a guide through the collaborative process. We develop materials for groups and initiatives, such as customized collaboration guidebooks, collaborative effectiveness tools and leadership assessments, reflective exercises to build collaborative leadership skills and self-awareness, and activities to support meeting facilitation and design, for example.
As we work with leaders, we strive to create new and helpful resources that don’t currently exist, while also scanning the field to find beneficial resources from our partners. Our goal is to develop materials that are user-friendly, can be adapted to many different collaborative groups, and can be used or applied in a practical way to overcome an obstacle or help groups make important decisions together.