It takes a system to change a system
“It takes a system to change a system.” I love that phrase. I came across it a couple weeks ago when reading British Columbia mediator/lawyer Nancy Cameron’s excellent book Collaborative Practice: Deepening the Dialogue. This book is a road map for family lawyers making the journey from traditional litigation to collaborative practice.
Now, I’m not a [...]
West Coast Wave Collaboration Project: An innovative cross-sector partnership
I live on an island (Vancouver Island) surrounded by ocean. Oceans make up over 70% of the Earth’s surface. Our proximity to this abundant resource is obvious. The energy-giving capacity of that resource is less clear. To better understand what that capacity is, the West Coast Wave Collaboration Project (WCWCP) kicked-off in June [...]
39 Insights into the makeup of innovative teams: From the 2009 IdeaConnection interviews
“To give businesses access to the world’s most creative and innovative people, who work collaboratively to solve problems and develop innovations.” That is the mission statement of IdeaConnection, a company headquartered in Victoria, BC. In the spirit of access, IdeaConnection interviews leading innovation authors, and makes the interview notes available on their website. The majority [...]
27 ways Filipinos create successful, collaborative e-Governance projects
From a global perspective, the Philippines is seriously lacking in financial resources. Of course this presents a major challenge to project delivery. Yet, increasingly I’m appreciating other ways, beyond the allocation of more funds, which contribute to project success. As I see it in practice, here in the Philippines, at the heart of those other [...]
Personal paths intersect on e-Government project in San Felipe, Philippines
The project team has been assembled and sprung into action. Each team member brings their own personal stories to the project. I thought I’d briefly share the stories of three people I’ve met this week; Frederick Torres, Elsie Alip and Mark Nery. All are members of the eBPLS (e-Business Permit & Licensing System) project in [...]
Developing staff capacities in order to sustain momentum on Philippines e-Governance project
This past week I spent time with the eRPTS (electronic Real Property Taxation System) project team in San Antonio, Zambales province, Philippines. As regular readers of this blog will know, for the last month I’ve been in the Philippines as a Volunteer Advisor to the eGov4MD project (of which eRPTS is a sub-project), with the [...]
A place where a good driver is an essential member of the project team
The place is the Philippines. The driver is Richmond Pon-an. The project is the e-Governance for Municipal Development (eGov4MD) project.
I’m here in the Philippines, as a Volunteer Advisor (VA), to the eGov4MD project, with the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO). The eGov4MD project is an international collaborative, orchestrated by the League of Municipalities of the [...]
Building a collaborative project framework
Building a collaborative project framework involves thinking about the connections between how we talk, what we talk about, and what happens afterwards. What kind of infrastructure supports making those connections?
Two things I think are essential to structuring collaborative projects are:
People need the places and opportunities to have the important conversations
Those conversations need to be effectively [...]
A metaphor for the collaborative leader
Recently, a colleague leading in a multi-party collaboration described her role to me as being a “lubricant” to the system. She told me her job was to facilitate, to connect people together who should be connected, to “grease the wheels” so to speak, and just generally remove obstacles so people could get their work done.
I [...]
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