Collaboration is Alive and Well in Canterbury

Yesterday, a group of Canterbury business and organisation leaders spent a little time with four outstanding collaboration practitioners and a subject-matter expert in that space. It was an unforgettable experience.

The practitioners, Duncan Gibb, GM, SCIRT; Vince Barry, CEO, Pegasus Health; Paul Lonsdale, Councillor, Christchurch City Council; and Dr Tom Richardson, CEO, AgResearch, are all engaged in significant collaborations that are shaping our city and province, and are exemplars of collaborative leadership.  All have diverse backgrounds and experience, but all spoke with a common voice about the hallmarks of their successful collaborations:

  • a compelling and shared Vision (the big WHY)
  • Creativity and Innovation in designing solutions
  • clear Plans and performance monitoring
  • Execution excellence
  • robust Personal Leadership; engaged, resilient, visible, communicative, situational
  • performance Recognition and success Celebration.

Subject-matter expert, Dr Michelle Shields, presented on the recipe for collaboration; involving mindset, method and mayhem, reinforcing the practitioners’ experience with current leadership and collaboration thinking. She identified a set of specific tools and methods that support successful collaboration including:

  • Active Listening
  • PRES model
  • Appreciative Inquiry
  • Systems Thinking
  • Visualisation tools.

This event, hosted by Organisation Development Institute with net proceeds donated to St John, inspired all who attended to step up their own collaborative leadership and make a real difference through the collaborations in which they engage.