HackMD
Exploring Intentional Collaborations
The following discussion topics offer one way to structure an initial exploration of explicitly incorporating intentional practices within an emerging collaboration.
When beginning a new collaboration, we often dive into creating the ‘what’ without taking the time to develop a shared understanding of why we choose to collaborate with each other on a specific project, and how we intend to relate well with each other along the way. In contrast, understanding why we are collaborating can provide a foundation for exploring how we can create a given what in ways that align with our shared values.
In these discussions, a project can be any collaborative endeavour - it may involve temporarily sharing a specific space (e.g., during a retreat), co-creating a space together (e.g., while co-living), participating in a series of recurring activities (e.g., mutual aid organising), being part of an outcome-focused team (e.g., in worker copperatives), contributing to a long-term collective (e.g., affinity groups), or cultivating ongoing relationships of any kind.
Each configuration of people, and even the same configuration of people collaborating on a unique project, invites and enables us to practice intentionally relating to each other while coordinating our efforts on a purposeful activity that contributes to a specific output or goal.
Investing time in foundational relational practices also offers us an opportunity to be more intentional about when and why we commit to specific collaborations. Fortunately, there are many intentional processes for being explicit about how we relate to across various contexts.
While these processes are particularly relevant to collaborations that explicitly practice consent-based participatory decision-making practices, it is important to remember that all relationships are collaborations and all work is relational work (and that even when our work isn't explicitly collaborative, it is mediated by and impacts our ways of relating).
The following steps offer a starting point for exploring more intentional collaborations:
- Articulating Motivations
Before begining with the more detailed sets of discussion prompts linked below, take a moment to identify what brings you to this particular collaboration oppourtinity.
If unsure where to start, individually reflect on each of the following prompts and then discuss the degree to which you have a shared understanding of the reasons that prompted this collaboration
- How did this (potential) collaboration emerge?
- Have we got a specific project on which we are wanting to collaborate (more) intentionally?
- What do we each hope to achieve by collaborating on this project?
- Are there any other intial intentions motivating this collaboration?
Discussion prompts for exploring the degree of alignment between our individual values for why we want to collaborate within a specific context. Building on this, it aims to support articulating a shared understanding of the values we want to express while acting together during our collaboration.
This set of disucssion prompts builds on an appreciation of shared values to explore the context within which we can make meaning together in more detail, and identify whether we are currently in a position to collaborate on a given project.
This set of discussion prompts builds on an initial alignment of our expectations to start the ongoing 'gardening' work of cultivating shared intentions for how we hope to relate with each other, including the ways in which we might better navigate conflict together.
This set of discussion prompts is intended to help articulate specific commitments for the potential shared-future that is emerging through the collaboration so far.
tags: intentional collaborations, discussion-prompt,collaborative-practices, intentional-relationships, meta-communication
Date initially created: 2023 (originally titled 'Preemptive discussions for intentional collaborations')
Version: 2.0 (2024)
Created for: Intentional Collaborations Project
Attribution: created, based on collaborations with Bridget Mullins and Susan Basterfield, by E. T. Smith on unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people.
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