Building a collaborative future
The perils of perma-crisis Times are hard. We know the headlines: climate crisis, the enduring impacts of Covid, the cost of living, war in Europe,…
Insights & resources
Beyond project funding: how can funders nurture healthy systems?
Collaborate has been working with the BSA to help them identify what a healthy system for public engagement with research looks like, and develop a funding programme to support this. This is the first in a series of blogs to share our learning so far.
Systems stewardship in practice: What it is and how to get started
Are you trying to collaborate across organisational boundaries but getting stuck due to entrenched behaviours, structures and ways of working? The emerging practice of systems…
Collaborate is recruiting for a new Head of Practice!
NB we have used the job title Consultant in our adverts as it is more broadly understood, but internally we use the title of Head…
Embedding our values through driving more inclusive recruitment
What does it mean to try to embed values and culture in practice throughout our organisation to help further our mission to build a more…
How flooding spurred a rethink of the relationship between citizen and state in Test Valley
In our recent work with Test Valley Council, we found it inspirational to learn about how they’ve developed relationships with local communities and embedded this…
How can funders really shift power to communities? By losing control
Collaborate’s mission and work is focused on helping create a more collaborative and equitable society. In partnership with The Social Change Agency, Collaborate co-convenes the ‘Losing…
Learning from young people’s vision for public services. (TLDR: It’s not New Public Management)
Chloë Darlington, Policy and Communications Manager at Children England contributes this guest blog during Human Learning Systems Week. Children England’s mission is to change the world…
Covid showed us collaboration is for life, not just for pandemics
Anna Randle, Collaborate’s CEO, asks what did we learn from the pandemic and how can this help us build healthier communities now? The pandemic is an…
About us
Collaborate is an innovative social consultancy building the thinking, culture and practice of collaboration to help us meet the challenges of the twenty-first century together….
Equity, diversity & inclusion
At Collaborate we know that a collaborative society must embrace diverse perspectives, embed inclusive cultures and practices and address inequitable distribution of power and resources….
From ‘Me’ to ‘We’ — Lessons on leading as a systems activist
Tackling complex social problems requires you to act beyond the boundaries of your organisation to change the systems in which these problems are embedded. In…
What does it take to change local systems?
What does it take to change local systems? Following on from two previous blogs (here and here) about our work in partnership with NPC as evaluation and…
Building a Collaborative Society: Reflections from Theodora Cadbury, founder of Xenia
In January we published our Manifesto for a Collaborative Society. Here we explore a ‘green shoot’ that helps demonstrate what a collaborative society looks like and…
Transforming local places: The potential of Human Learning Systems
Dawn Plimmer explores key ideas from the new Public Service for the Real World ebook about the potential of Human Learning Systems (HLS) in local places. Asits…
Human Learning Systems: the role of local authorities
Following the recent publication of Human Learning Systems: Public Service for the Real World — the latest instalment in a series of HLS resources — in this…
Whitehall is failing to learn Covid’s biggest lesson
This article was originally published in PolicticsHome, on the 1st July 2021. Human Learning Systems is the type of bold and radical vision that “building back…
New Human Learning Systems ebook
Building on our previous reports, A Whole New World and Exploring the New World, we are excited to launch a brand new ebook: Human Learning Systems: Public Service for…
Evaluating systems change (during the pandemic): Lessons for Save the Children’s Early Learning Communities Programme
This is the second in a series of joint blogs by Collaborate and NPC. It has been posted on both organisation’s websites. In a previous blog, we set…
Consultancy in Complexity
Collaborate CIC is a social change agency that helps people, organisations, services and systems to collaborate for social change. Wetry to influence the debate and…