“[We] design internally and externally. [We] design knowing that every space is curated to produce outcomes. We design ancestrally to produce beauty, joy, and liberation.”
~william lamar, organizer
this is our core work.
it is in “design-based collaborative problem-solving”—collaborative design, for short—that our varying skill-sets combine to take their most impactful form.
when we invite you to “get together,” “grow together,” and “go together,” collaborative [re]design facilitation is the context in which we first witnessed this happening time and time again.
when we say, “get to the better you seek faster and with the assurance that when you arrive you’ll be ready to handle whatever you encounter,” we are basing that on feedback clients have repeatedly given about collaborative design facilitations we’ve been a part of.
when we describe our 4 areas of service—design, facilitation, strategy, and advisory—as stand-alone or sequential offerings, we are actually describing the components of a collaborative design facilitation that in a few days moves teams, departments, organizations, institutions, coalitions, networks, or ecosystems through a year or more of trial-and-error.
the thing is: it’s not just another meeting. it’s a design session, a design forum, or a design project. it’s an investment. an investment that has to be understood based on the amount of time, energy, and money you will spend both intentionally and unintentionally over the next year trying to work around the specific compound, complex, or compound-complex problems that must be resolved in order to reach the level of change you want to make.
if you are ready to make real change and recognize the importance of doing so collaboratively, let’s get started.
collabyrations | DESIGN SESSIONS
meeting co-design, a collabyration |kəˈlab(ə)-rā-SHən|, usually starts with the request for us to moderate an event or panel. from that point forward, we use our skill in collaborative process to help participants and stakeholders unpack their spoken and unspoken desires for the program and begin to co-create an encounter—not just a performance—that will produce those results.
collabyratories | DESIGN FORUMS
multi-day collaborative design forums, collabyratories |kəˈlabər-tôrēs|, are unique opportunities to co-create the policy, programmatic, or systemic outcomes that your organization, coalition, or other community of goodwill has been talking about for so long. within 2 – 4 days we can move you through 6-18 months of trial-and-error utilizing a proven blend of collaborative processes, tools, environment, time, and facilitation teams of three or more working around the clock.
preparation for a collabyratory begins no less than 6 weeks (preferably 6 months) out with a discovery day—a 3-6 hour deep dive—with the sponsor design team. the SDT is usually comprised of 3-8 individuals including authorizing executives, project implementation leaders, and other key stakeholders. at this session, we explore the need for the collabyratory, develop objectives for the session, and drill into the crucial questions that need to be answered. over the proceeding weeks, we continue to flesh out crucial questions and constraints as well as identify potential participants, plan the preparation needed for success, and deal with session logistics (timing, venue, etc). the SDT sets the table and charts the course for the main forum, where moving through the overarching process of OBSERVE-ORIENT-ADVANCE, invited participants unravel complexity, prototype possible solutions, and then field test them.
collabyreakthroughs | DESIGN PROJECTS
multi-phase collaborative design projects, collabyreakthroughs |kəˈlab(ə)-rāk-THro͞os|, are iterative facilitation encounters to tackle problems (1) whose level of complexity and/or (2) whose varying groups of stakeholders involved necessitate the work be accomplished more deliberately over time. these two conditions are actually rare. often people who are change-makers in name only will reach for a slower process because it feels safer. in actuality, unless it is absolutely necessary, all taking too much time to solve for a problem—particularly problems predicated on the misuse of power—accomplishes is that it gives existing systems time to adapt to or outmaneuver the proposed changes.
a legitimate collabyreakthrough often begins with an intelligence gathering and analysis or an organizational equity audit and intervention map. intelligence gatherings or audits clarify what is needed to get from there to here and allow collabyrinth to be clear about contributions we are equipped to make, while making recommendations for potential service partners who can lend skill sets we cannot.
