Collaborative Leadership Summary

The book Collaborative Leadership by Chrislip and Larson was an interesting read with great insight regarding how to tackle critical issues and challenges many communities face today in a new and meaningful way. Using real, varied examples of complex community based predicaments that were navigated successfully utilizing a collaborative leadership approach, authors Chrislip and Larson were able to outline ways to take up complex community issues by unifying a diverse, often frustrated group of citizens in a way that enables them to overcome bureaucratic barriers and legacy process. At the core of the book, Chrislip and Larson indicate that “successful collaborative initiatives depend on a thorough understanding of the motivation and the context

for working together” (Chrislip, Larson 55). It is this understanding and focus that ultimately unites citizens from many backgrounds to achieve a better community for all.
During the first section of their book, Chrislip and Larson focus on describing the premise of collaboration, which is about bringing the right groups of people together, ensuring they are well informed about the issue at hand and any known roadblocks, and providing them with an opportunity to create a strategy for overcoming the issue.

While it seems simple, the authors later provide greater detail and unveil the complexity and challenges within collaborative leadership. The authors also discuss traditional leadership and why it is failing citizen and communities during the first section. The authors site increasing complexity within society along with fragmentation of traditional power within towns, cities, and counties within our country as the primary reasons for failing traditional leadership. Citizens are more diverse than ever, yet they are focused on individualism. Traditional leadership fails to prevent societal division from occurring when these diverse citizens come together with their individual needs. This division has resulted in frustrated citizens and leaders

alike.
The second section of Collaborative Leadership maintains a heavy focus on the “how-to’s” of collaborative leadership.

The section begins with an overview of “six exemplary cases” of complex community issues addressed in various U.S. cities utilizing collaborative leadership (Chrislip, Larson 39). The authors then continue on to discuss what they have identified as the critical keys to successful collaborative leadership. Per Chrislip and Larson, for an initiative to achieve its goals utilizing collaborative leadership, there are things that must be organically present or purposely formulated into the collaborative process to ensure success. These things are “a good timing and a clear need, strong stakeholder groups, broad based involvement, credibility and openness of the process, commitment of high level leaders, visible leader involvement, support of established authorities, an ability to overcome mistrust and skepticism, and strong leadership of the actual process” (Chrislip, Larson 52-53). In addition, there must be a deep understanding regarding the need to collaborate. Group members from varied backgrounds need to understand why all experiences, opinions, efforts, and ideas are needed and the group at large must “buy-in” to the idea that the resolution itself requires the input and buy-in from the all members of the varied group. Section two then continues on to reveal why this type of collaborative leadership can be difficult and how each of the critical things needed

can be achieved as demonstrated in the six case examples.
The third and final section in the book Collaborative Leadership opens by providing some basic information about two other kinds of leadership: tactical leadership, which is like what we would see on sports teams or in the military and positional leadership, which is much like structures commonly seen in today’s workplaces. The book contrasts collaborative leadership with these other leadership types and begins to discuss the skills required to be a strong collaborative leader. The reader is introduced to the idea that the skills required for collaborative leadership are very different from tactical leadership because a collaborative leader is protecting and reinforcing a process rather than directing work and effort and commanding people. Collaborative leaders also must be able to inspire people to commit to a cause and take action, and be able to sustain that commitment and action. In this section, the authors point out that “collaborative leaders are decidedly visionary – but about how people can work together constructively rather than about a particular vision or solution for a specific issue” (Chrislip, Larson 146). A successful collaborative leader can get community members to take on challenges together in a whole new way.
As I read through the book Collaborative Leadership I was very intrigued by the prospect of introducing the collaborative leadership approach into my community and my place of work. I immediately agreed with the authors when they discussed the concept that traditional leadership is failing communities and citizens. I believe this failure is a direct result of the complexities that now exist within society and our communities. Changes in the makeup of the family unit, along with problems introduced by poverty and drug use, and the general instabilities in our economy and political landscape have added complexities to community issues that traditional political and business leaders cannot comprehend on their own because they just cannot relate to the issues.
Traditional leaders are unable to independently understand why traditional tactics net failures instead of change due to their inability to relate to the issues or to the citizens impacted by the issues. Only broad based, collaborative leadership rooted initiatives can tackle such complex societal issues. Yet, more often than not traditional leaders continue to rely on traditional tactics. As the authors deftly point out, collaborative leadership is very different from traditional leadership and these stark differences are likely the root cause of the struggle to move to a more common platform of collaborative leadership within communities. Traditional leaders are resistant to change. This results in citizens that have become frustrated and have a lack inspiration to try. In order to overcome a cycle of failed initiatives and frustrated citizens, today’s leaders must commit to learning more about the principles of collaborative leadership so they can immerse themselves in the process, reconnect with their constituents and make real progress tackling today’s very real issues.
The second section of Collaborative Leadership was the section I found most interesting. It is in this section that Chrislip and Larson began to share details and insight regarding challenges faced when attempting to engage in collaborative leadership. The authors also discuss key requirements needed to engage in collaborative leadership successfully. During chapter four of the book, the authors explored specific things that make collaborative leadership in communities difficult. I strongly identified with Chrislip and Larson’s writing when they indicated that challenges that come up when attempting to engage in collaborative leadership to address a community issue “reflect the inability of people to work together constructively. They have little to do with the substance of the issues or problems” (Chrislip, Larson 63). As I read through the rest of the section, I continued to return back to the concept that the success of a collaborative leadership initiative truly seems to rely on the ability of a diverse group to work together. Each key requirement of collaborative leadership is built on this premise… Whether you are building a constituency to address an issue or engage in change, or building trust while a group identifies a root cause of a community problem, or even celebrating successes along the way, I feel Chrislip and Larson clearly paint a picture that demonstrates that people from all walks of life must learn how to work together.
Having really connected with the importance of the ability to work together in a collaborative leadership initiative, I found myself relating the authors’ work back to my place of employment. While researching collaborative leadership in the workplace, I found a very interesting article written by Carol Kinsey Goman providing tips for engaging in this activity. I felt the tips themselves provide heavy support to Chrislip and Larson’s belief that challenges found in collaborative leadership are rooted in people’s struggling working together. Early in the article, Goman states that “successful collaboration is a human issue” (8 Tips). Goman continues on to discuss the importance of relationship development very early in the collaborative leadership process. Much like Chrislip and Larson, Goman expresses that collaboration is built upon the development of trust and common understanding of the issue at hand, regardless of the perspective or the walk of life. I agree with her statement that “the outcome of any collaborative effort is dependent upon well-developed personal relationships among participants” (8 Tips). I feel that if a group of people are able to push differences aside and understand that even if the impact they feel from an issue is different, their commitment to issue resolution is true and strong, a group can begin to build a foundation for collaboration, build commitment to the process, and truly achieve transformational success.