Cool Collaborations

Welcome back to Cool Collaborations for Season 2. To kick things off with a bang, I’m joined by Ryon Stewart and Christine Jenkins from NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. Both Ryon and Christine are Challenge Coordinators at NASA, which means they bring crowdsourcing methods and expertise to bear on problems facing NASA and agencies across the United States. In this first part of our conversation, Ryon and Christine talk about their backgrounds and how they came to be Challenge Coordinators, how the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation has enabled the used of crowdsourcing, and then we dig into crowdsourcing itself with examples of what kinds of solutions have come from the crowd. 

To find out more about the Center of Excellence and crowdsourcing projects at NASA, here’s a few links you might find interesting. 

• Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation 
• NASA Tournament Lab
• Ryon Stewart, Open Innovation Development
• Christine Ragno Jenkins, Business & Technical Integration
• Be part of future NASA Challenges by subscribing to the NASA Crowdsourcing Listserv

Tune in for Part 2 of the conversation with Ryon and Christine in the next episode coming out in only two weeks. Be sure to subscribe to the Cool Collaborations podcast with your podcast provider and share it with a friend you think would enjoy listening. 

Your host for the Cool Collaborations podcast is Scott Millar. Scott is the principle of Collaboration Dynamics, where he often works as a "peacemaker" by gathering people with different experiences and values and helping them navigate beyond their differences to tackle complex problems together. 

• Defining purpose in collaboration 
• Connecting people and building trust
• Harnessing creativity for novel solutions

• Collaboration Dynamics 

In this episode, we talk through insights into effective collaboration and how our leadership within both collaboration and hard, emotional conversations should be how we all show up in these spaces.

Often, we involve people in our process with the aim of achieving something, of getting to a ‘result’. My conversation with Chief Storm Rider Stephani Roy-McCallum points to a more effective approach; one where people come first, and the issue comes second. 

Stephani is an expert in creating space where people can build the relationships that lead to trust and then results and solutions. 

• Getting to know Stephani
• People’s motivation to collaboration
• An exploration of the meaning of collaboration
• Getting the right people in the room
• Leadership in collaboration 
• Facilitating vs. Leadership
• Defining courage
• Putting down the collaborative space
• Creating a successful collaboration 
• People who have and are influencing Stephani

• Author and consultant – Harrison Owen 
• Author and speaker – Otto Sharmer
• Author and speaker – Parker Palmer
• Buddhist teacher, author, nun and mother – Pema Chödrön
• Researcher and author – Peter Coleman
• New Zealand Prime Minister – Jacindra Ardern
• Governor of New York – Andrew M. Cuomo
• Mayor of Victoria, British Columbia – Lisa Helps
• Book by Parker Palmer - Healing the Heart of Democracy
• Book by Robin DiAngelo – White Fragility 

Find out more about Stephani at Bravely Lead and look into her Brave Spark Leadership program.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss any of the cool collaboration content and then share with your friends and colleagues. Don’t forget to sign up for other interesting collaboration tidbits at Collaboration Dynamics.

I’d love to hear your stories about collaboration success. Drop a comment in below to tell all about the highs (and the lows) you’ve encountered in crafting a collaborative conversation.

For episode 18, I’m joined by Gordon Lambert, retired from Suncor and from a 16-month long assignment as interim CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator. We’ve been having some great conversations recently and I’m looking forward to hearing about what it takes to set up the Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, the first energy industry collaboration that included the sharing of intellectual property. Please enjoy our conversation. 

• Gord’s background
• A view of collaboration
• COSIA (Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance)
• Collaboration and acceleration
• Collaboration and sustainability
• Alberta’s culture of collaboration
• A book suggestion

• Gord Lambert
• Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA)
• Oil Sands Community Alliance (OSCA)
• Brundtland Commission – Our Common Future
• COSIA Carbon XPrize
• Clean Resource Innovation Network (CRIN)
• Clean Air Strategic Alliance
• Book: The Dance of Change: The challenges to sustaining momentum in a learning organization by Peter M. Senge

Now it's your turn

Gordon Lambert is retired, but you might still be able to connect with him through his LinkedIn profile. 

Your comments and ratings in Apple Podcasts and other providers are really important, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Most importantly, suggest to your friends that they subscribe and share as well. Don’t forget to sign up for other interesting collaboration tidbits at Collaboration Dynamics.

My guest today is Andrew O’Keeffe, author of Hardwired Humans and The Boss. Coming from a background in human resources, he began to see patterns in the kind of behavior he was seeing in organizations undergoing change. He was inspired to understand the links between our human instincts and the implications for leadership in our modern, office-based world. 

For our conversation today, we touch on the nine human instincts from Hardwired Humans, but then peel back some of the layers on a few of those instincts most influential when we collaborate. Andrew talks about chimpanzees, elephant seals, humans, and so much more. Please enjoy our conversation. 

• The nine instincts
• Social belonging and collaboration
• Factors beyond grooming
• Loss aversion
• Instincts and creativity
• A book to share
• A Dr. Goodall anecdote

• Andrew O’Keeffe at Hardwired Humans
• Book: Hardwired Humans, Successful Leadership Using Human Instincts by Andrew O’Keeffe
• Professor Nigel Nicholson 
• How Hardwired Is Human Behavior? – Harvard Business Review article by Nigel Nicholson
• Dr. Jane Goodall, primatologist – The Jane Goodall Institute
• Inner Work Life – Harvard Business Review article by Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer
• Book: The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work by Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer
• Author: Anthony Trollope

Andrew can be reached through his website, Hardwired Humans. Be sure to check out the leadership training and other information he provides on the website, but also his two books Hardwired Humans and The Boss. 

Please subscribe to the podcast. It is the one thing you can do to keep my conversations with interesting collaborators going. Feel free to suggest to your friends that they subscribe and share as well. Don’t forget to sign up for other interesting collaboration tidbits at Collaboration Dynamics.

Catrin Owen, Deputy City Manager of Communication and Engagement for the City of Edmonton is my guest today on Episode 16 of the podcast. Ever since I met Catrin through a meeting of the Guiding Coalition for Public Engagement on which I am a volunteer, I’ve wanted to ask her about how collaboration fits into the kinds of public engagement and city building work she and her team lead for the City of Edmonton. And so, here is the episode where I get to do just that. Please enjoy our conversation.

• Catrin Owen on being a Deputy City Manager
• Listen, Learn, Lead
• Municipal questions suited to a collaborative approach
• Examples of Edmonton collaboration
• Going virtual – digital engagement
• A book to share

• Catrin Owen
• City of Edmonton – Public Engagement and
• Connect Edmonton: Edmonton’s Strategic Plan
• The City Plan
• The Edmonton Insight Community
• iyiniw iskwewak wihtwawin (Committee of Indigenous Matriarchs)
• Book: Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
• Author: Malcolm Gladwell
• President Barack Obama

If you want to get in touch with Deputy City Manager, Catrin Owen, she can be reached through the City of Edmonton website. Be sure to look her up and some of the resources she mentioned. 

Your comments and ratings in Apple Podcasts and other providers are really important, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Most importantly, suggest to your friends that they subscribe and share as well. Don’t forget to sign up for other interesting collaboration tidbits at Collaboration Dynamics.

Have you ever wondered how collaboration is taught in University? Here on episode #15, I’m joined by Dr. Janet Moore, Professor or Professional Practice at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Moore co-creates, co-designs, and co-teaches the Semester in Dialogue program at Simon Fraser. In this episode, we explore dialogue, connections between dialogue and collaboration, and how all of this carries into the Semester in Dialogue and teaching students about dialogue and collaboration. 

• Dr. Moore introduces herself
• Dialogue and collaboration
• Sustainability and collaboration 
• Surprises from dialogue
• Semester in Dialogue
• Virtual delivery
• A book to share

• Dr. Janet Moore
• Semester in Dialogue at Simon Fraser University
• The SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
• Dr. William Rees, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia
• Dr. John Robinson, Professor, University of Toronto
• Georgia Basin Futures Project
• Pema Chödrön – The Pema Chödrön Foundation
• Book: The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer
• Center for Courage and Renewal

Please check out the Semester in Dialogue and connect through Simon Fraser University if you’d like to get in touch with Dr. Janet Moore.

Your comments and ratings in Apple Podcasts and other providers are really important, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Most importantly, suggest to your friends that they subscribe and share as well. Don’t forget to sign up for other interesting collaboration tidbits at Collaboration Dynamics.

Liz Weaver is the Co-CEO of the Tamarack Institute and the Strategic Leader of the Tamarack Learning Centre, and I have the great privilege of have a conversation with Liz for episode 14 of the podcast. You might have noted from some of my earlier episodes that I feel collaboration is an important means with which to make big changes in the world. And so, I have been looking forward to this discussion with Liz because she and the Tamarack Institute are thought leaders in the area of community change. Many of my earlier guests have mentioned Liz as someone with whom I should connect. Well, it’s taken until episode 14, but here we are. Please enjoy our conversation. 

• Introducing the Tamarack Institute 
• A little bit about Liz Weaver
• How does collaboration show up?
• Collective Impact
• Examples of Collective Impact
• Collaborative Leadership
• Contrasting forms of leadership
• Books to share

• Tamarack Institute
• The Forum for Youth Investment
• Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction 
• Fair Fares Calgary
• Book: The Collaborative Leadership Fieldbook: A Guide for Citizens and Civic Leaders by David D. Chrislip
• Collective Impact
• Book: Community Conversations: Mobilizing the Ideas, Skills, and Passion of Community Organizations, Governments, Businesses and People by Paul Born
• Book: Power: A User’s Guide by Julie Diamond

Be sure to check out the Tamarack Institute’s website, because it is chock full of great information, tools, training, and the ability to connect with others. As Liz mentioned, it’s intended to be an open-source resource for community change practitioners. 

Your comments and ratings in Apple Podcasts and other providers are really important, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Most importantly, suggest to your friends that they subscribe and share as well. Don’t forget to sign up for other interesting collaboration tidbits at Collaboration Dynamics.

For this episode, I tried something a little different. I was joined by both Anthony Boxshall and Max Hardy, from Australia, for a dive into Authentic Co-design. We explore the stories of Authentic Co-design came from and some of the different angles on how, when, and why you would use a co-design process. In our conversation, Max brings the engagement expertise while Anth brings the leadership, scientist, and government expertise. They are quite the team and I very much enjoyed having this conversation with them. 

• Introductions to Max and Anth
• Authentic Co-design in action 
• Emergencies and co-design
• Leadership and co-design
• Books to share

• Max Hardy at Max Hardy Consulting
• Anthony Boxshall at Science Into Action 
• Authentic Co-design
• Book: New Power: How Power Works in our Hyperconnected World, and How to Make it Work for You by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms 
• Book: Collaboration Design: A Step-by-Step Guide to Successful Collaboration by Mark Elliott
• Book: Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari 

It’s hard not to get excited about the insights offered by Max Hardy and Anthony Boxshall. If you enjoyed this conversation, Max and Anthony can be reached through the Authentic Co-design website. Don’t forget they offer a couple of different packages for training that you should check out. 

Your comments and ratings in Apple Podcasts and other providers are really important, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Most importantly, suggest to your friends that they subscribe and share as well. Don’t forget to sign up for other interesting collaboration tidbits at Collaboration Dynamics.

I’m joined by Kerry Graham, one of the co-founders of Collaboration for Impact which is an Australian organization which is working to support systems-level change on important issues like youth incarceration, social issues, health, and more. This is incredibly interesting work, because its dealing with issues that are often created by the system itself – about making change that is bigger than any one organization or group. I think you’ll enjoy this look at collaboration from a system perspective and hearing some of the stories of this type of collaboration. 

• A little about Kerry
• Collaboration for Impact
• The Maranguka Project, New South Wales
• Hands Up Mallee in Mildura, Victoria
• Leadership in a system’s change 
• Power dynamics
• A book to share

• Kerry Graham
• Collaboration for Impact
• Platform C
• Book: Humankind – A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman 

If you want to get in touch with Kerry Graham, she can be reached through the Collaboration for Impact website. Be sure to look her up and some of the resources she mentioned. 

Your comments and ratings in Apple Podcasts and other providers are really important, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Most importantly, suggest to your friends that they subscribe and share as well. Don’t forget to sign up for other interesting collaboration tidbits at Collaboration Dynamics.