Our systems and organizational cultures are not functioning properly. Our regulatory and legal system, too often fails both the proponent and the opponent. Why do we continue to waste time, resources and people on so many poorly managed projects? Break Through to Yes promises to deliver a method to make collaboration work for you and your company. With this book, you are guided to create the conditions that promote innovation and break through within and across your business and network. Seize this opportunity to join a movement of progressive, principled and successful leaders who are daily creating the conditions to promote innovation and breakthrough within their businesses and networks.
When I started to research this book and link ideas, my intent was to help leaders realize the innovation and power of collaboration. Now, I invite the reader to realize that collaboration is far more than just an event or series of events; collaboration is a culture. In fact, collaboration has become its own field of study, practice and evolution. We see leadership, negotiation, dispute resolution, team building, stakeholder engagement, sustainability and other topics as fields. Let us together explore the field of collaboration. And let’s develop it not only as one of several tools the reader brings to their work, but rather develop this discipline of collaboration as our way of leading.
Now is our time to lead more powerfully, consciously and collaboratively in ways that will make our world a better place today and in the future. The very best company leaders will start making this essential shift now.
In the past, we said, “The sky is the limit.” With collaboration producing multinational space exploration probes, we may say, “The universe is the limit.”
At every level, organizational leaders are looking for innovative solutions to optimize skills, perspectives, teams and ways of working together. They are unsuccessfully attempting to utilize the traditional divided structures they have relied on to date to address the ever increasingly challenging and com- plex environment they operate in. From individual families through to the American government and military, collaboration is seen as a solution. I see a collaborative culture as one that includes innovation, diversity, inclusivity, and analysis, all of which produce a successful outcome.
Collaboration has its place. Sometimes it is not the right tool for a given situation. How can we know when collaboration in its appropriate form is the right solution for the situation and when it is not? As a leader, you need a variety of tools to apply in different situations and with different people. As a collaborative leader, you will build the full and aligned tools and strengths within your organization.
Since 2005, I have worked with leaders, teams and organizations to build their skills, businesses and deal effectively with this increasingly challenging and complex business environment. I, also, do the same on a number of key volunteer boards and causes. My interests are wide and diverse:
- Here is a week (this week is from April 2015) that is typical for me:
- Negotiate on behalf of Hemisphere Energy with a multinational oil company to acquire an underdeveloped oil play near Jenner, Alberta
- Speak on Collaborative Leadership in Fernie, B.C.
- Coach a next-generation business leader on being clear on his values
- Participate in a Heart and Stroke Foundation Alberta Research evening event
- Work with ?aq’am Community Enterprises to break down the economic development barriers between Indian Bands and First Nations
- Represent eight landowners with wilderness land and cabins north of Blairmore, Alberta to push back against an Australian coal strip mining company and to consider a renewable energy initiative
- Co-host a Canadian Association of Professional Speakers Fast Track group on business development and marketing, and
- Of course, write this book.
This is an excerpt from Break Through To Yes.