Touchstones for Collaboration

adopted March 2020

Be present as fully as possible. Speak our truth from our hearts and minds.
Listen generously to each other’s truth. Trust that we all hold a piece of the puzzle and we need each other’s pieces to understand the whole picture.
Embrace differences and be open to learning from each other.
When the going gets tough, suspend judgment and get curious. Be quick to forgive and ask open questions to understand.
Honor each other’s learning and resourcefulness. Trust we each will learn and contribute in our own way, that there is no need to “fix” each other.
Make space to pause and reflect to deepen our thinking.
Be willing to have meaningful conflict to create unprecedented goals and solutions. When needed, seek counsel for help with conflicts.
Allow our ideas to be developed further by others.
Seek common ground. When we can’t fully agree, we commit to seeing what happens from a humble posture of learning, reaching a decision we can all live with.
Accept that we will sometimes fail, but will learn together and move forward, also known as failing forward.
Help each other to have the confidence to spread our wings, be creative, and take on new roles.
Balance our yearning for change with patience for the process of change and growth.
Make the way we work together be an example of what’s possible.