Collaboration contract

Activity concept

Participatory processes are about working together. But it is possible that many people are not familiar with the type of collaboration that this implies. It might also be that you will be working on controversial topics about which people feel very strongly. Because of that, all the people taking part in the process, including facilitators and the experts, should agree on a basic set of rules for collaboration and discussions. This can be communicated by the organisers top-down during the >welcome, but it is much better to allow participants develop their own set of rules, as this tends to increase commitment and already helps create a shred sense of community. In line with the principles of deliberation, such ‘contract’ should at the minimum include attentive listening to each other and openness to changing one’s mind, but you can add elements to this that are linked to the topic or >methods you will use. For instance, if you are developing a futuring workshop, participants should set free their imaginations and not feel constrained by a fear of being judged, or you can add rules that relate to interactions with animals and the environment. It can be about not using plastic cups for coffee or not harming the insects that you might encounter during the process (e.g., during the >guided tour). Ideally, the contract should also include commitments from the side of the commissioning body (e.g., a municipality, if this is a process organised by a public institution) on the >follow-up.

Stage: Opening

Format: In person, Online, Hybrid

Work Modality: Plenary

Location: Outdoor, Indoor

Duration: 30mins

Topic(s): Pollinators

Tools

Post-its, Pens, crayons etc..., Flipchart, Tables and chairs

Team

Facilitator / moderator, Note taker

If this activity is run online, make sure you have the support of a technical moderator for managing the digital whiteboard and breakout rooms.  

Process

To run this activity, you can use the tried and true 1-2-4-all tool from Liberating Structures, which allows to snowball ideas by moving step-by-step from individual reflection to plenary discussion. Strat by asking ‘What kind of rules should we agree on to guide our work together?’, and invite everyone for a couple of minutes of silent reflection. Next, participants share in pairs their initial ideas, asking clarifying questions. Afterwards, invite couples to get together to form groups of four. These should consider the similarities and differences between them and formulate their ideas as rules. In the last step, when everyone gets together in the plenary, participants group the drafts and finalise them by merging similar proposals and discussing their core points. At this stage, you should also check that the group agrees on each of the final rules. Before you close this activity, make sure everyone had time to read the full ‘contract’. At the every end, you can invite everyone to ‘sign’ it. It’s up to you how formal you want to make it – from putting down a signature on the flipchart to simply nodding in agreement.

If you do this online, you can use a digital whiteboard and breakout rooms for splitting participants into couples and groups. This latter element will involve some mastery of videoconferencing tools, as participants have to be moved into groups of different constellations very quickly. 

Compatibility

• This activity is best to carry out after activities that help participants get to know each other, like for instance >If you were a…? exercise.
• This activity mirrors in miniature the development of recommendations, so if your process is focused on developing recommendations for a public institution, this can be a great warm-up exercise before this bigger task.