Transform your Team’s Work through Effective & Joyful Collaborative Action and Shared Leadership
Apply to the Remote Cooperative Leadership and Management Training!
Attend the free informational call for Level I!

Strengthen Your Cooperation

Invest in your leadership and register for Level I today for cooperative practices and tools. This intensive course is designed to tap into YOUR brilliance as a grounded cooperative leader to handle the complexity, conflicts, and joys in your team.

Some highlights of the training are:

  • Democratic Management Tools
  • Increased Leadership Capacity
  • Real Solutions to Harmful Dynamics
  • Beyond Delegation to Ownership
  • Better Manage the Never Ending Tasks

Learn more and apply here!
Applications due Friday, April 23rd, 2021!

Tension-Driven Meetings for Coops in Uncertain Times

Try reframing your next few online meetings with gathering the “tensions” from the team to get at the heart of the matter. Over time, you’ll find yourselves more human-centered and agile as you source your agendas from your team to align on the work together, tap into the needs of those on your team, and build engagement across space.

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Visiting Mondragon: 7 Lessons on the “Sovereignty of Labor”

In the Fall of 2019, I visited the Mondragon Cooperatives through the Saint Mary’s Masters of Cooperative Management Field Research course taught by Marcelo Vieta. Before I left for the field research trip, I was attracted to the Mondragon Principle “Sovereignty of Labor”. There is so much to say about this worker cooperative operating at such a large scale. I decided to dive more deeply into how the Sovereignty of Labor shows up in multiple aspects of life, work, and...
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3 Collective Decision-Making Pitfalls to Avoid

 Decision making is such an important part of our teams and of life. We make decisions all the time! Some of us take these actions quickly, snapping our fingers and heading off in the direction of our choosing. Others take longer to deliberate, examining every factor like a precious gem.What is your decision-making style when you have a big opportunity ahead? Do you trust your gut? Do you do a lot of research?How does your team make decisions? Do you tend to defer to...
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7 Solutions for Accountability in Cooperation

Accountability. It's a topic that comes up over and over again in our cooperatives, non-profits, organizing spaces, and even relationships. So, how do we support each other with clarity, care, and movement toward accountability? Well, often, you can integrate processes, patterns, and morale that support you and your team members to be more accountable to each other. We've designed the Cooperative Leadership Certification Program (CLCP) to integrate micro and macro...
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10 Keys to Collaborative Leadership In Action

  Erica Buswell is the VP of Programs at Maine Farmland Trust and she is one of our most recent graduates of the Cooperative Leadership Certification Program. Maine Farmland Trust is a member-powered statewide organization that protects farmland, supports farmers, and advances the future of farming. Erica does food systems work because she knows that good things happen when people come together around food. In her completion of the program, she shared some of her...
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“Learning to use Collab tools has dramatically increased my level of confidence in addressing complex situations in my organization and with our clients and partners. Where before I had vague intuitions and far more desire than knowledge about democratic processes, now I can competently assess trouble spots, suggest processes that address people’s needs for participation as well as structure, and use these processes myself to make concrete progress.”

Noemi Giszpenc, Level I Graduate 2017
Executive Director, Cooperative Development Institute

“it’s been really liberating, professionally, to recognize that tensions are a natural part of teams; that they really just stem from the human experience of being in community.”

Erica Buswell, Level I Graduate 2018
VP of Programs, Maine Farmland Trust

“It was definitely a great learning experience that I’ve enjoyed. Lots of great tools that are beneficial to my work and organisation.”

Omar Senhaji, Level I Graduate 2018
National Specialist, Co-operators General Insurance Company

“It was so good to find a real tool to support teams to be more open, fast, and transparent. The training really engaged me!”

Cristina Vela, Level I Graduate 2018
Business Consultant, NextYou

“Collab has been transformational! Not only am I more conscious now of the implicit power dynamics in my teams and organizations, but I have the tools to make them explicit and to help transform them. Collab has filled a lot of gaps in my knowledge and practice of collaborative leadership and has immediately resulted in tangible positive outcomes for me and my teams.”

Kristen Del Simone, Level I Graduate 2018

“The Collab course (Level I) has really broaden my horizon in the space of organizational management for effectiveness and efficiency. I have begun implementing the Standard Meeting Practice with my team, and every one seems to have found the “Aha” moment in their professional journey.”

Francis Ghunney, Level I Graduate 2018

“My participation in Level I happened just at the right time and with the right people. The content made both the way I organise myself and my relationship to others more harmonious. I am a facilitator in soft skills, dialogue, co-creation and collaborative leadership and Level I has helped me make the content of what I deliver even more integrated and relevant.”

Atikah Lorot, Level I Graduate 2018

Learn More About the Level I Training!