About Us

If you’ve spent some time reviewing www.Collaborative-Leaders.org and had a chance to skim through the second edition of Collaborative Leadership: Developing Effective Partnerships for Communities and Schools, then you know that the work of the Institute has been aimed at developing a science of collaboration and collaborative leadership. While we're confident we have a way to go before learned societies and academic degrees start cropping up in the field of Collaborative Leadership, we’ve made significant contributions by developing a Conceptual Framework, tools, vocabulary and rational models to guide research, assessment, planning, interventions and training.

Three decades ago, a small group of educators founded the Institute for Collaborative Leadership to help public leaders become effective collaborative leaders. In August 2008, our Board revised the Institute’s mission to establish ICL as “ … a public charity dedicated to strengthening progressive public sector collaborations by advancing knowledge, skills and effective practice of collaborative leadership in all sectors through research, training, advocacy and best practice." Today, ICL retains this mission as a private thinktank, coaching and training corporation.

For a number of years, the Institute served as a research, advocacy and publications center based in Chicago. Several years ago we inaugurated operations in Washington DC in order to introduce our work and offer our focus and resources to national partners. Today, based in Rochester NY, we continue to offer our services internationally. ICL is dedicated to improving the capacity of civic, nonprofit, education and government leaders to build, manage, encourage and support successful collaborations.

So, here’s a sampling of what we bring to the table:

Leadership Coaching & Partnership Planning: Sometimes Coaching is all that’s needed and exactly what’s called for; quiet counsel, a sounding board, an experienced and objective perspective that introduces the tools, rigors, and benefits of Collaborative Leadership into the reflection, planning and action of leaders and leadership teams.
Professional Development Workshops: Tailored to meet the unique needs of each client, ICL PD Workshops are comprised of one or more brief, fun and intense sessions that can cover the range of baseline introduction to common knowledge, vocabulary, skills, and understanding of the power and limitations of collaboration through sophisticated strategic and tactical skills of collaborative leadership.
Collaboration Audit: Based on Collaboration’s Life Cycle, ICL’s Collaboration Audit is an assessment and planning tool for existing collaborations and a design and planning tool for new collaborations. [A process tool that guides the development of new – and helps to pinpoint where and how to intervene to strengthen existing – collaborations.]
Self-Assessment for Collaborative Leadership: Based on the Dimensions of Collaborative Leadership, ICL’s Self-Assessment helps leaders evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as collaborative leaders and develop professional development strategies. [A People tool to help guide recruitment and professional development of collaborative partners and reflection on the skills, values and climate that contribute to effective Collaborative Leadership.]
Strategic Planning Facilitation & Coaching: Along with decades of strategic planning experience with large and small nonprofit, government and education organizations, agencies and networks, ICL's unique Leadership Change Model, assessment tools and instructional resources help clients develop plans that are functional, dynamic, measurable and make a difference!
Collaboration Retreats: ICL Retreats engage collaborative partners (participants in new or existing collaborations) in developing or strengthening their collaboration. Generally, Retreats entail an inaugural session of one or two full days plus at least one subsequent full-day session some 6-10 weeks later. They employ our Audit and Assessment (plus other tools and exercises including Constellations of Relationships***). There are two types of Collaboration Retreats:

Retreats to Launch New Collaborations [Working with individuals and groups at the very beginning: ICL helps new partners do it right, right from the start.]
Retreats to Renew Existing Collaborations [ICL works with partners and stakeholders within existing collaborations to assess, strengthen and renew their collaboration’s productive capacity.]

All ICL Retreats begin with a focus on mission: What are the important purposes of the collaboration?

We’ve kept the costs modest, to conform to our mission and reflect the economic environment of schools, nonprofits and public agencies.