ABSTRACT
Skillfully managing, leading, facilitating, and negotiating collaboration is difficult. This chapter introduces the strategic collaboration approach and the expertise that grounds the development of more refined, nuanced, and specific knowledge and skills for success. Strategic collaboration deliberately focuses on desired outcomes, products, or results throughout the collaboration’s evolution or life cycle. Strategic collaboration produces three typical outcomes: outcomes related to the successful operation of the collaborative effort; deliverables and outcomes related to the established goals of the collaboration; and overall results. In strategic collaboration, the analytic knowledge area grounds the effort’s work in methods and analysis that are both more intentional and inclusive. Intentionality speaks to the need for a systematic examination of the forces calling for a collaborative effort, while inclusivity speaks to the need to actively engage stakeholders to build or enhance shared understandings and elicit commitment to the collective effort.
