In May 2008, David Hanna attended the Tamarack Institute three day Collaborative Leadership Workshop in Canada. David chairs the Management Group of Inspiring Communities' Community-Led Development Trust.

Reflecting on the workshop, David says that participants had to confront a number of paradoxes around the notion of collaboration but that key resource person, David Chrislip, understood well this paradoxical landscape in which many groups operate. Some of the issues explored were:

• Collaboration is not exclusive of competition. Sound planning needs to be balanced with openness to what emerges and is unplanned. All communities are dynamic and events or opportunities can occur serendipitously.

• How do we allow an organisation to form (and re-form) in a way that doesn't isolate it from the energy (need / aspiration) that was its source? History has shown us that organisational structure can destroy the vision. Our use of words such as ‘viral organisations', ‘exchange', and ‘networks' is a positive way of confronting this issue.
• There is a creative tension between complexity and simplicity. We talk of simple solutions to complex problems. We need to try and capture the simplicity of the journey.
• A staff review exercise known as the Reflected Best Self is a valuable research- backed tool focusing on strengths without undervaluing the importance of recognising weaknesses. (Let us know if you want information about this.)

It was fabulous that David's participation was an example of collaboration in action with Wesley Community Action, the Community-Led Development Trust and Barnardos supporting David.