Collaboratio helvetica is self-organised and operates along the collaboration principles of Sociocracy 3.0. The collective decision was taken to embark on a learning journey and to explore the Conscious Leadership approach by the Conscious Leadership Group.

Organisational learning is important for all contexts, yet more important still for innovative, action research-based, prototype driven initiatives. Dedicated to catalysing social change in Switzerland, collaboratio helvetica designs and runs prototypes and experiments in order to find ways to achieve this goal, and often the learnings from these are the most valuable outcome of the projects.

Difficult conversations are an essential part of meaningful collaborations. A big part of changing the ways we work together implies changing the way how crucial conversations within an organisation take place. Many of the social tools we use at collaboratio helvetica, including dialogue, 4-levels of listening and liberating structures, among many many others offer different methods to have deep conversations that allow everyone to be heard, and any topic to be discussed. But are these conversations also successful in terms of outcome? Do we achieve what we gather for in the first place?

“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Prototyping refers to building or creating a small but essential part of a larger project in order to see if it works as envisioned. It is rooted in ‘doing’ - development, testing, evaluating, reiterating. In the original framework of Theory U, it is the definitive step into concrete action, while staying closely connected to the deep mindset shift that happened in the previous steps of the Catalyst Lab journey and to the source of our intention.

At collaboratio helvetica we believe in catalysing change by bringing people together and sharing an inner and outer exploratory journey, as a necessary preparation for collective action. What happens in such a collective space, like a Social Innovation Lab?

What takes place in such spaces, including the Catalyst Lab itself, is individual and collective learning. But what is learning, and how can we create and cultivate an environment where it can take place?

Any collaboration has its ups and downs and, if we are paying attention, offers an abundance of learning opportunities for all involved. Even when all are trained in collaboration tools, such as Sociocracy 3.0, and have developed key skills, such as self-awareness and listening, things are bound to go awry at some point.

From sometimes being overly naive and just believing whatever people were telling me despite evidence to the contrary to being worried and criticised for not “trusting” someone - I’ve had all kinds of experiences related to trust. Do you trust people always?