The collaboratio helvetica story
…or “How to fail your way forward”
In 2017 people from different Swiss organisations met, all of whom were committed to societal transformaton in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. Up to that point they had all worked hard and persevered. They were qualified and talented. They celebrated successes and yet did not really make progress at the pace and scale they knew were needed. Together they realised that despite shared values and the will to work together, they often found themselves working in silos or competing instead of collaborating.
Representatives from the private sector and administration, NGOs such as Impact Hubs Bern, Geneva & Zurich, foraus, euforia, Coworking Switzerland and GreenBuzz as well as potential donors began to think together about how it might be possible to meet the challenges we face as a society. New approaches, new methods and cross-sectoral collaboration were needed - guided by the slogan of the 2030 Agenda "Tranforming our world". With the SGDs as an overarching framework, they have jointly founded collaboratio helvetica - called collaboration hélvétique at that time. The objective was to become a self-sustaining platform that catalyzes open collaboration between business, government, and the civic sector to solve the most important challenges of our time.
The conviction that one person, one organisation, one sector of the economy cannot save the world has been at the heart of every project, every decision, every single reflection of the collaboratio helvetica community ever since. How do we overcome polarisation? How do we enter dialogue? How can real collaboration work? And finally: How do we prevent what no truly one wants? The melting of glaciers, animal suffering in industrial meat production, the gender pay gap: nobody wants it and yet it happens - over and over again. But the ecosystem of collaboratio helvetica does not point fingers, accuse or drive division, but promotes the understanding for the interrelations and root causes of today's societal challenges. The Switzerland of tomorrow is to be thought and co-created together.
Over the years, the systemic approach on which the work of collaboratio helvetica is based has found a growing number of supporters. Looking at challenges in isolation from each other and wanting to solve them individually will not lead us anywhere. The need to move beyond fighting the symptoms is becoming obvious and understood by more and more people.
Collaboratio helvetica has been on a journey since its foundation in 2017. A journey with many obstacles and stumbling blocks. A journey in which experimenting, being bold and leaving the beaten track are key. A journey whose destination is unknown. On such a journey, the so-called failures and defeats were obviously numerous - both at the project level and at the organisational level. Collaboratio helvetica initiated Social Innovation Labs right after its foundation - and met the systemic challenges that had been identified on a societal level beforehand: everyone was bootstrapped in their own organisations with small budgets and resources. Or there were the regulations of foundations and other donors: they made it difficult, often impossible, to support an organisation that prioritises social innovation and prototyping towards systems change. The openness of a process that seeks solutions did not fit with the system of KPIs that foundations use to allocate funds and measure success. You could say: Collaboratio helvetica had to fail its way forward - and it still does.
Today, collaboratio helvetica has a stable core team, a loyal community, convinced funders and a nationwide network. The road from a start-up with its highly ambitious vision to an established organisation with a voice in Switzerland in the field of social innovation is still bumpy. But collaboratio helvetica's methods, approaches and tools are convincing more and more changemakers, organisations, foundations, and decision makers. We learn as we go. Strongly believing in what is said to be a quote by Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Andrea Bärwalde is in charge of communications and media relations at collaboratio helvetica. She is a communications consultant with a broad experience in different companies and organisations on a national and international level. Andrea is passionate about storytelling and the “translation” of complex content for a broad public. Keep it simple and clear to be heard and understood. She holds an MBA in Sustainability Management. Her motivation is a deep conviction that systemic change is possible, but must be driven together - with new forms of collaboration, creativity, empathy and generosity. Being part of collaboratio helvetica allows her to contribute to social innovation, new forms of collaboration and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Switzerland - all by combining her professional skills with her values and passions.