As the 2012 Emerging Leaders Program fellows celebrated their commencement, keynote speaker Jeff Swartz, former CEO of Timberland explained that real collaboration is hard.  He congratulated the fellows for the work that they have done over the past ten months to practice collaboration, and he applauded their organizations for recognizing the importance of this new leadership paradigm.

A key component of the Emerging Leaders Program is the work that the fellows do in leaderless teams.  Each team is comprised of individuals from the Corporate, Nonprofit, and Government sectors.  Each team reflects the gender and ethnic diversity of the cohort.  Each member brings different skills and experiences to the team.  Together, the team is tasked with helping a selected nonprofit organization further a key component of their strategy.  In order for the team to succeed, it is essential for them to bring to bear all of their unique experiences, resources, and networks.  It is critical that they each be open to, and learn from, one another’s perspectives.

Real collaboration is hard but, as Jeff noted, real collaboration is the only thing that leads to real solutions.