Commentary: Goals and Collaborative Advantage: What's the Relationship?

• Author: William Potapchuk
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12678
• Published date: 01 November 2016
• Date: 01 November 2016

Goals and Collaborative Advantage: What’s the Relationship? 925

William Potapchuk is president of

the Community Building Institute, which

helps communities and organizations

thrive through inclusive and collaborative

processes. He also serves as senior advisor

to the Democracy Fund and as adjunct

professor in the School for Conflict Analysis

and Resolution at George Mason University.

E-mail: bill@communitytools.net

Commentary

I n my work in conflict resolution, consensus

building, and large-scale collaboratives, I have

found that articulated and shared goals can anchor

institutional commitments to a collaborative initiative.

But ostensible goals can also mask real intent and

underlying interests. Goals can be ambiguous with

amorphous boundaries. They are also far from

immutable.

What is a goal? John Bryson, Fran Ackerman, and Colin

Eden ’ s article, “Discovering Collaborative Advantage:

The Contributions of Goal Categories and Visual

Strategy Mapping,” notes that goals can be categorized

in ways that “help articulate collaborative advantage.”

Using the authors’ framework, I reflected on two

large-scale collaborative efforts with which I have

William Potapchuk

Community Building Institute

Goals and Collaborative Advantage:

What ’ s the Relationship?