June 2025
Deep Collaboration—build on decades of experience between First nations and other Australians—asks us to:
This is not a criticism, it’s an invitation. Deep Collaboration asks everyone to move from from being stuck in identifying as being the problem or being the solution. It’s about moving to a place beyond both.
This can be especially hard for people who are used to seeing others as the cause of the problems they work on.
It can also be hard for people who feel paralysed by fear of ‘doing the wrong thing’.
Others will too.
If we cannot admit we are wrong or have to ‘look good’ all the time, then we will struggle to be part of a shared ‘middle space’.
Deep Collaboration requires us to accept these mistakes and not punish people for taking risks or not being perfect. We also need to understand how people in the group and our organisations treat mistakes as well.
Often, we think of our position in the community, our job or our money. But there are many different kinds of power—and we all have it in some form.
When we don’t understand our own power and misunderstand other peoples’ power, we get stuck with the same systems, ideas and outcomes in the past.
Much of this thinking comes from colonisation. This makes the relationship between First Nations and other Australians more difficult.
In Australia, most of us do not like conflict.
Often, we see conflict in workplaces and communities hidden away or under the surface.
It is rare to openly talk about these disagreements and seek to understand where they come from.
Yet conflict can be a valuable tool – particularly in the work of Deep Collaboration.
‘Hot spots’ are naturally occurring points of tension signaling potential breakthrough in a collaboration.
They can be fiery conversations. Or the moment everyone goes silent.
We tend to shy away from these moments. But if held carefully, they can lead to insights, learning and potential breakthrough.
The work at this stage in the collaboration is to ‘hold steady’. And stay with the heat of tension, so we can deep our ability to collaborate.
Interested in growing alongside other curious First Nations and other Australians? Learn more about Deep Collaboration here.
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