Join Us

We aren't just a community; we're a thriving ecosystem of collaborative innovation and problem-solving expertise.

Our network is designed to encourage cross-industry collaboration, fostering an environment where creativity meets functionality. Together, we build, refine, and deploy novel solutions to real-world problems.

Practitioner Focus

Whether you're an experienced practitioner, or an enthusiastic innovator, we invite you to be part of our network. Connect with like-minded professionals, contribute to groundbreaking projects, and be at the forefront of industry transformation.

To join, you will need be 'in practice', have sponsorship from one of our existing members and be able to provide proof of your Professional Doctorate (DBA) status from the University.

If you are not a practitioner, we have ‘associate membership’ status for those in full time academic positions, or post-graduates studying at the MBA level. See below for more details.

Is Membership right for you?

So, what's involved in becoming a member and what are you committing to?

We have a Membership Charter that outlines expectation for joining and how member govern The Collaborative, or drop us an email.

As we are a voluntary association of individuals, this Charter is not legally binding, except where explicitly stated otherwise to protect your Intellectual property and the Intellectual property of other members. Overall this Charter aims to:

• Establish trust and alignment among members.
• Promote a collaborative approach to innovation.
• Create a fair and level playing field for all parties.
• Minimize risks and uncertainties.
• Offer guidelines for mutual understanding on issues like intellectual property.

Here's some key points you might like to consider before joining, where you:

• Need a Sponsor who is a Full Member
• Have a collaborative mindset that can work well with others, around the corner or around the world, and
• Have read and agree to this Collaborative Charter

Sponsorship

To collaborate and work well together, people need to trust each other and be committed to the partnership. This means they should spend time getting to know one another.

We think it's important for everyone to talk openly about what matters to them, what they hope to achieve, and what skills they have or need. This is how we can understand each other better and build trustworthy collaborations, so sponsorship helps to start this process.

Its worth noting that Full Members can only sponsor up to 3 new Full members in any 12-month period. This does not apply for Associate Members, as they usually get involved via the various collaborative 'projects' or enterprises, from there they may qualify to become a Full Member.

Working Together: Our Virtual Enterprises and Projects.

In a collaborative innovation network such as The Collaborative, virtual enterprises are temporary teams that come together face-to-face and online.

These teams are made up of Full Members and Associates from different places, organizations and countries, and take a project centric approach using various collaborative tools to communicate and work together on a specific goal or project.

Since we are a collaborative network, the focus is on sharing ideas and resources, where everyone brings something unique to the table, and we can all work together to solve problems or create something new and innovative.

These virtual enterprises might be formed for a single project, or a series of projects (program of work), either way, once the project/program is done, the virtual enterprise is disbanded, and people might move on to other projects or teams within the network. But the relationships and trust built during that time can be valuable for future collaborations!

The Collaborative Charter

The full version is here and in summary, its about:

• Membership: Categories, Applicaiton, Obligations and Termination.
• Governance: How governance of The Collaborative as an innovation network is executed, the various roles and responsibilities and how decisions are made.
• Intellectual Property: How your Intellectual Property (IP) coming into The Collaborative is protected, how any IP you produce alone or with other members is protected, and what happen if something goes amiss with IP.
• Other Stuff: The normal Terms and Conditions you would find in any Partnership Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, or Collaborative Charter.

Is important to remember that the Charters' sole objective is to give confidence that all members are mutually committed to the success of the network and have appropriately aligned expectations of The Collaborative and one another.

Further Reading

If you want to know more about Collaborative Innovation Networks and the use of Charters. Can we suggest Collaborative Innovation Networks: Building Adaptive and Resilient Organizations, Published by Springer, and authors like Henry Chesbrough on "Open Innovation" or Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams on "Wikinomics" that have touched upon such organizational/network structures.