COSA andd the Specialty Coffee Association asked expert panelists about their approach to sustainability collaborations and what works and what does not in this 60-minute webinar.
Tuesday 11th April 2017 at 04:00 PM GMT (11:00 AM EST)
Prior to the Specialty Coffee Association’s Global Expo in Seattle on April 20 – 23, knowledgeable panelists from RGC Coffee, SCA, Sustainable Food Lab, UTZ, and World Coffee Research discussed their most successful and their most disastrous collaboration approaches, and how they made it work in this discussion coordinated in partnership between the SCA and COSA.
Lessons of collaboration
- Patience as each partner needs to be considered and their contributions honored adequately in order to bring forth their best
- Take the time to invest in alignment and clarity about the purpose and the role of each collaborator
- A shared vision is necessary to move forward but it is also valuable to have diversity in terms of perspective of thinking and problem-solving
- Make sure that each knows that there is value for the time they are investing and that there is a valid business case with a reasonable return on investment (ROI)
- Listen regularly and be willing to re-align as needed
- Start with known allies in order to move quickly, especially at the beginning
- Build in goals for continuous improvement to avoid stagnation as the collaboration progresses
- Pick the right leader, not necessarily the most senior but certainly the one who can dedicate adequate time and has appropriate organizational and motivational capacity
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