betterplace co:lab - Strengthening collaboration

The betterplace co:lab is a program of the betterplace lab. Our goal is to support civil society in its important work for social change. Because successful collaboration is central to this, we want to strengthen core competencies for collaboration: within civil society, but also beyond it in the public and private sectors. Our offering consists of two pillars: the basic workshops and the thematic clusters. In the basic workshops, our trainers teach individual core competencies for better collaboration. In the clusters, experienced coaches support a group of different organizations in jointly mastering a concrete collaboration project. Both offerings are continuously evaluated and scientifically substantiated by our accompanying research.

Our approach

There are no simple solutions to questions of economic and political participation, the management of natural resources or rapid technological development. Issues such as these require continuous social negotiation that recognizes systemic interdependencies and accepts that multiple development scenarios are possible.

This negotiation can succeed if organizations and stakeholders from all sectors learn to engage with their different perspectives. Good collaboration therefore takes time, give-and-take, and the courage to take risks. We call this collaboration.

Collaboration does not mean the transactional negotiation that we know from working with others. Collaboration means co-creative development: In a creative process, a solution perspective emerges that is more than the sum of its parts.

Structure of the program

The program consists of two components:

  • Workshop series: our experiences from the pilot phase has shown that it is difficult for many committed individuals to find the time to participate in all five modules, which build on each other. We are therefore currently offering a revised workshop series consisting of three modules.
  • Thematic cluster: Merging organizations working together on a future challenge

Workshops for full-time and voluntary employees

With our workshop program we want to support committed people from civil society - from NGOs to social collectives to political initiatives -, but also interested parties from other sectors such as public administration and the private sector who are striving for social change.

The basic assumption is that collaboration works better when all participants first become aware of their own inner attitudes before working with others. Participants are therefore trained to become aware of their expectations, their wishes and also their limits, to communicate these and to reflect on their own role in collaborating with others. Methodically, the workshops contain a mixture of impulses from the trainers, reflection exercises in small groups and elements of body work.

How does the whole thing work?

The three basic workshops take place mainly online and last three hours each. You can either participate as an individual or take your whole team and go on the journey together. The individual workshops build on each other in terms of content, so it makes sense to attend them one after the other.

Me and myself: Deepen individual competencies (workshop 1/3)
You and yourself: Deepening relationship competencies (workshop 2/3)
Me and the world: Developing field competencies (workshop 3/3)

Workshop participants have written about their experiences. You can find their reports here. We also reported the impact of the program in the first two years of the project for you.

How can I stay up to date?

Sign up for our info letter. Here we will inform you about the latest program developments and new workshop dates.

Thematic cluster

Are you part of a network of individuals, initiatives or organizations that want to implement a specific project together? Or are you planning to form such a group that wants to tackle a topic of social change, e.g. through a project on climate protection, equal rights or freedom of speech?

Then we can strengthen and accompany you in this process. In so-called thematic clusters, our experienced coaches accompany an association of several organizations in mastering a concrete collaboration project together. On the one hand, representatives of the participating organizations attend the basic workshops together to strengthen their collaboration skills. In addition, our coaches invite them to reflection meetings over several months, thus providing a moderated space to talk about the "how" of collaboration, which often gets short shrift in the turbulent daily work routine. You can reflect on vague dreams as well as on concrete processes, and also address challenges and conflicts.

What you bring:

  • 4 organizations or more (each with about 2 representatives)
  • a social issue for the future that you want to tackle together
  • a concrete project that you want to implement in 6-12 months (see above on this website)
  • the willingness to invest about 1 day per month in the quality of your collaboration and your personal development.

This is what you get:

  • 6-12 months of process coaching with our coaches
  • 2 basic workshops (3 hours each) of the betterplace co:lab
  • support in your coordination, e.g. scheduling, moderation by the betterplace lab team
  • documentation of the tools and findings of good collaboration as a result of our accompanying research

So far, we have accompanied eight thematic clusters. More information

If you are interested in becoming or funding a theme cluster, we would be happy to advise you: lisa.bogerts@betterplace-lab.org.

The second round of the co:lab program is funded by the Schöpflin Foundation and the BMW Foundation.

FAQ

Coaches

As a freelance coach, trained psychological counselor and non-medical practitioner of psychology, Bettina Rollow brings a great deal of experience in translating well-being approaches for everyday professional life. Through her training in Thomas Hübl's "Timeless Wisdom Training" and in Gestalt therapy, she has also gained several years of experience in guiding self-awareness. Together with Joana Breidenbach, she shows in the handbook "New Work Needs Inner Work" that every external change of structures and processes must necessarily be accompanied by an inner transformation.

Anjet Sekkat is a certified midwife and alternative practitioner of psychology. In her work as a trainer for Transparent Communication according to Thomas Hübl, she has been leading groups in self-awareness, meditation, communication and self-care since 2014. Furthermore, she has deepened these competencies in assisting the 3-year Timeless Wisdom training. She has been working as a mentor, coach and supervisor for different online programs (Conscious-U and Academy for Inner Science) since 2015, and she has been developing and running a training series for therapists and coaches since 2015.

Jana Schmitz has been working as a psychologist, coach and trauma therapist (NARM) in her own practice since 2021, where she focuses on accompanying individuals as well as teams and groups. She is trained in Transparent Communication according to Thomas Hübl and has built up her knowledge of consciousness and personality development as well as meditation in many seminars, workshops and trainings. She has also acquired a deep therapeutic knowledge during her many years of work at the Heiligenfeld clinics. The topic "Inner Work" is very close to her heart, not only since her training in New Work, which is why she recently published an online course "Inner Work Intensive" with her colleagues Joana Breidenbach, Bettina Rollow and Anjet Sekkat. She has been living in her hometown Berlin again since 2017.

© Annett Melzer

Sucha Gesina Wolters holds a degree in education and has worked for many years as a lecturer and social worker in adult education. She is a trainer for communication in community building processes and trained in transparent communication according to Thomas Hübl. She works in her own practice and in a psychosomatic clinic as a SE therapist/trauma counselor according to Peter Levine and assists in SE training. She also works as a coach and supervisor for individuals, couples and groups.

Rainer Höll is an executive coach, organizational developer and one of the pioneers of social entrepreneurship in Germany. He has worked in social change for 15 years and has personally advised and supported more than 100 social entrepreneurs all over Europe. Coaching clients typically work with him on difficult decisions, overwhelm, existential crisis, being on the brink of burnout, self-exploitation, conflict with their colleague, investor, the team, their co-leader.
Background: https://www.rainerhoell.net

Our Podcast

The first episode of the series "Wir kriegen die Krise." (only in German)