We often picture collaboration as a harmonious exchange of ideas, a well-oiled machine churning out success. But beneath the surface, unseen forces can disrupt this dynamic. Trauma, whether a past event or chronic stress, can leave its mark on our nervous system, impacting how we interact with colleagues. In this blog post, Matthias Ryffel discusses how trauma can impact collaboration at the workplace and how a trauma-informed approach can foster healing processes for a better work environment.

Alexandra Choutko is an experienced facilitator, and Catalyst from the Catalyst Lab cohort 2023–2024. With this blog post, she shares her personal experiences that have brought her to where she is now, and where her initial sense of disconnection in the Catalyst Lab led her to create an intervention in the form of a radical honesty workshop.

Peer reviews are an essential component for continuous improvement and accountability within any team. In a team working with Sociocracy 3.0 (S3.0), peer reviews can be particularly powerful as they align with the principles of collaboration, consent-based decision-making, and decentralised governance.

This’s a guide on how to conduct effective peer reviews in a team using Sociocracy 3.0.

Daphne Bucher looks back at seven successful years at collaboratio helvetica. In this blog post, she talks about her learnings regarding power dynamics, self-responsibility, and personal growth in a self-organised start-up environment.

Ever had those moments at gatherings where you left feeling like you didn't really learn anything about how people are doing? Or spent countless hours with family, yet still feel like they don't truly know you? In some social circles, it's always the same voices dominating the conversation, making it exhausting. 😓 And meeting new people? Breaking through the ice can be tough.

Zusammen mit Impact Hub Zürich und One Planet Lab hat collaboratio helvetica den Changemaker Workshop Bundling Forces organisiert.

How to prepare, design and hold space for emerging and transformative collective action. Read here our findings and learnings of the Nova Helvetia journey.

“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Our vision is that organisations in Geneva and beyond leverage their full potential to use innovation to respond to societal needs by transforming their employees into intrapreneurial leaders, connected to a wider community of changemakers and disruptors that are paving the way for the new economy.

What we usually say is that Radical Collaboration is both a toolset and a mindset. We can practice being together, in relationships with one another and the collective both on a practical level as well as on a more energetic and emotional level. To practice collaboration takes a lifetime to master. In this lifelong practice, we see the Catalyst Lab as a boot camp. In order to bring upon systemic change in the world, improving and deepening your relationships is a key skill and is, unfortunately, often underestimated and practised insufficiently.

This toolbox entry describes the dialogue principles we are using in the Catalyst Lab and in other formats like Social Innovation Labs or dialogue evenings. They will give you an idea of the kind of conversation we are inviting when practising dialogue. The dialogue principles serve as a basis for facilitating different dialogue methods, for example, triads, dialogue walks, or fishbowl.

A dialogue walk is a method in which two individuals explore a question in a deep conversation while being on a walk outside. It gives participants a space to dive into a deep conversation, practice authentic sharing and deep listening, and get to know each other's perspective and experience on a topic. It can be used as part of a dialogue event or also as a sharing tool in any other form of participatory workshop.

The way we listen and pay attention in a conversation can profoundly shift the quality and depth of that conversation, and the quality of relationship we are able to build to one another. Listening is probably the most underestimated leadership and community building skill.

Factory farming, animal suffering and agricultural practices that harm the environment shape my daily life, privately and at work. The Catalyst Lab presented me with the opportunity to open a dialogue space and expand my view on how others perceive the problem around these issues through a generative dialogue – a challenging and fascinating endeavour.

Since the first lockdown in March 2020 I was struggling with a challenge: how to transfer my activities into the digital world so I can continue to develop Let’s Talk Waste. Let’s Talk Waste is an entrepreneurial project I created in 2018 to cut plastic pollution at its roots. I offer team building activities to my clients who want to promote better team cohesion while creating a culture of caring for the planet and the environment. One of the tools I developed consists of two card games aimed at triggering discussions on the impact of littering and on challenging the relevance of recycling to promote sustainable behaviors.

Triads are a dialogue tool to share experiences and insights, witnessing and offering feedback in groups of 3.

What does good and clear conversation take? There is no “one single most” important thing but one aspect we are often unaware of is the setting in which we communicate or the stage for our communication if you use the analogy of conversation as a performance.

Facilitation is the art of unlocking the power of a group through dialogue and the pursuit of clarity, engaging active participation and embracing the richness of diverse perspectives. Through facilitation the multi-faceted potential of a team is released.” - Definition by the International Association of Facilitators

Understanding human behavior in groups is highly useful in design experience based events since group dynamics play a role in any human interaction. FIRO® is a comprehensive and widely-used theory of interpersonal relations created by Will Schutz.

Striving for the illusion of perfection can cripple our self-esteem as human beings, and completely stifle our progress as a team or organisation. Instead of being overly critical, blocking others for no valid reason or never getting out there out of fear of not being perfect enough, get into the GESET mindset!