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Collaborative Problem-Solving
TRAINING AND CONSULTING
Communities and organizations face complex challenges that no single person or institution can solve alone. The people closest to those challenges bring valuable ideas, relationships, and experience. A well-designed collaborative process equips them work through disagreement, develop solutions they can support, and build share ownership of what comes next.
Through the Convergence Learning Lab, we offer customized training, workshops, and consulting grounded in our evidence-based collaborative problem-solving approach. We can help you design and lead the work, strengthen your team’s ability to lead it, or combine both.
DESIGNED FOR LEADERS IN
GOVERNMENT
FOUNDATIONS
BUSINESS
HIGHER EDUCATION
HOW IT WORKS
Who We Work With
We work with businesses, the public sector, foundations, nonprofits, higher education, and community organizations.
You might be:
- Bringing together people with different perspectives to address a shared challenge
- Navigating disagreement that is preventing your organization or community from moving forward
- Turning promising ideas into shared decisions and commitments
- Building partnerships across sectors, communities, or perspectives
- Equipping leaders and facilitators to guide collaboration across differences
We tailor our support to your goals, the people involved, and where you are in the process.
How We Work Together
- Listen: We learn about your goals, the challenges you face, and the people involved.
- Shape: Together, we define the scope, format, and level of support that fits your needs.
- Work together: We deliver the training or guide the collaborative process in partnership with you.
- Carry forward: You leave with practical skills, shared solutions, or clear next steps, depending on your goals.
Our Approach: Designing Backward from Action
Successful collaboration produces more than shared ideas. It helps people develop solutions they can support and commitments they are prepared to carry forward.
We design backward from that goal. Before shaping the process, we work with you to answer four questions:
- What problem are we trying to solve, and what decisions need to be made?
- Whose perspective, participation and ownership are essential for lasting impact?
- What could stand in the way of putting solutions into practice?
- How can the process build the relationships and commitments needed for action?
Built on the strengths you already have. You bring knowledge of your community or organization, relationships, and expertise. We bring experience helping people work across differences to solve difficult problems. Our support can focus on a particular stage or extend from early discovery through implementation planning.
OUR OFFERINGS
TRAINING AND WORKSHOPS
Build the skills to lead collaboration across difference.
Our customized trainings and workshops help leaders, staff, and facilitators bring people together, navigate disagreement, and guide groups towards shared solutions and commitments. Participants practice skills they can apply in their organizations, communities, and collaborative efforts to drive real change.
Topics include:
- Collaborative problem-solving mindsets: Understand division and conflict; practice curiosity, humility, and self-awareness; and work toward solutions without requiring agreement on values or ideology.
- Communication, trust, and conflict navigation: Listen to understand, identify underlying interests, navigate constructive disagreement, and build or repair trust.
- Collaborative process design and facilitation: Design inclusive processes, facilitate across differences, manage participation and power dynamics, and help groups build consensus.
- Moving from ideas to action: Develop solutions that address participants’ underlying needs, assess feasibility, clarify responsibilities, and build ownership and accountability.
We tailor the focus, length, and format to your participants’ experience and goals. Trainings and workshops are available in person and virtually.
CONSULTING
Design and lead a process that moves your work forward.
When a challenge involves competing priorities, strained relationships, or multiple stakeholders, the process matters. We help you determine who needs to be involved, how to engage them, and how to move from disagreement toward solutions people can support.
Our consulting support can include:
- Discovery and stakeholder engagement: Understand the challenge, hear different perspectives, and identify the people and conditions needed for progress.
- Collaborative process design: Create a process suited to your goals, participants, and decisions.
- Facilitation and convening: Guide conversations that help participants build trust, work through differences, and develop shared solutions.
- Action planning: Help participants assess feasibility, clarify roles, and establish commitments for carrying solutions forward.
We can support a specific meeting or stage of your work, or partner with you throughout a collaborative process.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is collaborative problem-solving?
Collaborative problem-solving brings together people with different perspectives, experiences, and priorities to address a shared challenge. Participants build trust, explore the needs behind their positions, and develop solutions they can support without having to agree on everything. Helping shape the shared solutions builds ownership and a stronger foundation for action.
How is Convergence different from a typical facilitator?
Convergence combines experience addressing complex public issues with a practical approach to building trust, navigating differences, and developing consensus solutions. For nearly two decades, we have brought together people across ideological, political, sectoral, and cultural divides. We apply that experience to your context, designing processes that connect relationship building and productive conversations to decisions and action.
Do you work with organizations outside Washington, D.C.?
Yes. We work with organizations and communities across the country at the local, state, and national levels. Training and consulting can be delivered in person or virtually, depending on your needs.
How long does an engagement take?
The timeline depends on your goals and the scope of support. An engagement may involve a single workshop or convening, a series of sessions, or a collaborative process over several months. We will recommend a timeline based on the work involved, participants’ availability, and your resources.
Can you tailor a training for our team?
Yes. We tailor trainings to your team’s goals, experience, and challenges. Together, we determine the topics, length, and delivery format that will be most useful for your participants.
CONTACT US TO LEARN MORE
Tell us about the challenge you are working on or the skills you want to build. Hannah Ollenburger, will be in touch to explore the right support for your organization or community.
