Stakeholder engagement is a fundamental part of building sustainable communities. Business leaders, citizens and government decision-makers must all develop new skills and capacities for productive multi-stakeholder collaboration including:

• The ability to think systemically and work across boundaries with others who have different interests, values, cultures and history.
• Leadership skills that build trust and mutual understanding rather than require power or authority, to gain the cooperation of others.
• Processes that build social capital and strong multi-stakeholder networks.

While there is a growing body of academic and practical knowledge about consensus building and conflict resolution, our understanding of how to foster and support learning and innovation by networks and whole communities is more limited.

The Collaborative Learning and Innovation Group catalyzes and supports collaborative action on sustainability issues through its executive workshops on stakeholder engagement, research on collaborative learning and whole system change, and round table meetings and forums on emerging issues.