COLLABORATION / UNLIKELY ALLIES

Who you choose to work with right now matters more than what you say you believe.

When systems face uncertainty, the instinct is to turn inward.
But over time, that instinct becomes a risk.

Isolation can look like strategy.
Alignment starts to narrow.
Perspectives shrink.
Decisions become more insulated.

Improving outcomes has never been the work of one office, one program, or one organization.

Especially now, it depends on alignment across people, roles, and partners.

Stewardship asks something different.

Sometimes that means working with the partners we’ve always worked with.

Other times, it means working with people we wouldn’t normally choose—

but who are necessary to move the work forward under these conditions.

I see this tension not just inside systems—but across organizations that are rethinking how they show up, partner, and influence in this moment.

Stewardship shifts the question.

From:

“Who agrees with us?”

To:

“Who is necessary to move this work forward right now?”

That’s a harder question.

But it’s the one this moment requires.