Presenter: Caitlyn Rogers
Authors: Caitlyn Rogers
Faculty Advisor: Matt Sanders
Institution: Utah State University
Collaboration is a word that is casually thrown around by countless organizations, and yet not everyone agrees on what collaboration means or what it looks like. Working on another research project, I found that river and watershed organizations in the Intermountain West regularly listed collaborations and partnerships as both their top obstacles and top factors of success (Flint et al., 2021). I set out to explore why these views varied so greatly by interviewing dozens of organizations in Colorado about their views on collaboration. The aim of these interviews was to get an idea of what collaboration means to these organizations, how important collaboration is to the organization, and who these organizations seek collaborations with. Preliminary analysis indicates that most of these river and watershed organizations consider collaboration an essential, though difficult, part of their work that is to be entered into with as many other stakeholders as possible. However, these groups have varying ideas on what collaboration looks like and what its purpose is. I will share the themes found in these discourses on collaboration, and how those differing views may affect relationships with other stakeholders and effectiveness in reaching organizational goals.