This document discusses how to build collaboration and learning intelligence within an organization. It outlines three key pillars for organizational transformation: mindset, environment, and dialogue. It also presents a model with six stages of an organization's ability to create collaboration and growth, from corrosion to committed collaboration. Leaders are encouraged to assess where their organization currently falls on this spectrum and focus on strengthening the foundations of the three pillars to drive momentum and shift towards committed collaboration.

1. COMMITTED
TO
GROWTH
GAINING
SHIFT
AND
TRANSFORMATION
WITHIN
YOUR
BUSINESS
THROUGH
COLLABORATION

2. Tracey Ezard is an expert in helping organisations thrive by focusing on building
the key pillars of learning intelligence. The recipe for dynamic forward momentum:
mindset, environment and dialogue. She builds the capacity of leaders and staff to
create an energy buzz about the work and alignment on the future plans. She helps
people co-create and collaborate - and most importantly, act on it!
Her background in education and her experience in working with businesses in all
sectors talking about the tricky stuff means that the things that need to be said get
said and the things that need to be done, implemented.
Tracey is well known for her high energy interactive and engaging style. She uses
visual tools to increase the collaboration and 'stickiness' of the work being
discussed and gets leaders the momentum they need for improvement.
Tracey uses the science of the brain and emotional intelligence to underpin her
approaches and frameworks on collaboration, culture and leadership.
She is the author of ‘The Buzz - Creating a Thriving and Collaborative Staff Learning
Culture’ - a book for educational leaders.
www.traceyezard.com

3. Committed
to
Growth
The
three
key
pillars
of
organisaDonal
collaboraDon
and
learning
intelligence
Do you need greater commitment, input and engagement from your staff to reach
the outcomes your business requires and the growth you need?
It’s a no brainer really - if we are able to improve and transform the way people
work together and act on our vision and strategies, the shift towards them would
gather momentum and create a thriving buzz.
The key to gaining this momentum is creating strong learning intelligence in our
organisations. This learning intelligence taps into the potential of the individuals
in our businesses and connects them to the purpose and intent of their work. It
creates an environment where working together brings about shift, alignment and
transformation.
There are a number of challenges we are trying to overcome to bring about this
transformation.
Challenge #1
Connection and collaboration
People can work in their own bubble, not necessarily aligning their own work with
the work of others, or even the business. There is little cohesion between
individuals and teams, leading to bad decisions, over use of resources, little or no
strategic action and unmet targets. People are often frustrated through the lack of
communication and interaction. Listening to each other and creating new ways of
working is not on the agenda. Trust can be low except for some of our closest
work colleagues.
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4. Challenge #2
Engagement and realised potential
Leaders are not all confident to lead discussions and rigorous debate regarding
the most strategic and effective course of action. This leads to a lack of buy in and
engagement by staff. One of the main challenges for leaders is a lack of skill in
developing individual and team growth, in skills, capabilities and in mindset.
Challenge #3
Traction
Staff who are not engaged in the forward direction of the business don’t work
together well and are often working at cross purposes. Great ideas are lost or not
even discovered and forward momentum is difficult. Opinions and solutions are
talked about in a dysfunctional way via gossip and water cooler conversations
because the processes are not in place for that input to be diverted into positive,
rigorous debate.
Finding ways to shift the status quo and make sure our business is evolving and
not stuck in the comfort zone is part of leading. Only then are we propelled
forward in our learning zone - where
growth, learning and creativity are found.
The first start up period of experimentation
and learning is followed by a time of
growth and development. Ultimately,
however, every curve turns downward.
This paper provides a framework and
practical applications for building the
learning intelligence of your organisation
and heading the curve back up. This
missing piece of the leadership puzzle will
help you gain committed collaboration
from your staff and get you realising your business’ potential.
2

5. Figure 2. The 6 stages that reflect an organisation’s ability to create a
collaborative, engaged environment of growth
Focusing on building a thriving collaborative learning environment will help you
keep above the line. Helping your leaders and staff engage in the purpose and
intent of the business through meaningful activities aimed at moving up the model
will provide the traction for growth and transformation.
Leaders of thriving collaborative environments have a co-created vision and set of
beliefs which help align staff with purpose; strong debate and dialogue to shape
strategic actions and an environment where people can work together.
Identifying where your organisation is at is a key piece of the strategic leader -
where should the effort be directed? What is it that will be the defining work that
will help us drive momentum forward?
Corrosion
This is the home of the toxic work place - people of influence seem to be
committed to creating an environment of fear and anxiety. The dreams and visions
of the organisation are far from people’s realities and there is a distinct lack of
alignment of beliefs about what should be done and how it should be enacted.
3

6. Ideas and innovations are not in evidence, due to a highly unsafe learning
environment for people to take risks, experiment or even give their opinions. The
‘speaker for the opposition’ seems to be the one that is heard the most, actively
sabotaging any forward momentum that anyone is trying to achieve. The end
result is that good people leave and you're left with the ones who should leave!
Complacency
The danger zone for business. Complacency creates a culture of ‘near enough is
good enough’ and that the best place to be is comfortably doing what we have
always done, if we sit with the status quo all will be OK. This below the line
behaviour and culture leads us to the dreaded downward fall of the effectiveness
and sustainability of the business due to the lack of response to an ever-changing
context and stakeholder needs. Trying to get people to shift to new behaviours is
exhausting and any discussion about change or growth is met with denial, blame
and justification - or just plain quit - it may be quitting on the project, the change,
or the team. This can be a sign that the learning environment is seen as an unsafe
or unpleasant place to be. Shift and transformation in the Complacency Zone? -
Not much.
Confusion
This level is where there is genuine realisation that the business needs to focus on
doing things differently, or expanding into ways of working not done previously. If
there is not clear leadership and collaborative work on proactive approaches to
the future when in this state. The organisation can bounce from one ‘silver bullet’
to another, working reactively and figuratively ‘chasing it’s tail’ trying to find the
magic elixir to its problems. The outcomes of the Confusion Zone is frustration
and overwhelm.
Controversy
At this stage, there is a clear understanding of the outcomes that need to be
achieved, but people’s hobby horses can get in the way of getting alignment to
the best course of action. If you have been in the corrosion zone, remnants of this
type of behaviour can bubble up to the surface, with the more dominant voices
getting traction on a course of action or direction and others feeling not aligned or
even included in the solution. There is much to celebrate by getting to this stage
though, as it often reflects passion for getting better results.
4

7. Clarity
The clarity zone give great promise for the business. People are clear on their
direction and the need for any initiatives or changes being implemented. There is
a team of committed individuals and pockets of teams collaborating and creating
an environment of learning from each other and challenging each other to reach
their potential. It may be that the leadership team is very clear on what needs to
be done and the rest of the organisation are happy to be led. Forward momentum
picks up as people see the way forward and where it leads to. The environment is
one of optimism and energy. The conversations are more than likely to be about
the work and the behaviours more about learning to work differently.
Committed Collaboration
When this stage is reached, the energy of the learning within the team and the
organisation fuels the momentum. Teams are focussed on working together,
learning from each other and implementing and trialling different approaches.
Leadership no longer has to create the change, the change and the desire to
transform comes from within. There is a position buzz in the vibration of the
business - one that staff and clients can feel. We believe leaders need to be
skilled at growing potential and empowering staff to contribute and collaborate.
Places that achieve this stage attract great people and also grow great people.
Now that we have ascertained where we currently sit on the Driving Momentum
levels - from Corrosion up to Committed Collaboration, there are three specific
areas we need to focus on to create shift.
It’s about getting our MINDSET about growth, the ENVIRONMENT dynamic and
the DIALOGUE purposeful and action oriented.
The side axis on the table on the following page refers to the main steps in the
journey. We need to put some serious focus into the foundations of these pillars,
then be clear on the strategy that propels to the activities that will get us shift and
committed collaboration.
5

8. Figure 3: The 3 key pillars that create shift and transformation
A STRONG FOUNDATION
The culture of a learning organisation at its base springs from the beliefs held by
the individuals within - and most importantly by those of influence. Getting clarity
about what growth really looks like and the internal approach we need to take to
tackle challenges, obstacles and change is key to this culture. Growth behaviours
come from growth beliefs.
We need to create compelling spaces in our organisation for learning,
collaboration and exploration. This space takes in not only the physical set up of
rooms, meetings, but also the energy that is created. This contributes to the ‘buzz’.
Dialogue which is rich and very clear on making the assumptions we are basing
our conversations on explicit is the third foundational pillar to creating growth.

9. CLARITY ON YOUR STRATEGY
After setting our foundation, we are ready to get focused on where we want to go.
As a team, or an organisation, setting clear outcomes and purpose allows us to
collaborate together on finding the way forward. We can start to co-create or
clarify our vision, learning from our journey and gaining momentum through
commitment towards it happening.
Being strategic about the way forward requires skilled exploration of the
challenges, strengths, context and possibilities. As leaders we need to lead,
facilitate and contribute to these discussions skilfully, ensuring that not only are we
are not afraid of divergence of opinion, but that we see this as a vital part of robust
problem solving and a thriving learning environment. The best processes and
tools are used to move this divergent discussion into convergence around
options , proposed strategies and actions.
By having a far greater clarity of outcomes, vision and the right tools and
processes to enable the discussions, the dialogue becomes congruent and
authentic. No longer spending time in blame and justifications, people are keen to
proactively and collaboratively work together to gain forward momentum.
GETTING SHIFT HAPPENING
When the foundations are firm and we have clarity of outcomes,
great processes to explore and learning oriented dialogue
occurring, shift becomes far easier. The mindset of learning develops in
people so that different perspectives are accessed as a part of the process.
We also start to reframe tricky situations and major change internally as well as
externally, allowing for possibility to drive us rather than impossibility.
Great learning cultures in organisations don’t spend precious time just talking at
people. To gain traction and have people engaged in the forward direction of the
business, we need to provide opportunities for learning through a whole range of
strategies. The usual one used it : ‘I speak at you. You listen. You nod. You go away
and do it.’ Brain research is giving us a huge insight in how to increase our ability
7
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10. to learn and collaborate better - and keeping people from feeling threatened and
unsafe.
The key dialogue skill that adds to the mix of helping people shift is asking
explorative and generative questions. Great leaders ask great questions - ones
that help bring about new thinking, not the same thinking. What are great
question you’ve asked recently that have opened up a whole way of looking at
something?
Focusing on the three pillars of Learning Intelligence - MINDSET, ENVIRONMENT
and DIALOGUE will head you in a direction of growth and commitment to forward
momentum. I wish you good journey in having dynamic and engaging discussions
with your people about growing and thriving in your organisation.
To talk with Tracey further:
Email: tracey@traceyezard.com
Mobile: 0417 317 563
Web: www.traceyezard.com

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Disclaimer
We care but you’re responsible.
So please be sure to take specialist advice before taking on any of the ideas. This white paper is
general in nature and not meant to replace any specific advice. Tracey Ezard of Jessup Ezard
Consulting and employees of said company and brand derivations disclaim all and any liability to
any persons whatsoever in respect of anything done by any person in reliance, whether in whole or
in part, on this e-book.