How to Design Training that Improves Collaboration in Your Nonprofit

May 27

Employees spend 42% of their time collaborating with others. That’s almost half of their time. But are they any good at it, or are there challenges around collaboration? And if there are challenges, what can we do about them?

Most people would say collaboration is important for their work, but we're less likely to do it when it feels challenging. And when there's conflict, we're less likely to do it then, too. Can training help? That’s what we’re exploring in this episode.

▶️ Key Points:

00:58 Collaboration in the workplace

02:02 Building a good foundation for collaboration through training

04:43 Building collaboration skills through training

05:31 Collaboration training example

Developing Collaboration Skills in Your Nonprofit

Collaboration is one of the biggest buzzwords in the nonprofit world—and one of the hardest things to do well.

You’ve got program teams, ops teams, development teams... each with different goals, timelines, and perspectives. The stakes are high, the bandwidth is low, and everyone’s calendar is already packed. So when collaboration breaks down, the ripple effect is huge.

In episode 135 of Learning for Good, I have a bold thesis statement:

Training—when done right—can be one of your strongest tools for building collaboration.

I’m not talking about surface-level “icebreakers,” but training that actually teaches people how to work across functions, lead with empathy, and communicate with clarity.

Why Collaboration Is Challenging

It’s not that people don’t care. In nonprofits, people care deeply. That’s part of the challenge.

What actually breaks collaboration is:

Unclear delegation
Misaligned priorities
Unspoken assumptions
Teams that don’t feel heard

You can’t fix that with a team-building game.
You can start fixing it with training that builds real skills and trust.

Can Training Improve Collaboration?

Training can help! But how?

First, training can help lay the foundation for good collaboration.

This foundation might not be the goal of your training, but a by-product.

What do I mean?

Training is a great way to build cross-functional relationships. You can bring people together who might not otherwise meet or work together very often. These relationships can help them later when they are asked to collaborate.

As they build these relationships, they will also find themselves aligning on shared values, shared goals, and shared experiences, which again set them up for success later.

Also, there is typically no hierarchy in training. If a director is in training with an individual contributor, they are on equal ground in that space. This can help build trust, respect, and open dialogue.

So the relationships that get created can definitely lay the foundation for collaborative work.

Training can also help lay the foundation for communication.

As those relationships are built and as learners go through shared experiences in the training, they will be forced to communicate with each other. And I don't say “forced” in a bad way. The experience will prompt them to work together and share with each other, giving them practice with communication.

Another piece of the foundation for good collaborative experiences is resilience.

You will face challenges when you collaborate with others.

How will you respond to them?

Training allows learners to face barriers and overcome them in a safe environment. It builds that resilience muscle.

So training - even when not intending to build collaboration skills - can contribute to a more collaborative environment.

But what about the actual collaboration skills?

Can training help you build the skills you need to collaborate well?

Yes!

A few of those collaboration skills are delegation, conflict resolution, and project management.

Training can help build these skills intentionally.

For example, you can create an entire training around delegation.

What should you delegate?
When should you delegate?
How should you delegate?
What do you do after you delegate?

A training can support your staff in developing these skills.

An Example of Training that Builds Collaboration Skills

We have so many options to bring these skills to life:

You might use case studies or scenarios. You might use role play exercises. You might give them a chance to try it out in real life and come back and discuss. There are so many ways to build these skills through training.

Let me bring this to life for you.

Here’s what I might do if you reached out to me and asked me to help your team improve collaboration skills.

Let’s say we’ve specifically identified a need for delegation training.

I could assign each learner a project scenario.

They have to review their assigned project and figure out what to delegate to whom.

Then, they can role play how they would delegate a task in their project and get feedback on how they did.

Why does this work?

It gives them a realistic scenario, which will allow them to see when they would use the delegation skills and why it’s important.
It puts them in the position to practice using the delegation skills - figuring out what to delegate to whom and how to communicate what is being delegated.
It allows them to practice but it doesn’t stop there. It also allows them to receive feedback on their new skill.

We are tapping into their motivation, teaching them to recognize the cue for when to delegate, developing a skill set, building their confidence, and helping them get an early win.

We have just incorporated all the things we know it takes to change behavior - prompt, motivation, skill, and reward.

And this is just one example of how training can improve collaboration in your nonprofit!

Limitations of Training for Collaboration Skills

Training can do a lot to improve collaboration in your nonprofit, but to be clear, training won’t fix a toxic culture or compensate for poor leadership. It can build the skills, mindset, and shared understanding that collaboration requires.

And when your training programs are designed with behavior and relationships in mind—not just knowledge—you get stronger teams and smoother projects.

Your Next Step

If your org is stuck in reactive mode, constantly fixing communication issues or redoing work because teams aren’t aligned, don’t just double down on meetings.

Train your people to collaborate better.

And if you’re not sure where to start, reach out and let’s chat.

To learn more about developing collaboration skills through training, tune into episode 135 of the Learning for Good podcast.

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