In October 2025, a group of NGO CEOs in health and community services sat down for a private off-the-record breakfast conversation. The room ran under Chatham House rules. We worked the question of collaboration, not as a procurement response but as a discipline. Collaboration that can deliver services, build capability, strengthen relationships, and shift what is possible.
Collaboration is more than service delivery
The room agreed that collaboration is most useful when it does more than service delivery. It can innovate, build capability, and strengthen relationships, including with commissioning bodies. The conversation moved beyond contracts and compliance, and into the practical elements that make collaboration work in real organisations.
Start with relationships, not tenders
There was strong support for the idea that collaboration should not be developed only in response to procurement. It should be grounded in shared purpose and built over time. Starting with relationships rather than tenders lets organisations identify opportunities together and work in ways that are more strategic and more sustainable. The relationship is the substrate. The procurement event is one moment inside it.
Capability is core, not overhead
Collaboration is also about building the capacity and capability of organisations. Strengthening back-office functions. Creating space to innovate. Collaborative capacity requires investment. It takes time and effort to build relationships, establish governance, and manage shared data and processes. These are not overheads. They are core to making collaboration work. Without them, partnerships risk becoming transactional or competitive.
Leverage what exists
There was strong support for leveraging existing strengths and relationships rather than starting from scratch each time. Mapping who is already in the room, what they bring, and how those relationships have held under pressure is itself a strategic asset. Treating each new opportunity as a blank page wastes effort and trust.
Making it work: clarity, space and trust
Quality collaboration does not happen by accident. It requires deliberate effort: scoping roles clearly, building trust early, and creating space for relationships to form before the funding arrives.
When collaboration is built on a foundation of insights about places and people, it is more likely to be strategic, sustainable and impactful. Maintaining focus on the intent and outcomes is particularly important when leadership changes. Trust can be fragile, and sustaining it requires regular check-ins about who is doing what, why, when and how.
Bring the commissioning body in as a partner
Collaboration needs to involve more than providers. Some commissioning bodies are losing the opportunity to be involved in strategic conversations that support and enable collaboration. Those conversations need to happen early in the process, be transparent and ongoing, and clarify expectations while creating space for innovation. When commissioning is approached as a partnership, it enables shared problem-solving and better outcomes. Commissioning approaches should be open about future priorities, invest in developing relationships and trust, support capability building for innovation, and leverage the existing relationships and preferences of the people who receive services.
Align across levels of government
Where possible, commissioning approaches should be aligned across levels of government. The point is to reduce the burden of complexity providers must navigate, so the energy can go into achieving outcomes rather than managing parallel processes.
The Peer Room is an invitation-led breakfast for chief executives of NGOs in health, community and human services. The Wider Lens is a version of it for the senior leaders below them. Email susanne@lebout.com.au if you would like an invitation to either, or to put one of your senior leaders forward.
