Before you meet, spend around 60–90 minutes in total engaging with the resources below. You do not need to read everything in full, and not all of them will be completely relevant due to the diverse nature of partnerships. Instead, scan, dip into sections, and focus on what feels most relevant to the types of collaborations, partnerships, or stakeholder engagement you are currently involved in, or planning to develop.

Try to engage with at least three resources.

As you engage, the aim is not to master everything, but to notice what the resources prompt you to think about in relation to your own collaborations, partnerships, and stakeholder relationships.

Resource 1: Get started with university–industry collaboration in a structured, low-risk way

As you engage, notice:

• Which assumptions or practicalities in collaborations are easiest to overlook at the start?
• How explicitly are different partners’ motivations, expectations, and priorities discussed in your collaborations?
• If you were starting a current collaboration again, what expectations or boundaries would you clarify earlier?

Resource 2: Use proven templates to negotiate and structure external collaboration projects

You do not need to engage deeply with the legal or contractual detail of this resource. Instead, focus on the broader questions it raises about clarity, ownership, and ways of working.

As you look through the example templates, notice:

• Which assumptions or expectations in collaborations are most often left unspoken?
• How clearly are roles, responsibilities, ownership, outputs, and decision-making agreed in your collaborations?
• Which conversations are easiest to postpone when setting up collaborations, and what tensions can that create later?

Resource 3: Design stakeholder engagement that is credible, inclusive, and effective

As you engage, notice:

• How clearly do you define the purpose, scope, and intended outcomes of your engagement activities?
• Where might different stakeholders hold different expectations, priorities, or definitions of success?
• What helps build trust, reciprocity, and meaningful dialogue in your collaborative relationships?

Resource 4: Improve partnership health by explicitly addressing equity and power

As you reflect, notice:

• How do differences in power, voice, or institutional status shape your collaborations?
• Which assumptions, tensions, or expectations may remain unspoken within partnerships?
• What helps partnerships remain equitable and sustainable over time, rather than relying on individual goodwill or invisible labour?

Resource 5: Use the Ferris Wheel Test to notice overload and hidden pressure

This resource relates to setting expectations about your time – how are you allocating it to different partnerships?

As you engage, notice:

• Whether you are already over committed or over capacity with your current collaborations?
• Whether you are regularly pausing to review what you are carrying and why
• Which activities or relationships may have expanded gradually without deliberate choice – can you renegotiate or ‘empty some carriages’

Resource 6: Use triage criteria to make more strategic decisions about where to invest your time and energy

This resource relates to your strategy for which partnerships or external projects to engage with. It will help you to be clear on how are you choosing between opportunities.

As you reflect, think about your current and emerging collaborations:

• Which opportunities or requests genuinely align with your priorities and capacity
• Which decisions are being driven by strategic value versus obligation, urgency, visibility, or fear of missing out
• What criteria you currently use (explicitly or implicitly) when deciding whether to engage
• Whether there are collaborations, requests, or responsibilities that you may need to pause, decline, or renegotiate

As you review these resources, you may find it helpful to keep one or two current or potential collaborations in mind, and to use the tools as prompts for reflection rather than templates to complete.

The structure below is held collectively by the group. You may choose to rotate who keeps an eye on time or simply move together through the stages.

1. Arrival and framing (5–10 minutes)

• Brief reminder of purpose: learning from different perspectives
• No pressure to have implemented anything yet
• Agreement on confidentiality and respect
• An explicit intention that everyone will have space to speak

2. Resource reflections and shared learning (30–40 minutes)

A simple round:

• What stayed with you most in relation to your collaborations, partnerships, or stakeholder relationships?
• Which idea, prompt, or resource felt particularly relevant or uncomfortable?
• Did anything help you notice work, expectations, or pressures that have become normalised or invisible?

Pay attention to differences in how you engaged with the materials. The aim is collective sense-making, not consensus. Encourage one another to ask: 

• “What did you take from this that I didn’t?” 
• “What assumptions are you noticing in your collaborations?” 
• “Where do expectations tend to remain unclear in your work?”

3. Coaching-style reflection: so what? (20–30 minutes)

Each participant shares:

• One expectation, assumption, or boundary I may need to clarify more explicitly
• One thing I may need to protect, renegotiate, or stop carrying
• One thing I want to become more intentional about in future collaborations or stakeholder relationships

Peers respond with curiosity rather than solutions:

• “What feels most important about that?”
• “What conversation might help create more clarity?”
• “Where do you currently feel stretched or conflicted?”
• “What would a more sustainable version of this look like?”
• “What assumptions may need surfacing earlier?”

4. Closing and commitments (5–10 minutes)

Each person is invited to name:

• One small change they will make to how they approach collaborations, partnerships, or stakeholder expectations

Optional:

• One conversation they may need to initiate
• One boundary they may need to strengthen
• One collaboration practice they want to experiment with
• What might get in the way, and how can they overcome that?

This can be very light-touch and self-directed. Possible options include:

• A personal note to self
• A follow-up peer conversation
• Exploring another relevant resource
• Revisiting a live collaboration with fresh questions in mind
• Bringing a question to a mentor, collaborator, or senior colleague

No reporting is required unless the wider programme explicitly asks for it.