We begin by coming together to know one another, not as roles or titles, but as people with lived expertise, cultural knowledge, and organizational contexts.

Together, we explore:  

• What is the spirit and scope of this work from each of our perspectives?  

• Who else should be at the table, especially those most affected but often left out (ex: frontline workers, service users, community Elders or Knowledge Keepers)?  

• What outcomes are meaningful to each of us? How do we define success collectively?  

• What is a realistic and respectful timeline, shaped by our mutual availability and community rhythms?  

• How do we want to share tasks, decision-making, and accountability?

With relationship as our foundation, we turn inward to understand current organizational realities and each party’s capacity for genuine collaboration.

This phase includes:  

• Identifying current organizational priorities through a lens of transparency; acknowledging constraints and opportunities for change.  

• Naming each collaborator’s expectations, boundaries, and hopes for shared decision-making.  

• Confirming task divisions that honour different forms of knowledge.

• Asking openly: Who holds which kinds of power in this process, and how do we shift power toward those most impacted?

Before moving forward, we pause together to reflect.

This phase is an intentional space for:  

• Reviewing what we have learned so far—both about the work and about how we are working together.  

• Checking for unintended harms, hidden assumptions, or colonial patterns (ex: rushed timelines, extractive data gathering, or siloed decision-making).  

• Adjusting roles, timelines, or scope based on feedback from all collaborators, especially those with less institutional power.  

• Affirming what is working well and what needs repair or reimagining.

Together we begin implementation with clear agreements about:  

• How we will continue to communicate, revisit decisions, and adapt as we learn.  

• Who will hold ongoing accountability for each part of the work, and how progress is shared transparently.  

• How we celebrate and acknowledge contributions, including those often made invisible.  

• A commitment to return to earlier phases whenever needed—because collaboration is not linear, and anti-colonial practice requires ongoing humility and flexibility.

Once the work concludes, we gather to close with intention.

This phase includes:

• Co-creating evaluation criteria based on the outcomes named in Phase 1, valuing both measurable results and relational knowledge (stories, trust, felt shifts).

• Centering voices most affected (frontline workers, service users, community members) as the primary guides for assessing success and harm.

• Naming what worked and what didn't without blame, with a commitment to repair where possible.

• Acknowledging all contributions, especially invisible or relational labour, and deciding how credit and knowledge are shared back to the community in accessible, culturally respectful ways.

• Clarifying next steps;  whether the collaboration ends, transforms, or continues and if continuing, returning to Phase 1 with shared learning.

• Closing with a reflective practice (ex: talking circle, shared meal, written commitment) to mark the ending as meaningful.