What is cross-sector collaboration and why does it matter? In sum, it is about bringing together different groups that are working on similar problems and combining their efforts to achieve even more powerful results. Such coopera­tion is essential to address today’s multifaceted problems. Most people have no idea what cross-sector collaboration or the “intersec­tor” means. When we start a sentence with the phrase “cross-sector collabo­ration,” people are likely to tune it out. As a result, they miss the conversation about the actual problem being addressed. Those of us who recognize the ne­cessity of this cooperation need to be able to show our fellow citizens we are solving problems, not merely offering technocratic tools or details of a process. That is why it is important to talk about the human side of what we do—and to listen to the challenges people face in their daily lives rather than make assumptions about what they are experiencing.

To do cross-sector collaboration well requires experts and expertise, but it also requires a willingness to collaborate, learn, and iterate. From my tenure as deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the Obama administration, I learned three lessons about cross-sector collaborations. First, leadership at the top matters. Either the president, the secretary, or someone in senior leader­ship needs to make cross-sector collaboration a priority.

Read the full article about cross-collaboration by Daniel P. Gitterman, Neil Britto, Sonal Shah, and Zia Khan at Stanford Social Innovation Review.