Collaborating in Times of Uncertainty: Lessons from the Global Think Tank Community

Mònica Nadal (Fundació Bofill), Senzekile (Senzi) Bengu (ISE Africa) i Erica Schoder (RStreet USA)

To achieve real impact, think tanks committed to promoting social change must collaborate across political, institutional, and ideological divides. Yet increasing polarization, a shrinking civic space in many countries, and financial insecurity make collaboration both a necessity and a challenge. At the OTT Conference 2025, a session featuring voices from multiple continents created an honest and courageous space to rethink what it means to collaborate today: when it's worthwhile, what makes it possible, and how to avoid falling into meaningless alliances. We share here some reflections to keep the conversation going.

Collaborating in Uncertain Times: Shared Lessons from Diversity

What does collaboration mean today in a world marked by uncertainty, global tensions, and institutional challenges? This was the underlying question of one of the most thought-provoking sessions at the latest OTT Conference, where think tank professionals from diverse contexts came together—from Latin America to West and East Africa, Europe, South Asia, and North America.

The value of the session lay not so much in the conclusions—which were inevitably open-ended—but in the opportunity to share experiences and tensions that permeate collaborative work across the globe. Despite the differences, one intuition was shared: collaboration has become more complex, but also more necessary.

Connection and Collaboration Are Not the Same

One of the first powerful ideas to emerge was the distinction between connection and collaboration. Connecting is quick, human, often intuitive. But collaborating requires time, trust, and a degree of emotional availability. It means navigating power dynamics, reputational risks, and often inflexible institutional structures. This complexity can make collaboration exhausting. And when things go wrong—when trust is broken, when projects stall, when alliances become extractive—the cost is not just strategic but also emotional. In some cases, the feeling of failure or frustration challenges professional identities, personal boundaries, and collective expectations.

“The harder things get, the clearer it is that we need to collaborate”

Diversity as a Driver—and a Challenge

The diversity of voices and contexts in the session greatly enriched the conversation. The challenges of collaboration are not the same when working in highly polarized political environments, with dependence on external funding, or within very hierarchical organizational structures. But precisely because of this, sharing these realities helps to put some difficulties in perspective and, above all, to identify common patterns.

Towards More Intentional Collaboration

There is a growing trend to create alliances, platforms, or think tank ecosystems to be more effective, sustainable, and complementary. But we must be intentional about whom we collaborate with—and why. Clarify expectations and boundaries from the outset. Invest time in building trust, listening, and nurturing relationships. Learn to say no when collaboration feels forced or when there’s no real intent for reciprocity.

Not all collaborations are good by definition. Sometimes, competition is legitimate. Sometimes, a failed alliance is not a failure, but simply the result of a poor fit. Knowing what works and what doesn’t, learning to distinguish activity from real progress, is also a form of collective maturity.

"At a time when many of us feel the pressure to do more with less, to respond to multiple crises, and to maintain legitimacy in shifting environments, collaboration cannot be just a strategy"

When Collaboration is a Political and Emotional Act

A phrase from one participant summed up the spirit of the session well: “The harder things get, the clearer it is that we need to collaborate.”

At a time when many of us feel the pressure to do more with less, to respond to multiple crises, and to maintain legitimacy in shifting environments, collaboration cannot be just a strategy. It must also be a political practice, a commitment to working from interdependence, acknowledging complexity, and supporting each other when needed. And this includes recognizing that collaboration doesn’t always work.

The session did not aim to offer recipes, but to open a new way of discussing what often goes unsaid: that collaboration can be as exhausting as it is transformative; that it doesn’t always succeed; and that knowing when it’s worth it—and when it’s not—is part of the institutional maturity that today’s world demands.

At a time when the world pushes us toward ideological trenches or mere operational survival, this gathering offered a space to return to the essentials: thinking together, from diversity, about how we can collaborate better to have real impact.