Deep Collaboration Training 2026: Strengthening Our Region’s Capacity to Lead Together
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Under the eucalyptus trees in Tannum Sands, beside the Boyne River, a group of human service practitioners who support the Gladstone Region gathered in a quiet moment before beginning Deep Collaboration Training. Each person placed a leaf into the water, to symbolically set down responsibilities and be fully present in the learning. As the leaves drifted away, a turtle surfaced beside them, a reminder of what can rise when space is intentionally created to slow down together.
Deep Collaboration training brought together participants from within and beyond the region, connected by a shared commitment to improve the wellbeing of children, families, and community in the Gladstone Region.
Participants acknowledged that deep collaboration is not always easy. Systems can feel rigid, and organisations often view the same issue from different perspectives. Participants said the training helped them better understand and name power, equity, and the dynamics that shape how people work together, while also encouraging them to recognise their own leadership and influence they already hold. “Real change doesn't come from avoiding tension,” one participant shared at the end of the training.
Deep Collaboration has been part of Gladstone’s journey for several years. Since 2021Mark Yettica-Paulson from Collaboration for Impact has supported the region’s learning, working with local leaders to strengthen foundations and shared practice for community-led change. This year created opportunity for local facilitation. Local leader Kerry Myers co‑facilitated alongside Mark, bringing lived local knowledge that grounded the training content in regional context. This shared facilitation reflected growing confidence in local leadership and the region’s capacity to carry this work forward.
Participants included people who live and work in the region every day, as well as partners whose decisions shape local outcomes. Instead of highlighting differences, the training helped highlight our interconnected ecosystem. The group explored the value of both insider and outsider perspectives, recognising how each lens reveals different truths about the community. The training offered new language, tools, and confidence to navigate tension, build trust, and influence positive change. One of the tools introduced was the Leadership Garden, a framework that helps participants consider the conditions different groups need to enter a shared space, or garden, and grow together. When should groups stay at the surface layer called topsoil, or when are they ready to dig down into subsoil layers and ask the deeper questions. “I found inspiration to step into my power,” one participant said. Another reflected, “I am taking away lots of thought-provoking conversation. Now for me to try and put in into practice.”
Gladstone Region Systems Leaders Working Group of GRT regularly meet to collectively share and practice leadership concepts and collaborative principles. Over the past two years, the group has hosted two Together in Action events to share these ideas more broadly. This year’s, training followed immediately after Together in Action 2026, where more than seventy local changemakers gathered to explore what makes collaboration possible. The timing was intentional, the event opened hearts and minds, and the training helped translate insight into everyday practice.
The importance of slowing down was a recurring theme throughout the training. Many participants reflected on the heavy load carried across human services, where the pressure of managing clients, teams or programs, and meeting reporting deadlines, can make it difficult to pause. Yet participants agreed that slowing down is essential. Understanding power, building trust, and developing shared language to move through tensions can strengthen partnerships, and support decisions grounded in what community truly needs. Deep collaboration is not a delay to action, it is the foundation that makes meaningful action possible.
Our region’s vision is clear: opportunity, equity, and quality of life for everyone. Achieving that vision requires new ways of working, learning, and leading together. This year’s training has strengthened local capability and deepened the region’s commitment to community-led change.
With local leaders stepping in and partnerships continuing to grow, the work is being carried forward collectively. As this continues, the region is creating the conditions for collaboration to take root, much like the turtle that surfaced only after the group made time and space to intentionally slow down and notice what was already there.
The training was delivered as part of the Sector Capacity Building Initiative, enabled through a community partnership with Rio Tinto, Here for Gladstone.
To learn more about this initiative and how collective investment is supporting improved outcomes for children and families, read Collective Buying Power and Community Partnership Enabling Improved Outcomes for Families and Children, or contact GRT:
P: 07 4970 7382
