About Us
Founded in 1991, Collaborative Solutions has worked with hundreds of organizations – including local and federal government, small businesses, corporations, non-profits, and cross-sector collaborations.
We provide consulting, facilitation, mediation, training, and coaching to help groups work together to achieve ambitious goals.
Our services are customized to meet your needs. Call today to learn how your group can benefit →
Our Premise
Collaborative Solutions was founded on the premise that challenges facing today’s workplaces and communities are too complex for old style, hierarchical leadership practices and require the thinking, creativity, and energy of people from many different perspectives.
We believe that collaborative approaches offer the most effective path to progress – whether the task is leading, learning, innovating, and problem solving, planning or producing.
The great challenge for organizations and communities today is that most of us are not skilled in collaborative approaches. In fact, most of us were trained to compete, to win, to go it alone. Our automatic tendencies and organizational structures work against the unprecedented challenges of our modern world.
However, collaboration between people, organizations and communities is growing. Our own experience with successful groups regularly confirms our faith in the wisdom and power of collaboration. Most importantly, a growing body of research in a variety of disciplines provides real evidence that collaborative approaches produce better outcomes – whether it is in improving interpersonal relationships, resolving group conflict, understanding organizational challenges, negotiating shared solutions to public problems, or gaining collective insight.
Who We Are
Beth Smith is the founder and president of Collaborative Solutions. Recognized by clients as “insightful and engaging.“ Ms. Smith is a senior facilitator, mediator, trainer, and consultant, with more than 20 years of professional experience.
Ms. Smith has a unique view of leadership, developed during years as a senior advisor to Presidential and Congressional candidates and officeholders. She served as press secretary, communications director and advisor to U.S. Rep. Bill Richardson (NM), U.S. Rep. Bob Carr (MI), U.S. Sen., Gary Hart (CO), and other national, state and local campaigns.
In 1990, after 12 years of senior positions in public affairs and growing frustration with traditional politics, Ms. Smith began working with David Chrislip, Carl Larson, and the American Leadership Forum on a national study of collaborative leadership. She contributed primary research and analysis for what became a groundbreaking study, and later Chrislip and Larson’s book, Collaborative Leadership (1994).
Inspired by the results and the experience, Ms. Smith founded Collaborative Solutions to advance collaborative approaches for solving public and organizational problems. She has been involved in an array of collaborative efforts, including large -scale organizational change initiatives, multiparty conflict resolution, public policy collaboration, team building and strategic planning.
Committed to advancing the field of collaboration, Ms. Smith conducts research and writes for publication. Her articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Quality Matters, and the Journal for the Association of Leadership Educators. Beth is currently working on a book chapter for the upcoming Jossey-Bass publication, Creating a Culture of Collaboration (edited by Sandor Schuman, in cooperation with the International Association of Facilitators).
Ms. Smith’s graduate research has focused on creating a model for connecting theories, constructs, and practices in the ‘collaborative arts and sciences.’ She earned a Master’s degree in Applied Communication in August 2005, from the University of Denver, with a concentration in organizational development. Professional certifications include: Advanced Academic Studies in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Advanced Facilitation & Process Design, and the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator. Ms. Smith is a member of the Society for Organizational Learning, the International Association of Facilitators, the Colorado Council of Mediators, and the American Society for Training and Development.
Our Associates
Our team of seasoned professionals includes facilitators, mediators, trainers, and consultants with a range of talents and specialties. All have advanced education and training, and extensive experience working within the fields of organizational development, public policy collaboration, adult education, team building, and alternative dispute resolution. We are always looking for ways to collaborate with others pursuing similar missions.
