Robbie Alm, CLN President

The Collaborative Leaders Network exists to help leaders in our diverse community who are willing to work together to resolve complex issues in a different and durable way. Real, lasting change—where everyone ends up better off—comes from engaging in authentic, well-managed conversations with people who see things differently.

Working over three decades with communities, business leaders, and policy makers, I have come to see that collaborative problem solving offers the greatest potential for resolving really tough issues—even those that seem intractable. Cultivating a collaborative mindset and offering the resources of CLN to Hawaii’s leaders seems not only like a good cultural fit but also a necessary one, given the challenges that we face.

As President of CLN, I work with community and business leaders to identify specific problems that can benefit from collaborative facilitation. Once an issue is deemed a good fit, CLN teams up with individuals from different sectors, who have a stake in the outcome, to develop a customized strategy that includes assembling the appropriate participants and designing a facilitated process that offers the greatest potential for success.

Collaborative problem solving is a better way to deal with Hawaii’s greatest challenges and, from my experience, a better way to relate to and understand each other.