Not Just a Retreat: A Reckoning with Radical Collaboration

What happens when you press pause on the day-to-day and gather your whole team in one place - not just to work, but to wonder? During our recent retreat, that’s exactly what we set out to do. We stepped away from the flurry of projects and deadlines to ask ourselves a deeper question: What truly sets our work apart?

We kept circling back to one answer: radical collaboration.

Not the kind that lives in team charters or polite brainstorming sessions, but the kind that disrupts default ways of working. In a world wired for hierarchy, exclusion, and fragmentation, real collaboration - across disciplines, identities, and power lines - doesn’t just happen. It has to be built deliberately, with courage, care, and a commitment to equity.  And to do this work, we first need to commit to it internally.

Gathering the team

The Inclusive Innovation team gathered for the II Jam, a 4-day retreat designed to reconnect, re-skill, and re-energize our global network of facilitators. This wasn’t your average off-site. Twenty+ facilitators from around the globe came together to deepen our practice, reconnect with one another, and dive into the heart of what we do: build our collective capacity to support collaboration across boundaries.

In a year of shifting landscapes and financial uncertainty, some might have asked: Is this the right time to gather? For us, the answer was clear. We believe now more than ever is the time to strengthen the collective capacity to support collaboration across boundaries - because the world urgently needs it.

The II team arrives in Mura

A Village of Our Own

We met in Barcelona and made our way - via winding mountain roads - to the remote village of Mura a storybook Catalan pueblo with cobbled streets, curious cats, and just enough hotel and guesthouse beds to host our crew.  Our local host called it an “Inclusive Occupation,” as we filled nearly every room in the town. 

The village welcomed us with charm and stillness, offering the perfect environment for learning and reflection. The setting was more than a backdrop—it shaped the pace and tone of our time together. Remote, grounded in nature, and rich in texture, Mura helped us slow down and focus.

Mura’s remoteness created an intimate feeling and helped focus on the meeting. Surrounding nature offered good opportunities to clear my mind after long sessions. 

Awed by the full double rainbow

Deepening Our Foundation & Learning by Doing

Each morning, we dove into Creative Problem Solving (CPS) - the foundational framework behind much of our facilitation work. For newer team members, it was a chance to trace the roots of the method and explore the tools and theory that shape our approach. For the more seasoned among us, it was an invitation to revisit and refine, to share personal adaptations, and to deepen the nuance of our practice. Whether revisiting core concepts or exploring new applications, we created a shared language and lifted the bar for everyone.

Afternoons were hands-on and experimental. Newer facilitators stepped up to lead sessions, receiving real-time, generous feedback from peers. These “Practice Playground” moments helped grow confidence and uncovered fresh approaches we’re excited to bring into the field.

“It was a gift to see our newer facilitators shine, and a joy to be on the receiving end of the magic we usually create for others.”

Meanwhile, seasoned facilitators ran short masterclasses and shared techniques, insights, and stories from the field. Debriefing sessions ran long, as all the facilitators in the room exchanged questions and best practices for collaborating in creative ways.

Pirates at play in one of our ice-breaker activities.

Playfulness was woven in, through joyful moments of music, movement, and creativity. Yet these moments were always tied back to purpose, helping us reflect on how to sustain momentum and meaning in a world that is asking for more inclusive, collaborative solutions.

Exploring What Makes Us Radical

Throughout the Jam, we kept returning to the notion of radical collaboration. Given the entrenched systems of exclusion, hierarchy, and siloed thinking, real collaboration across boundaries isn’t easy or automatic. It requires conscious effort, courageous facilitation, and a willingness to question the status quo. We explored how to embed this mindset into our methods, how to model it in our relationships, and speak to it with more clarity when we’re with clients and communities. Because if we say we’re here to support transformative work, we have to hold ourselves to that same standard. And transformation doesn’t happen by playing it safe. It only happens when we’re willing to challenge, change, and reimagine, together.

Everyone at the table

For us, radical collaboration means much more than being good teammates. It’s about designing spaces where power is shared and where those most impacted aren’t just consulted after the fact - they’re co-creating from the start. It means naming the barriers that get in the way of true inclusion, and refusing to replicate them in our own practices.  

The Jam Spirit

Despite the chilly mountain air (especially tough on our team members from warmer climates!), we managed to keep warm through laughter, long walks, fireside songs, and guitar jam sessions that ran late into the night. We ate well, worked hard, and made space to rest, reflect, and reconnect.

“I was so glad to be at another II JAM - not only do I always learn a lot from the sessions, I get so much wisdom and encouragement and love from everyone there that it is always a time of refreshing.”

Take a peek at what our week looked like:

We left Mura with strengthened skills, fresh tools, deeper alignment, and full hearts. We were reminded, again, that this work can’t be done alone. To support truly radical collaboration in the world, we have to invest in it for ourselves.

Go Further: More about the benefits of team retreats, plus 9 good reasons to hold one. Best practices for radical collaboration. Still curious? Read the book.