The Collaboration Kit at Work: Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research

Aug 14, 2025

The Collaboration Kit is a collection of readymade materials, activities, and session plans, equipping users to produce a workshop that develops the knowledge and skills needed for collaboration across difference. Participants in a Collaboration Kit workshop toggle between learning skills and strategies for collaboration, and putting these into practice in a simulation activity. There is also time built into the workshop for reflection, sharing best practices, and networking.

a2ru created the Collaboration Kit with a specific audience and format in mind: it was designed to be a two-day immersive experience for faculty and academic leadership who want to support interdisciplinary collaboration. We also expected that people would adapt the Kit to suit their unique needs, so we offer support for such adaptations and we love learning about how users tweak the Kit to make it more relevant for their situations. We track these tweaks in the “One Size Does Not Fit All” section of the a2ru Collaboration Kit webpage, and explore one such adaptation here.

MICHR, the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research, located at the University of Michigan, uses the Collaboration Kit as part of its efforts to advance translational science (NIH grant #UM1TR004404). Translational science aims to create innovative solutions for persistent challenges in the translational research ecosystem, ultimately benefiting research across a range of diseases and conditions.

MICHR Team Science Specialist Dr. Bethany Laursen piloted two versions of the Collaboration Kit workshop—in January and April 2025—fine-tuning a version to eventually offer to any University of Michigan researcher. The first workshop was for PhD students in nursing and other health research areas, and the second for colleagues in a range of roles at MICHR itself. Unlike other adaptations of the Kit that have excerpted select activities as stand-alone modules, Laursen’s workshops ran the full two days. Laursen worked with a co-facilitator, MICHR Managing Director of Research Strategy Beth LaPensee, sharing the demanding work of running a two-day event.

Laursen adapted the kit to include additional content in the agenda, and she experimented with the simulation activity.

Additional content

At the first pilot workshop in January, Laursen found that teams moved more quickly through the agenda than was expected, so for the April version, she included time to introduce additional tools for collaboration. An internationally recognized expert on toolkits for inter- and transdisciplinarity, Laursen shared a Gradients of Agreement decision-making structure. With gradients of agreement such as Love It, Like It, Live With It, and Loathe It, this structure supports collaborative decision-making while allowing for more nuance than a binary yes-no vote. It also creates opportunities to improve shared ideas by incorporating input from participants who initially Loathe or merely Live With a given decision.

Laursen also took time in the April workshop to introduce the Six Team Conditions Framework. Six Team Conditions sets out the fundamental building blocks needed for a great, high-functioning team: Real Team, Compelling Purpose, and Right People are the essentials, supported by Sound Structure, Supportive Organizational Context, and Expert Team Coaching. The Framework is a strong addition to the Collaboration Kit workshop agenda, especially for participants who will be assembling and leading teams themselves.

In a post-workshop survey, many participants in the April workshop cited the Six Team Conditions Framework as useful, mentioning it more often than any other single tool—clearly a valuable part of their experience! These participants also appreciated the Gradients of Agreement decision-making tool. Where time allows, a2ru encourages the integration of tools like these into the Collaboration Kit workshop.

We note, though, that time is always an issue with the Collaboration Kit workshop. Even as it’s hard for many busy professionals to make time for a full two-day workshop, some participants feel rushed through the activities and express the desire for more time. a2ru Research Program Manager and co-author of the Collaboration Kit Veronica Stanich observes, “There’s no perfect formula for how much time to spend on the simulation or on tools for collaboration—or on reflection or fun networking, for that matter. It’s just important to make sure participants’ expectations of time are calibrated so there are no surprises.” The Collaboration Kit includes an agenda that is posted throughout the workshop, but facilitators might also note aloud how, and how much, time is being spent. 

Simulation

The heart of the workshop experience, the simulation challenge gives participants the opportunity to practice the tools and techniques for collaboration they are learning. The simulation built into the Collaboration Kit asks teams to create an immersive experience for a fictional exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution. In the workshop, each team receives briefing materials on their simulation: a letter explaining the challenge as well as background information and research about their assigned topic.

In her January workshop, Laursen used a customized simulation designed to resonate more with doctoral students in health research; teams were given a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant abstract and asked to create a collaboration plan for the project team. Participants in the April workshop used the original Smithsonian simulation prompt. Near the end of each workshop, participants present their simulation projects to each other, and Laursen built in additional feedback mechanisms: “friendly reviewers” for the NIH group and judges for the Smithsonian group.

Regardless of which simulation they did, most participants in both workshops said that the simulation was a powerful learning experience. However, some teams were frustrated by the briefing materials. In the January workshop, some participants found the simulation briefing materials unclear, while in the April workshop, some participants said the materials were too detailed—to the point of distracting from the task. “Ambiguity and complexity are tough to navigate,” says Stanich, “And doing so together calls on all a team’s collaboration skills. The cool thing is, I’ve only ever seen teams prevail in the simulation challenge, and come up with great responses to the simulation prompt.”

“It’s been inspiring to see how Bethany has activated the Collaboration Kit at MICHR,” Stanich adds. “I learned so much, and hope to empower new Kit users to likewise make the most of it.”

a2ru members can read more about the Collaboration Kit. The suggested price for the Kit is $475 plus shipping but, recognizing that this may be out of reach for some organizations, we offer pay-what-you-can pricing starting at $200. We are most interested in getting the Collaboration Kit into the hands of people who will use it! To purchase a Collaboration Kit, contact a2ru Research Program Manager Veronica Stanich.