This framework provides a way of looking at multi-stakeholder collaboration processes that can help us when designing and navigating in these complex processes. Even if models are always a simplified picture of reality, this model can be very useful to talk about in a collaboration group.

We talk about:
- The ”father” of this model: Arne Eriksson, a Swedish pioneer when it comes to theories and methods for multi-stakeholder collaboration, coming from local and regional development and innovation leadership
- The ladder is actually a staircase with five steps: 1. Meeting place (forum, network, conference, getting in contact) 2. Conversation (going deeper into exploration of different perspectives and potential when going in a common direction) 3. Consensus (deciding on a common direction), 4. Collaboration (doing things in new ways together, coordinating processes) 5. Collective action (established collaboration that is integrated in daily routines in the different stakeholders’ organization)
- How the ladder can be a practical tool for sensemaking and in typical situations that occur when meeting between organizations
- How to use the ladder as a method to clarify the level of ambition in a multi-stakeholder collaboration and to spark interesting and important conversations
- The popularity of this model among participants in our trainings


5. The collaboration ladder

Art of Collaborating is a podcast produced by Länka Consulting. Länka was established in 2015 by Anna Zingmark and Karoline Bottheim with the mission to explore and develop the tricky "art" of multi-stakeholder-collaboration. When we meet between organizations, sectors and knowledge areas in order to find solutions for handling complex societal challenges, we need support from practical methods and ways of understanding how to collaborate more efficiently. After years of discussing this topic with experts, researchers and practitioners all over the world, we are quite sure that multi-stakeholder collaboration can be called an advanced "art", a specific way of working, it may even be seen as a specific "community of practice". With our podcast, we want to make this - really necessary - specific way of working accessible to more people who find themselves in complex processes with many stakeholders involved.