Sustainable collaboration between stakeholders is a prerequisite for positive developments in the work being carried out in Swedish football.

To be sustainable, collaboration must be based on mutual trust. This can only be developed over time, within the framework of ongoing contacts and routines. It is in everyday life, when everything is calm, that the foundations can be laid for jointly managing a crisis. Therefore, consistency and method are required in order to build and maintain confidence.

The following three pillars contribute to successful collaboration:

• Common goals: These goals must be clear and explicit. What do you want to achieve? Small nuances in the target image can lead to completely different views on how to handle a working area.
• Common knowledge: The parties should a) agree on what they know about the working area, e.g. what science or established experience say about how it works b) strive to achieve a mutual understanding that takes other parties’ perspectives and working conditions into account c) strive to agree on a consensus on the current situation in the working area in question.
• Clear rules: Collaboration should be planned and formalized. How often should the parties meet? What issues should be addressed? How to analyse working areas, prioritize between issues or evaluate possible measures? A clear process prevents pressure and stress from forcing bad decisions.

What ENABLE Sweden offers is a platform for sustainable collaboration and mutual understanding among football’s main stakeholders, by offering a dialogue platform and a knowledge base for constructive conversations.