Ethical Collaboration Certification Training

Get the Credential of Trust

The Certified Ethical Collaborator credential is your badge of ethics and trust within the community.

The business community values trust, but trust is something that we earn over time.  How do we differentiate ourselves and stand out?

The Certified Ethical Collaborator credential is one way to show that you are a trusted, valued member of the business community, and that you pledge to uphold ethics and respect for your client’s intellectual property.

You will have the background to recognize and avoid problem situations, and steer your business relationships into positive, collaborative, and eventually profitable engagements.

The credential can be used in your LinkedIn profile as well as your website, business cards, and other collateral.  Certified Ethical Collaborators are the leaders of the community – leading groups, masterminds meetings, accelerators, incubators, makerspaces, and other organizations.

Certified Ethical Collaborators are trusted consultants, advisor, and mentors.  Their knowledge is respected and valued, and the credential gives them a stature of trust and respect, allowing them to stand out from the crowd.

Why Collaboration?

Collaboration is one of the most important – and most damaging – things that you can do if you are an entrepreneur, community organizer, service provider, or any other player in the startup ecosystem.

When done well, collaboration is the single most powerful tool that startups have.  Collaboration gets us input from diverse sources, such as customers, mentors, advisors, experts, and others.  This powerful advice and input helps the entrepreneur (most of the time) to make better decisions and advance their business.

Collaboration is one of the most rewarding parts of being an advisor, investor, mentor, and service provider.  Bouncing ideas around can be thrilling, exciting, and invigorating – especially when there are smart people in the room.

How do we collaborate well?

This course looks at collaboration using intellectual property as a framework.  This isn’t a course on IP, but it is a course on how businesses interact, and how interactions can be done in an ethical and legal manner that helps and not hurts.

What you will get out of this course:

You will become proficient in identifying intellectual property, identifying how IP can be protected, but most of all, you will learn the *practical* realities of collaboration and how to navigate the potential problems.

This course is based on the Ethical Collaboration Framework, which has three main principles:

1. We respect intellectual property – ours and others.
2. When we agree to help, we do so freely and willingly, without obligation.
3. We use mediation and arbitration – not the court system – to settle our disputes.

The Ethical Collaboration Framework is the basis for an ethical, moral, and legal collaborative community.  We will cover the etiquette and ethics behind collaboration, and when it is right – and wrong – to collaborate.

This course meets the requirements to be a Certified Ethical Collaborator.  When you have successfully completed this course, you will be able to use the Certified Ethical Collaborator credential in your business, such as in your LinkedIn profile, your website, your business card, and other places.

The Certified Ethical Collaborator credential says that you are a trusted member of the community, and it shows your commitment to ethics and integrity.