The “We” in WeRobotics: The Vocabulary of Trust, Learning, and Collaboration

By Megan Dinsdale

WeRobotics has given me an introduction to the world of social impact and humanitarian tech for good practices that have raised my hopes —  and, unfortunately, my expectations — of what can and should be done when collaborating on a glocal (as we might say) scale. 

I say “unfortunately” because when I look around the state of the humanitarian sector today, I am often met with resistance to change, top-heavy leadership structures, and reluctance to fully involve local experts found at the grassroots level. In my time spent with WeRobotics, I have learned that for inclusive collaboration to work, an entirely different approach from the norm is necessary. 

There is a humanness to WeRobotics’ way of working, and it feels radical in a world that is constantly accelerating and demanding more. Questions are not brushed aside; they are held by colleagues who are invested in finding answers with you. There are no failures, only learnings — and they are named as such, without uncertainty. The chance to cultivate such relationships with people who are halfway across the globe and work on wildly impressive projects with them has been nothing short of remarkable.

This way of working contrasts with what I had known before, where providing a service often meant unquestioning accommodation, bending towards a client, customer, or consumer regardless of the cost to yourself. At WeRobotics, we are in service too, but the approach is different: we view service as a relationship, not a transaction. And it shows in the words we use, in how liberally, for example, we use the prefix “co-”, as in “co-create” — one of our favourites. Experiencing this shift in experience and therefore in language has been genuinely eye-opening. 

Our work culture insists that every voice matters, regardless of title, seniority, or perceived status within a project. Collaboration is not performative; it is practiced in its many forms, and it does not shy away from accountability and strong, sustaining bonds. Good work, in this environment, is never thoughtless or solitary. It is coordinated collectively because we understand excellence as something we arrive at together. 

One of the tasks that I have been handling is the planning and execution of variously themed webinars, and it has broken open and reshaped my perspective on self-confidence and back office planning. The two words that come to mind when I think about this task now are trust and responsibility. A high level of trust was placed in me, and in that trust I had the opportunity to break out of theory and into practice. I learned to trust myself, to take initiative, to make decisions, and to create valuable spaces for knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Since joining WeRobotics, my vocabulary has changed. I now reach more easily for words that hold possibility, for words shaped by positive thinking and by a willingness to move into unfamiliar terrain, whether in project management or international cooperation. The vocabulary of learning, even when things are already working well; the vocabulary of change, not as disruption but as growth; the vocabulary of collaboration, so that projects flow towards the outcomes that matter most to those directly affected — this is what I carry with me in 2026 and beyond.