The collaborative
premise says: If you bring the appropriate people together
in constructive ways with good information, they will create
authentic visions and strategies for addressing the shared
concerns of the organization and community.
But what really makes collaboration work?
David Chrislip's thirty years of experience
working with comprehensive community collaborations have helped
him identify the key ingredients that make collaborations
successful. In this seminar, David illustrates
these ingredients with practical examples from his experience.
 David
D. Chrislip is Principal of Skillful Means. His work
focuses on three areas: civic leadership development, collaboratively
addressing complex community issues, and organizational strategy
and development. His roles include research, writing, process
design, capacity building, leadership coaching and consulting,
and facilitation.
He has served as a Senior Associate of the
National Civic League and as Vice President of Research and
Development for American Leadership Forum. He is also the
co-founder of the Denver Community Leadership Forum and has
taught graduate courses in leadership and ethics.
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There is a real need to increase the number
of leaders in communities who understand the importance of
collaborative work, and are willing to use their leadership
skills and credibility within collaborative processes rather
than within an adversarial, win/lose process.
We also need more professionals who have
the skills to support communities with the design and implementation
of collaborative methods. Facilitators and consultants need
more professional development opportunities to help them learn
how to work with multisectoral collaborations.
People who work in collaboration also need
a precise definition and shared understanding of collaboration,
so that they can be good interpreters and critics when others
say they are using collaborative methods.
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Collaborative work has two kinds of impact:
tangible impacts on the presenting problem, and an impact
on civic culture. In addition to finding solutions to community
issues, we can notice growth in social capital rather than
the destruction of relationships through divisive, win/lose
encounters.
For example, the Central Oklahoma Turning
Point Initiative came to the conclusion that the roots of
the health problems they were trying to address were in the
culture of their communities. They could never address the
symptoms unless their citizens came to understand what good
health was and took some responsibility for their own health.
The initiative's first step was to ask, "What should
we be doing to address health?" They involved mostly
citizens rather than service providers, and shifted to efforts
to educate citizens though many different channels, i.e.,
through businesses and employers, through curriculum in schools,
through community health events and newspaper ad campaigns.
Now, three to five years into the initiative, new initiatives
are springing up to support the approach, e.g. a consortium
of citizens that deals with health issues rather than leaving
it to providers to come up with answers.
The state of Massachusetts had many initiatives
working with people who did not have health insurance or who
were underinsured, but their challenge was to have the agencies
who provided programs to collaborate with each other, and
with their clients. They created the Massachusetts Institute
for Community Health Leadership to develop the capacity of
the staff and the clients that they serve to collaborate with
each other.
The Kansas Health Foundation determined that
one of the primary determinants of health in Kansas was the
amount of civic leadership in communities - that there were
a number of people who knew that collaboration was important
and who used their credibility to bring people together. As
a result, the foundation used their resources to endow the
Kansas Leadership Center in perpetuity - to make an investment,
not solely in health, but a deeper investment in community
leadership.
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Four conditions stand out from David's years
of experience:
-
Something to
Collaborate About - i.e., that the effort is
not an attempt to persuade others to join a pre-determined
outcome. This may include framing the issue broadly enough
to persuade enough people to engage, for example, asking
how to shape or manage the impacts of population growth
rather than taking a pro or anti-growth stance.
-
Inclusion - You need
a group that includes those with experiences related to
the issue, i.e. doing with people, not for people, and
people who reflect the broader community. Virtually anyone
in the community should be able to see some small reflection
of themselves in the group. You also need a group that
has the credibility to ensure that decisions are actually
implemented. The key question is - if this group could
agree - would something happen? If the answer is no, then
you are sure to have no impact - you need more collective
credibility before you start.
The convening group also needs to be diverse, as one organization
rarely has the credibility to convene all the sectors
you need. In the United States, collaborations convened
by governments often don't work well, as governments are
not credible convenors by themselves. Equally, business
and nonprofit groups may not be trusted as sole convenors
outside their sector.
-
A Constructive Process
- You need skilled facilitators and process designers
so that people feel safe and encouraged to participate
in the initiative.
-
Sufficient Mass -
You need more than a few people with strong facilitative
leadership to get and keep people at the table, then move
to implementation. The number varies by community and
initiative, but is tied to the question of "if this
group agreed, would something happen?" In Sitka,
Alaska, a community of 9,000 people, a stakeholder group
of 65 people was able to have impact. In Washington, DC,
1500 to 2500 people engaged in face to face encounters
aided by special processes and technology, in order to
get to an agreement that could hold.
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David believes that collaboration is more
than a trend, and is becoming a movement, because it has had
impact. Now motivations for collaboration are positive and
diverse - people see the possibility for synergies and the
chance to affect civic norms as well as provide solutions
to the presenting issue. While communities may not have completely
shifted from adversarial processes, there are now more people
who recognize that there are alternatives to win/lose encounters
and who choose other ways of working.
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The
Collaborative Leadership Fieldbook: A Guide for Citizens and
Civic Leaders - David has provided a seven page
chapter from this book that explains the essential concepts
of collaboration. The full book provides a step-by-step guide
and examples of successful collaboration and can serve as
a reference book for collaborative leaders.
Collaborative
Leadership: How Citizens and Civic Leaders Can Make a Difference
- Drawing on their extensive research, as well as on the advice
and guidance of the leading scholars and practitioners in
the field, David Chrislip and Carl Larson show how elected
officials and other civic leaders can generate the civic will
to break through legislative and bureaucratic gridlock, deal
with complex issues, and engage frustrated and angry citizens.
They also describe how to design, initiate, and sustain a
constructive, collaborative process.
Massachusetts
Institute for Community Health Leadership - This
site offers a summary of the curriculum for this training
program for collaborative leaders, where David Chrislip is
one of the faculty. You can also view a short video including
two of the alumni of the program, summarizing their reflections
on their experience, or learn how to apply to the program.
Collaboration:
the New Leadership - Tamarack
spoke with David about leadership in a tele-learning session
in 2005. On this page you can read why David believes we need
collaborative leadership, learn about the 10 key elements
he believes are present in any successful community collaboration,
and see his thoughts on the tangible, systemic and sustainable
results of collaborations.
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