Bringing Down the Monster: Addressing Complex Social Problems

through Collective Impact

Diane R. Bessel, PhD, LMSW, CNMNational Association of Social Workers - New York State

Annual Conference 2015

Community Problems

As social workers, we learn about a wide array of problems through our engagements with individuals, families, organizations, and communities.

•Poverty

•Homelessness

•Interpersonal Violence

•Violence in Communities

•Inequality in Education, Employment, Opportunity

•Isms and Intersectionality

Nature of Community Problems

Most problems are treated as Simple or Complicated

Interdependent Factors and Actors

Source: Getting to Maybe (Wesley, Zimmerman, and Patton 2007)

X

Nature of Complex Problems

•Difficult to define because they are rooted in systems

•Involve complicated, ever-changing web of cause-effect relationships

•No clear pathways and no clear solutions

•Wide array of organizations and actors seeking to address them

•Organizations and actors often work in isolation

•Actors rely on own experiences, perspectives, and understandings when developing strategies

•Efforts are typically limited in scope, may lack appropriate focus, and/or are so resource intensive that they are unsustainable

•That which cannot be sustained, cannot be effective

Collective Impact

• Seminal Piece

• Published in Winter 2011

• Large Scale Social Change

• Attracts Attention from:

• Foundations

• Researchers/Think Tanks

• Federal Government

• United Ways

• Proliferation of Related Work

What is Collective Impact?

No single organization, actor, or entity, alone, has the ability to solve the world’s most challenging problems.

Collective Impact occurs when actors from different sectors commit to a common agenda in order to solve a specific, often very complex, community problem.

Today’s Session

Focus on the role Collective Impact strategies can play in addressing complex, even monstrous, social problems.

At the end of today’s session, participants will:

1.Understand the theory behind Collective Impact and its five necessary conditions.

2.Draw on knowledge of successful initiatives to determine whether Collective Impact may be right for their community.

3.Become aware of Collective Impact resources including research and tools.

Tale of Two Impacts

• Organizations work separately and compete for resources

• Funders select individual grantees based on identified parameters

• Large scale change is assumed to depend on scaling

• Evaluation attempts to isolate a particular organization’s impact

• Corporate & government sectors are disconnected from foundations and non-profits

Isolated Impact

• All players bring their unique skills to work toward same goal

• Organizations actively coordinate their actions, measure same things, and share lessons learned

• Process orientation with continuous improvement focus

• Cross-sector alignment occurs with government and corporate sectors as essential partners

Collective Impact

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Collective Impact (Winter, 2011)

Nature of Collective Impact

• Supports changes in individual and organization behavior that create an ongoing progression of alignment, discovery, learning, and emergence.

• In many instances, the progression greatly accelerates social change without requiring breakthrough innovations or vastly increased funding.

• Previously unnoticed solutions and resources from inside or outside the community are identified and adopted.

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexity (Winter, 2013)

Nature of Collective Impact

• Existing organizations find new ways of working together that produce better outcomes.

• Leaders come to recognize and accept continual unfolding of newly identified opportunities for greater impact, along with setbacks.

• Develop new way of seeing, learning, and doing that marries emergent solutions with intentional outcomes.

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexity (Winter, 2013)

Five Conditions of Collective Impact

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Collective Impact (Winter, 2011)

Five Conditions for Collective Impact

Common Agenda

All participants have a shared vision for change including a common understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through agreed upon actions

Shared Measurement

Collect data and measure results consistently across all participants ensuring efforts remain aligned and participants hold each other accountable

Mutually Reinforcing Activities

Participant activities must be differentiated while still being coordinated through a mutually reinforcing plan of action

Continuous Communication

Consistent and open communication is needed across the many players to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and appreciate common motivation

Backbone Support

Requires a separate organization(s) with staff and a specific set of skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative and coordinate participating organizations and agencies

Backbone Organizations

• Effective backbone support is critical to Collective Impact work.

• Backbone organizations offer a unique vantage point, reach, and a skill set not possessed by many other organizations.

• Requires vision, relationship building skills, focus, adaptation, results-orientation, and charisma.

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Understanding the Value of Backbone Organizations in Collective Impact (Winter, 2012)

Nature of Backbone Organization

• Backbone organizations bring a wide range of people together to work on the issues.

• Backbone organizations understand community issues as well as the types of activities that are already going on and how to align them.

• Backbone organizations facilitate a natural progression from partnership-focused activities toward broader externally focused, community level activities.

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Understanding the Value of Backbone Organizations in Collective Impact (Winter, 2012) Champions for Change: Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact (2013)

Nature of Backbone Organization

• Backbone organizations build partner capacity to contribute to and use data in shared measurement system.

• Backbone organizations communicate the value of the effort and progress being made.

• Backbone organizations must balance the tension between coordinating and maintaining accountability, while staying behind the scenes to foster collective ownership.

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Understanding the Value of Backbone Organizations in Collective Impact (Winter, 2012) Champions for Change: Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact (2013)

Six Common Activities of Backbone Organizations

Partnership Focused Activities

Externally Focused Community Level

Activities

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Understanding the Value of Backbone Organizations in Collective Impact (Winter, 2012)

Six Common Activities of Backbone Organizations

Guide Vision and Strategy

Bring various stakeholders together to discuss pressing social issues; develop a collective agenda; and determine key strategies to be employed

Support Aligned Activities

Identify available resources and facilitate dialogue among key players to ensure coordination of activities toward goals

Establish Shared Measurement Practices*

Develop systems to measure outcomes and use data to make meaningful decisions

Build Public Will Ensure that community members are increasingly aware of the issues, express support for the initiative, and are empowered to take action

Advance Policy Ensure that policymakers and influencers are aware of initiative and advocate for system changes that are aligned with goals

Mobilize Funding Funders redirect funds to support this activity and provide new public and private resources

Source: Champions for Change: Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact (2013)

Shared Measurement PracticesGoal: Identify metrics for use in tracking progress toward a common agenda across organizations, and to provide scalable platforms to share data, discuss key learning, and improve strategy and action.

 

Collective Impact in Action

 

Collective Impact in Action

Collective Impact ToolsReadiness Assessment 

Collective Impact ToolsCollective Impact Readiness Tool 

Collective Impact ToolsBackbone Organization Assessment Tool

 

References

Communities of Practice,” Vibrant Communities. Accessed June 2013. http://tamarackcommunity.ca/g2_CofP.html

Hanleybrown, F., Kania, J., and Kramer, M. (2012). "Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work". Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter, 2011.

Kania, J. and Kramer, M. (2011) "Collective Impact". Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011.

Kania, J., and Kramer, M. (2013). “Embracing Emergence: How Collective Impact Addresses Complexity.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter, 2013.

Turner, S., Merchant, K., Kania, J., and Martin, E. (2012)."Understanding the Value of Backbone Organizations in Collective Impact” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2013.

 

Questions/Comments

Diane R. Bessel, PhD, LMSW, CNMAssistant Professor and Undergraduate Program Director

Social Work & SociologyDaemen College4380 Main StreetBuffalo, NY 14226Email: dbessel@daemen.eduPhone: 716-566-7876