collaboration & community team building approach to local food systems projects presentation by...
TRANSCRIPT
Collaboration & Community Team Building Approach to Local Food Systems Projects
Presentation by
Warren Miller, Fountainworks
www.fountainworks.com
•Understand a process for designing collaborative local food system projects
•Learn techniques to define your team’s project goals and strategies
•Learn techniques for managing collaborative meetings
Webinar Objectives
•Teams are able to develop and manage food systems projects that utilize a collaborative and community based approach.
•Teams are able to share this information and train others
Overall Objectives
•Engage the wider community
•Build a strong collaborative partnership
•Integrate social, environmental and economic concerns in the development process
Guiding PrinciplesFor collaboration and community team building
Source: Growing Home, Green and Hilchey
• Assess your community’s food system
•Identify potential partners
•What is their capacity to act?
Assess Your Readiness
Assess Your Community’s Food System
Source: Growing Home, Green and Hilchey
WHO ARE YOUR STAKEHOLDERSCURRENTNetwork
FUTURENetwork
Citizens/Community
Identify Gaps
Middle Businesses/Markets
Food SystemLeaders
Project Team
Producers/Distributors
Alliances
Citizens/Community
Food SystemLeaders
Project Team
Producers/Distributors
Alliances
Middle Businesses/Markets
•Your team’s readiness•Your partners’ and sponsors’ readiness•Your community’s readiness
Major initiatives require that busy people care enough to spend time and resources to create change.
Readiness Checklist
Multiple Sources
Bring together a leadership team for your project
A diverse core group of people with talent, relationships, resources and credibility is needed to facilitate and lead the charge.
ENERGIZING OURSELVES: Building and equipping a leadership team
Source: Facilitating Community Change, Darvin Ayre, Gruffe Clough & Tyler Norris
Hold a Project Launch MeetingWhy?
• Get project off to a good start
• Demonstrate importance and buy-in
• Clarify roles and responsibilities
• Communicate, allay fears, instill confidence
• Make “it” official – no more just tinkering around the edges
Using Team Performance Principles… …in a typical meeting
Purpose Why are we having this meeting?
Team Why has this particular team been pulled together? What are the roles?
Meeting GoalWhat do we need to accomplish or decide by the end of this meeting?
Commitment How will the agenda enable us to accomplish our meeting goal?
Organize the Project
• Establish the project roles/ responsibilities
• Define project parameters
• Plan the project framework
• Assemble the project definition document (this can be a 1 pager!)
Source: IPS Associates, Inc., Project Management Manual
What Does Success Look Like?
What’s your wow?
Is/ Is Not Exercise
• A group exercise to clarify scope and objectives
Classic Project Objective Statement
• Put a man on the moon and return him safely by December 31, 1969, at a cost of $9 billion
• Create a Fully Operational Farmers Market within 8 months at a cost of $xxx
Source: IPS Associates, Inc., Project Management Manual
Challenges Facing Project Teams
•Setting clear, compelling purpose
•Agreeing on specific goals
•Others???
Project Management Skills
• HARD SKILLS
•15%
•SOFT SKILLS
•85%
Create a Project Management Roadmap (Logic Model)
• Documents• Often one page (a one-page strategic plan?)• Maybe all text, maybe with diagrams, maybe
both• Can be text, table, chart, etc.• Various levels of detail articulating multiple
components of a project• Consider possibility that a project may need
more than one flow chart
Why do we use them?
• To map a process or part of a process from beginning to end
• To ensure common understanding of where we are now (at the beginning) and where we want to be (at the end) – mission, goals, outcomes, and strategies for achieving them
• To document the plan for all stakeholders• For communications and PR purposes (buy-in?)• For all of the above to ensure common language
Logic Model Template AYou may reduce the font size in the table .Assumptions: OptionalGoal(s): Optional
INPUTS OUTPUTS OUTCOMES
What we invest ACTIVITIES PARTICIPANTS SHORT TERM MEDIUM TERM LONG TERM
What we do Whom we reach and/or Whom we involve
What the short term results are
What the long term results are
What the ultimate impact(s) are
OUTCOME MEASURES
Source: USEPA http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/ECOCOMM.NSF/webpage/measuring+environmental+results#LOGIC%20MODEL%20TEMPLATES
Get Early Wins
•Consider selecting an initial idea or a project that you and your leadership team can accomplish quickly
•Effective collaboration and stakeholder engagement is a critical success factor for local food system projects.
ENERGIZING The Community: Building Knowledge for Action
Source: Facilitating Community Change, Darvin Ayre, Gruffe Clough & Tyler Norris
Guidelines for Community Engagement
•Give the public a sense of how involved they will be in the process before the meeting takes place.
Source: Fountainworks
BeforePrepare the Community/ Participants
Prepare the Space
Prepare Yourself
Facilitating Community Change
Community Engagement
How to Manage the Experience
Establish a Clear Context for the Project
Hold the meeting in a safe and comfortable environment
Set a tone for mutual trust and respect throughout the meeting
Educate participants in the discussion topic (as needed)
Ensure every person participates
Keep the conversations focused
Ensure conversations are rich in content and ideas
Community Engagement
How to Manage the Experience
Community Visioning
• Begin by identifying the assets in your community
My Community’s Asset MAPProducers
UNCER
TAIN
TIES
Distributors
Governmental Markets
Consumers
• Asset 1
• Asset 1
• Asset 1
• Asset 1
• Asset 1
• Asset 1
• Asset 1
• Asset 1
• Uncertainties
• Uncertainties
• Uncertainties
• Uncertainties
• Uncertainties
• Uncertainties
Other Partners
•
Cover Story Vision Exercise
YOUR IDEA’S SPOTSTRENGTHS
+ Strength
+ Strength
+ Strength
+ Strength
PROBLEMS THREATS
– Problem
– Problem
– Problem
– Problem
Threat
Threat
Threat
Threat
Threat
OPPORTUNITY
CU
RR
EN
T/I
NTER
NA
L FU
TU
RE/E
XTER
NA
L
+ Strength
+ Strength
+ Strength
+ Strength
– Problem
– Problem
– Problem
– Problem
• Description• Description• Description
OPPORTUNITIES
Threat
OPPORTUNITY• Description• Description• Description
OPPORTUNITY• Description• Description• Description
OPPORTUNITY• Description• Description• Description
OPPORTUNITY• Description• Description• Description
OPPORTUNITY• Description• Description• Description
Threat
Threat
Categorizing Project IdeasHIGH
LOW
IMPACT
DIFFICULTY HIGH
Golden Nuggets PricklyPears
Low HangingFruit
II IV
I III
Source: Adapted from multiple sources
LOW
Stone Soup
AfterMake time to analyze data with your team immediately following the data collection step (community meetings).
As a team, summarize community data, determine its implications on your project/decision and decide what to do next.
Be respectful of all community input, even if you do not agree with it.
Decide how you will share you findings with others in your organization and with the community.
Facilitating Community Change
These are critical components of community initiatives and often don’t
get the attention they deserve.
Monitoring, Control and Evaluation
Developing Evaluation Questions
· Identify key stakeholders and audiences
· Formulate potential evaluation questions
· Define outcomes in measurable terms
· Prioritize and eliminate questions
Source: 2002 User Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation
•First, plan it. Then do it!
•High performance teams succeed
•Meetings matter
•Work with your assets
A Quick Review
Ingredients for Success
•Be passionate
•Be a Problem Solver
•Be a Skilled Facilitator
•Be an Effective Communicator
Collaboration & Community Team Building Approach to Local Food Systems Projects
Thank Your for Participating!
Please Share Observations and Ask Questions