Bringing Down the Monster: Addressing Complex Social Problems through Collective Impact

1. Bringing Down the Monster: Addressing Complex Social Problems through Collective Impact Diane R. Bessel, PhD, LMSW, CNM National Association of Social Workers - New York State Annual Conference 2015

2. 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

3. Nature of Community Problems X Interdependent Factors and Actors Most problems are treated as Simple or Complicated Source: Getting to Maybe (Wesley, Zimmerman, and Patton 2007)

4. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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: • Understand the theory behind Collective Impact and its five necessary conditions. • Draw on knowledge of successful initiatives to determine whether Collective Impact may be right for their community. • Become aware of Collective Impact resources including research and tools.

9. Tale of Two Impacts Isolated Impact Collective Impact • 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 • 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 Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Collective Impact (Winter, 2011)

10. 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)

11. 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)

13. Five Conditions of Collective Impact Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Collective Impact (Winter, 2011)

14. Five Conditions for Collective Impact

16. 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)

17. 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)

18. 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)

19. Six Common Activities of Backbone Organizations Externally Focused Community Level Activities Partnership Focused Activities Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review: Understanding the Value of Backbone Organizations in Collective Impact (Winter, 2012)

20. Six Common Activities of Backbone Organizations

21. Shared Measurement Practices • Goal: 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. Source: Champions for Change: Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact (2013)

23. Collective Impact in Action

24. Collective Impact in Action

26. Collective Impact ToolsReadiness Assessment

27. Collective Impact ToolsCollective Impact Readiness Tool

28. Collective Impact ToolsBackbone Organization Assessment Tool

29. 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.

30. Questions/Comments • Diane R. Bessel, PhD, LMSW, CNM • Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Program Director Social Work & Sociology • Daemen College • 4380 Main Street • Buffalo, NY 14226 • Email: dbessel@daemen.edu • Phone: 716-566-7876