Transforming Together: Implementation Guide
2 Build trust and a united mindset through clear expectations System partners find alignment and unity toward collective impact when they trust each other; the greater the trust, the more readily solvable challenges will be. Tool Spotlight: The Activities to Establish Shared Understandings resource offers facilitation exercises that ILTs can use to build relational trust, surface assumptions, and establish common ground early in their collaboration. Leaders can help build trust through the ways they themselves commit and “show up.” Invariably, the trust between professionals necessary to transform a system will demand that leaders understand that accountability and responsibility for children are essential to solving the challenges at hand. How one sees, embraces and behaves toward those in and outside one’s agency has implications for system success. Many integrative efforts collapse when leaders are unwilling to compromise, share power, or recognize the value of the work of other agencies. Authentic alignment of vision and purpose does not occur without this transformative mindset effort. Many integrative efforts collapse when leaders are unwilling to compromise, share power, or recognize the value of the work of other agencies. Authentic alignment of vision and purpose does not occur without this transformative mindset effort.
Specifically: • Set the expectation that all partners commit to being responsive with their communications, attending meetings prepared, engaging during and after those meetings, and keeping their commitments. • Identify necessary conditions for systems- change work to be successful in the county. Although public systems are often not well-funded to conduct the “pre-work” of collective effort, leaders still must invest in determining if their respective agencies are “ready” to share responsibility, risk, resources, and rewards. Each partner should conduct a readiness determination by engaging in an honest and transparent dialogue, both internal to the organization and external with partners. • Establish a clear, shared vision (and eventually goals and objectives – more on this in Chapter 2) to guide leadership team deliberations and decisions. Consistent attention to the reality that all youth within the county deserve the most robust, accessible, effective support possible and that the system partners have an aligned set of goals is critical to that end. This clarity of collective purpose, intent, and outcomes can become the organizational glue of the partnership. Vision alone, absent the capacity to measure that vision’s impact, is unsustainable.
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