Category Archives: All Resources

Transformative Conversations

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This 184-page book, Transformative Conversations, by Dr. Ada Gonzalez offers guidance on how to improve communication and strengthen dialogue skills. You can find more info on the book site here or go directly to Amazon.

From Transformative Conversations

transformative_convosThe book Transformative Conversations is a resource to any leader, coach, or facilitator who is working to improve their leadership. This is far from the first book written that deals with the dynamics of dialogue and effective communication. This book weaves wisdom from many sources into a useful flow that informs the reader about not only why this is a valuable subject, it gives clear guidance on how to pull it off.

This book provides practical tools and guidance to transform your communications by helping you create deeper understanding and meaning. The text is full of effective illustrations, stories, examples, helpful exercises and even prescriptive guidance on specifically what to say to facilitate participation, collaboration, dialogue and handle certain difficult situations.

If you want to know how dialogue helps to balance the amount of listening and asserting occurring between people at work, and how to ignite engagement and commitment to accomplishing business priorities, this book provides instructions on both. If you want to know how to improve dialogue and collaboration among any group of people, this book will give you guidance on how to do it.

More about Dr. Gonzalez
Dr. Gonzalez is an executive coach, facilitator, and a consultant in organizational behavior. She works with leaders, businesses and organizations to facilitate change, development and transformation through dialogue. She shows business leaders how to discover the power of leading through conversations. For more than 25 years as a change agent, and crafter of organizational dialogue, Gonzalez has provided support and created a safe space for development, learning, and growth.

Dr. Gonzalez lives in Delaware and serves as an adjunct professor for the University of Delaware. She did undergraduate and graduate work at Andrews University in Michigan, and post-graduate training as a Marriage and Family Therapist. She earned a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at the Union Institute and University in Ohio, specializing on leadership, dialogue, and transformation.

Follow on Twitter: @PhDAda

Resource Link: www.transformativeconversations.com/take-action/

This resource was submitted by Dr. Ada Luz Gonzalez, owner of Logos Noesis, via the Add-a-Resource form.

Improving Labor Relations in Jamestown

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This four-page case study (2014) from The Intersector Project outlines about how cross-sector collaboration was used to create Jamestown Area Labor Management Committee (JALMC) to improve labor relations in Jamestown, New York.

From the Intersector Project

Shortly after Stan Lundine took office as mayor of Jamestown in 1970, the city’s unemployment rate had reached 10.2 percent – over twice the national average. In 1971, nearly 1,000 workers were unemployed and an additional 2,800 jobs were in jeopardy as the largest company in town closed their doors. The contentious relationship between local unions and businesses had further damaged Jamestown’s reputation as an attractive place for manufacturers, driving away new businesses that may have otherwise invested in the city and revitalized its suffering economy. Drawing on all of his available resources – from his personal network and reputation in Jamestown, to his political leadership and ability to secure federal funding – Stan developed the Jamestown Area Labor Management Committee (JALMC) as a way to mediate labor disputes. With the additional leadership of John Eldred, a consultant who understood the dynamics of factories and labor relations, the JALMC’s programs expanded into individual plants, focusing on worker engagement, skills development, and programs to increase productivity. The success of the JALMC model not only improved working conditions in Jamestown, but also attracted new investments from national manufacturers. Within three years of the JALMC’s launch, unemployment in Jamestown had dropped to 4.2 percent, and new incentives had increased worker productivity and quality of work-life.IP_Jamestown“I think if there’s a lesson to be learned, assume there is a network, find and locate them, and then explore what the goal confluence is between what you want and what their networks want… that’s just good politics to me.”– John Eldred, Jamestown Area Labor Management Committee

This case study, authored by The Intersector Project, tells the story of this initiative.

More about The Intersector ProjectThe Intersector Project
The Intersector Project is a New York-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to empower practitioners in the government, business, and non-profit sectors to collaborate to solve problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone. We provide free, publicly available resources for practitioners from every sector to implement collaborative solutions to complex problems. We take forward several years of research in collaborative governance done at the Center for Business and Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School and expand on that research to create practical, accessible resources for practitioners.

Follow on Twitter @theintersector.

Resource Link: http://intersector.com/case/laborrelations_newyork/ (Download the case study PDF here.)

This resource was submitted by Neil Britto, the Executive Director at The Intersector Project via the Add-a-Resource form.

Protecting Essential Infrastructure in Alaska

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This four-page case study (2014) from The Intersector Project about how cross-sector collaboration was used to create the Alaska Partnership for Infrastructure Protection (APIP) to protect essential infrastructure in Alaska.

From the Intersector Project

Alaska’s vast size, sparse population, and difficult terrain makes communication and transportation across the state a challenge. Its regional isolation also leaves many Alaskans dependent on limited supply chains for crucial commodities. As a result of growing concerns over potentially hazardous disruptions to Alaska’s critical infrastructure, whether man-made or natural, the State of Alaska, Department of Defense, and several private sector organizations set out to develop a central, cross-sector mechanism to gather, analyze, and disseminate critical infrastructure information during periods of vulnerability or threat. These efforts resulted in the formation of the Alaska Partnership for Infrastructure Protection (APIP) in 2004. The mission of APIP is to protect infrastructure essential to all Alaskans by improving collaboration and interoperability between the public, private, and non-profit sectors. With the support of leaders like John Madden, Director of the Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management for the State of Alaska, APIP continues this integrated team approach to addressing hazards through extensive information sharing, continuity of operations planning, and complex threat scenario exercises. Recognized across the nation, APIP’s Alaska Shield exercise program received acknowledgment from FEMA as the nation’s 2014 Capstone Exercise for securing a more resilient nation.

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“Embracing the idea of sectors as interdependent is the right approach for us to improve our ability to withstand any hazard…Decisions need to occur across the whole sweep of participants through integrated problem solving, collaborative decision-making, and cooperative execution.”— John Madden, Director of the Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management for the State of Alaska

This case study, authored by The Intersector Project, tells the story of this initiative.

More about The Intersector ProjectThe Intersector Project
The Intersector Project is a New York-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to empower practitioners in the government, business, and non-profit sectors to collaborate to solve problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone. We provide free, publicly available resources for practitioners from every sector to implement collaborative solutions to complex problems. We take forward several years of research in collaborative governance done at the Center for Business and Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School and expand on that research to create practical, accessible resources for practitioners.

Follow on Twitter @theintersector.

Resource Link: http://intersector.com/case/apip_alaska/ (Download the case study PDF here.)

This resource was submitted by Neil Britto, the Executive Director at The Intersector Project via the Add-a-Resource form.

Read the Room for Real

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Read the Room for Real: How a Simple Technology Creates Better Meetings (2015) by David Campt and Matthew Freeman is a 200-page book intended for facilitators, presenters, conference planners, or anyone who is curious about how to use increasingly accessible audience polling technology to improve meetings.

Read the RoomCampt and Freeman have a deep background in facilitating dialogues about difficult diversity issues and as well as refining dialogic processes on all matter of topics for very small to very large groups of people.

From the DWC Group…

Read the Room for Real answers these questions:

  • In my speeches and trainings, how can I make sure my my audience is with me?
  • In my conferences, how can I make sure the attendees feel connected to each other?
  • In my workshops, how can make sure that the group is using all of is brainpower?
  • In the meetings I pay for, how can I make sure that my organization gets information it can use, not just a big bill for an experience that participants may or may not not remember?

After reading, you will be able to use the newly accessible technology that can transform meeting audiences into participants. Knowing how to leverage the new interactivity will give you a competitive advantage over peers who are slow to apply the worldwide trend for greater participant voice and interactivity so every meetings merits praise.

Purchase it on Amazon here.

About David Campt
Dr. Campt currently provides consultation about race relations and diversity issues with United States congressional representatives, the foundation community, and national community organizations. In addition to his work as a program evaluator and trainer, Dr. Campt also has extensive experience as a designer of large-scale community engagements, dialogue facilitator and university lecturer. His first book, The Little Book of Dialogue for Difficult Subjects (2007), provides practical guidance about how individuals and organizations could use skills of dialogue to better solve shared problems.

Follow on Twitter: @thedialogueguy

About Matthew Freeman
Matthew is a facilitator and trainer with over 10 years experience working on race and diversity issues, civic engagement, and organizational development. He is the President of TMI Consulting, based in Richmond, Virginia. He has pioneered the use of cutting-edge audience response technology to make group conversations more productive and participatory. Matthew has published numerous articles on the subject, including “Using Keypad Polling to Make Meetings More Productive, Educational, and Participatory” in the National Civic Review.

Follow on Twitter: @rvamf

Resource Link: www.thedwcgroup.com/RTRFR

Building a Neighborhood of Economic Opportunity in Atlanta

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This four-page case study (2014) from The Intersector Project outlines how cross-sector collaboration was used to transform the East Lake Meadows community in Atlanta, Georgia.

From the Intersector Project

In 1995, in the East Lake Meadows public housing complex located four miles from downtown Atlanta, only four percent of residents earned incomes above the poverty line. The unemployment rate was 86.5 percent, and the neighborhood was home to a multi-million dollar drug trade with a crime rate 18 times higher than the national average. Less than 10 percent of children attending the neighborhood elementary school met basic proficiency standards in math by fifth grade. In 1993, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) a $35 million grant to renovate the crumbling housing stock of East Lake Meadows. Renee Glover, who had recently joined AHA as President, realized that merely renovating housing would not create a safer, more prosperous community. Concurrently, Tom Cousins, Founder of Cousins Properties, Inc., formed the East Lake Foundation to support and lead an integrated and holistic community approach which would provide mixed income housing, cradle-to-college education, and community wellness resources through public and private partnerships. Along with Carol Naughton, a real estate attorney for AHA, and Greg Giornelli, the Executive Director of the East Lake Foundation, and neighborhood residents, Tom and Renee catalyzed a collaborative effort to transform East Lake Meadows. This model and its success led to the development of Purpose Built Communities – a national network that redevelops distressed communities in cities throughout the United States.

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“Cross-sector collaboration isn’t merely an option but a necessity to create neighborhoods where everyone can thrive. The necessary skill sets, funding streams, and leadership aren’t found only in one sector, but live in all sectors; collaborations allows for better coordination, more efficient use of resources, and greater impact. The revitalization of East Lake in Atlanta is a strong example of the power of cross-sector collaboration. Purpose Built Communities is helping leaders around the country use the model developed in East Lake to build healthy, sustainable neighborhoods with pathways to prosperity for the lowest income families.”— Carol Naughton, Senior Vice President, Purpose Built Communities

This case study, authored by The Intersector Project, tells the story of this initiative.

More about The Intersector ProjectThe Intersector Project
The Intersector Project is a New York-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to empower practitioners in the government, business, and non-profit sectors to collaborate to solve problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone. We provide free, publicly available resources for practitioners from every sector to implement collaborative solutions to complex problems. We take forward several years of research in collaborative governance done at the Center for Business and Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School and expand on that research to create practical, accessible resources for practitioners.

Follow on Twitter @theintersector.

Resource Link: http://intersector.com/case/eastlake_georgia/ (Download the case study PDF here.)

This resource was submitted by Neil Britto, the Executive Director at The Intersector Project via the Add-a-Resource form.

How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care We Need? (NIFI Issue Guide)

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The National Issues Forums Institute published the Issue Guide, How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care We Need?, in April 2015. This guide is to help facilitate deliberation on the issues around the entire US healthcare system.

NIFI_HealthcareCostsFrom the guide…

Americans have good reason to worry about the high costs of health care. Medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy. Nationally, health care spending threatens the nation’s long-term solvency. We urgently need to find ways to make our health care system financially sustainable.

Health Care: How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care we Need? clarifies this difficult challenge and offers three options to address issues through changes in the way hospitals and doctors function, end of life care, unhealthy lifestyles, smoking habits, employee wellness, health insurance, childbirth procedures, the pharmaceutical industry and reforms in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. It’s a balanced, open-minded look at the entire healthcare system—one that moves the discussion beyond the current political debate.

The Issue Guide presents three options for deliberation:

Option One: “As a Nation and as Individuals We Need to Live within Our Means”
The problem is we spend more than any other developed country on health care without questioning whether more is always better. Reining in spending is a matter of tightening our belts and sticking to a budget even if it means sacrifice.

Option Two: “Make Health Care More Transparent, Accountable, and Efficient”
The biggest driver of health care spending is the design of the US health care system- or rather the lack of design. The system needs regulation or incentives, or both, to instill financial discipline and end greed and abuse.

Option Three: “Take Responsibility for Lowering Health Care Costs by Focusing on Wellness”
Our own unhealthy behaviors- smoking, excessive drinking, drug abuse, lack of exercise, and more- are driving up health care costs. Collective and individual efforts in improve healthy behaviors are the key to lowering costs.

More about the NIFI Issue Guides
NIFI’s Issue Guides introduce participants to several choices or approaches to consider. Rather than conforming to any single public proposal, each choice reflects widely held concerns and principles. Panels of experts review manuscripts to make sure the choices are presented accurately and fairly. By intention, Issue Guides do not identify individuals or organizations with partisan labels, such as Democratic, Republican, conservative, or liberal. The goal is to present ideas in a fresh way that encourages readers to judge them on their merit.

Issue Guides are generally available in print or PDF download for a small fee ($2 to $4). All NIFI Issue Guides and associated tools can be accessed at www.nifi.org/en/issue-guides.

Follow on Twitter: @NIForums.

Resource Link: www.nifi.org/en/issue-guide/health-care

Retrofitting Homes for Energy Efficiency in Portland

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This four-page case study (2014) from The Intersector Project outlines how Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability used cross-sector collaboration to address the need to retrofit homes for increased energy efficiency.

From the Intersector Project

An estimated 40 percent of carbon dioxide pollution in the United States comes from energy used in homes. In Portland, Oregon, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability wanted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city while bettering the economic and social development of local residents and businesses. In 2009, stakeholders came together to draft a plan designed to provide energy upgrades to 500 Portland homes and cut energy consumption by 10 to 30 percent using an innovating financing model to eliminate the upfront costs that deterred homeowners from pursuing environmentally-friendly energy retrofits. Led by Derek Smith, a sustainability expert with a record of working in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, collaborators came together to create Clean Energy Works Portland (CEWP), an innovative program that used a revolving loan to finance upgrades, working with local contractors to add high-quality jobs to the economy which resulted in a reduction of twenty percent or greater energy consumption in most participating homes.

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“Cross-sector collaborations are the most practical and effective way to make progress in this era of massive resource constraints and necessary economic realignment.”— Derek Smith, CEO, Clean Energy Works Oregon

This case study, authored by The Intersector Project, tells the story of this initiative.

More about The Intersector ProjectThe Intersector Project
The Intersector Project is a New York-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to empower practitioners in the government, business, and non-profit sectors to collaborate to solve problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone. We provide free, publicly available resources for practitioners from every sector to implement collaborative solutions to complex problems. We take forward several years of research in collaborative governance done at the Center for Business and Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School and expand on that research to create practical, accessible resources for practitioners.

Follow on Twitter @theintersector.

Resource Link: http://intersector.com/case/cewp_oregon/ (Download the case study PDF here.)

This resource was submitted by Neil Britto, the Executive Director at The Intersector Project via the Add-a-Resource form.

Reducing the Risks of Catastrophic Wildfires in Flagstaff

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This four-page case study (2014) from The Intersector Project outlines how a cross-sector collaboration partnership created the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project (FWPP) to reduce the risks of wildfires in Flagstaff, Arizona.

From the Intersector Project

Years of extensive wildland fire suppression in the Southwest has left many forests with unnaturally high levels of forest fuels, like dense undergrowth and thick litter fall. This has changed the natural fire ecology from low, fast-burning wildfires, to much larger crown fires that kill trees and undermine landscape integrity. In 2010, a wildfire and subsequent flooding on the east side of the San Francisco Peaks, just north of Flagstaff, Arizona, caused over $150 million in combined suppression and recovery. A similar wildfire in either of the two Flagstaff watersheds could potentially flood much of downtown and/or disrupt 50 percent of the city’s water supply, resulting in significant long-term financial and life-style impacts within the community. Recognizing the need for preventative action, a partnership between the city, county, state, and federal governments, with support from local non-profit and for-profit organizations, has resulted in the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project (FWPP). With Flagstaff Wildland Fire Management Officer Paul Summerfelt coordinating FWPP activities, FWPP plans to mitigate the risk of potentially devastating wildfires in Flagstaff’s critical watershed areas by managing forest fuels and restoring natural ecosystem functions. This will include thinning out dense forests and reintroducing a low-intensity fire regime. To fund FWPP, Flagstaff passed a $10 million municipal bond with 74 percent approval rate, making FWPP the only forest restoration work on National Forests funded through municipal bonds.

IP_Flagstaff

“The strength of a management group is much better when it’s not just a single agency. When you get different people involved, they see things differently and everybody brings something into the collaborative process… If you want to go fast go by yourself, but if you want to make a difference, go with others.”— Paul Summerfelt, Flagstaff Fire Department’s Wildland Fire Management Officer

This case study, authored by The Intersector Project, tells the story of this initiative.

More about The Intersector ProjectThe Intersector Project
The Intersector Project is a New York-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to empower practitioners in the government, business, and non-profit sectors to collaborate to solve problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone. We provide free, publicly available resources for practitioners from every sector to implement collaborative solutions to complex problems. We take forward several years of research in collaborative governance done at the Center for Business and Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School and expand on that research to create practical, accessible resources for practitioners.

Follow on Twitter @theintersector.

Resource Link: http://intersector.com/case/flagstafffire_arizona/ (Download the case study here.)

This resource was submitted by Neil Britto, the Executive Director at The Intersector Project via the Add-a-Resource form.