The Tamarack Toolkit

Chapter 3: Common Agenda

There are a number of factors to consider when diving deeper to build a common agenda for your community issue. These include:

Understanding the prior history of collaboration in your community
Determining whether the issue is pressing
Understanding what data is required and who has the data relevant to the issue
Understanding your community context (community system)
Building a core group of interested individuals
Recruiting an influential organization to convene community conversations
Developing a broader community engagement strategy

Beyond a shared vision, a common agenda includes not only a definition of a shared issue that partners across multiple sectors intend to address together, but it also includes the partners’ shared understanding of that issue; and their agreed-upon approach for how best to address it. Many inspiring common agendas have an aspirational quality in how they are ultimately articulated.

Key elements that are incorporated into a common agenda statement include:

A Description of the Problem (Informed by research)
Clear (ideally measurable) Goal for Change
A Portfolio of Strategies that focus on driving large scale change
A Set of Principles that guide the group’s behaviours
An Approach to Evaluation that frames strategy for receiving and integrating feedback

Collective Impact Tools

Each chapter's primary tools are fundamental resources designed to help grow a more complete understanding of each stage of Collective Impact. Start your journey in this chapter by reviewing each of the primary tools. Once this is complete, you can move on to the secondary and diving deeper resources to help gain a better grasp of specific elements that have been introduced.

Primary

TOOL | Community Vision for Change: What changes are needed to realize our community vision
TOOL | Scoping Our Work: Think about clarifying, and reaching agreement on the scope and reach of your Collective Impact initiative
TOOL | Common Agenda Planning Canvas: Get greater clarity about the shared issue you want to address
WEBINAR | Scoping a Common Agenda: How to scope and build a common agenda to lay the foundation for an effective Collective Impact initiative

Secondary

ARTICLE | Developing Collective Impact Strategies: Tools and approaches designed to help with the development of Collective Impact strategies
PAPER | The Context Experts: Increase the authenticity of community engagement and eradicate tokenistic community engagement
TOOL | Co-Defining Your Dilemma: Consider the perspectives of various stakeholders to develop a meaningful question that encourages creativity and the generation of win-win solutions
TOOL | Mapping our Ecosystem: Creating a map of your issue’s ecosystem can be a useful way to identify larger systemic issues and problems at play

Diving Deeper

PUBLICATION | How to Develop a Common Agenda for a Collective Impact
A 'how-to' approach for developing a common agenda when working on Collective Impact initiatives
WEBINAR | Why Starlings would be the Leaders of Collective Impact
Paul Born gives an inspirational speech about Starling birds and their incredible ability to work together

Chapter 3: Common Agenda

Collective Impact Tools

Primary

Secondary

Diving Deeper

Tamarack

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