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The Pendulum Swing of Collective Impact

Collective Impact is all the rage. In my field, everyone is studying it, doing it, and lauding its virtues. Its birth is sourced from an article written a few years back in the Stanford Social Innovation Review by John Kania and Mark Kramer. The brilliance of this initial article, simply titled, Collective Impact, isn’t because it’s full of new ideas or because the authors identified a way of working that no one had considered before. Instead, their article offers an approach to large­scale collaboration that is in effect a convergence of proven practice that they found in various places along the broad and complex landscape of social challenges.

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A National Movement: Cities Reducing Poverty

In the late 1990s key leaders in Waterloo Region began dreaming of a different future for their community. They came together to create Opportunities 2000 with the bold aim of moving 2000 individuals out of poverty by the year 2000. The leaders represented many different sectors and wanted to work differently together. Little did they realize that their bold vision would not only change the lives of citizens in Waterloo Region, it would also spark a national movement of cities reducing poverty.

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Canadian Collective Impact Community of Practice

Follow up post to Feb 18th CoP meeting.

The Canadian Collective Impact Community of Practice (CI CoP) is for practitioners who are using the collective impact approach to achieve large-scale system change in Canada. The members meet bi-monthly to discuss questions, challenges and successes in their collective impact work, and to connect with one another.

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How The Community and Local Businesses Can Benefit From Each Other

Local communities and businesses can greatly benefit from each other in a number of different ways. Often times I have noticed a business that is more involved in its local community, also has more value. I am not speaking of monetary value, but referencing the perceived value to the community as a partner. Reaching out to create partnerships among community organizations is not only a responsibility of a local businesses, but also of the community and or organization.Do you remember the days when local businesses supported youth and adult sports team? As a way of showing local support, businesses would put their logo on the local teams jerseys. This always provides a benefit to both the community partner, and the local business.

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Beyond the Comfort of What We Think We Know

Has an over-reliance on "best practices" and "evidence-based" practices struck a deathblow to our ability to think creatively and our courage to be experimental?

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Critical Friendships, Reflective Practice, Words and Glue

I am fortunate to have a reflective practice with friends and colleagues who are thinking about thinking. It didn’t happen over night, it took a few years and this blog is a shout out to Ann McCann, Carol Myles, Kim Cole, Jeanette Laanning, Chris Driedzic, Debbie Hynes and Zack Marshall. Some of you have never met but collectively you all bring richness to my head and heart. I am so grateful.

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