I came away from the recent Collective Impact 3.0 conference with a long reading list, a lot of great ideas and handful of witticisms and one-liners that I will undoubtedly be using in the future. In short, it was a great conference for R&D – which Liz Weaver observed stands for “Rip off and Duplicate.”
I apologize in advance for not being able to attribute all of the following wisdom and hopefully I get them all right.
"Collective impact practitioners need to be like owls, they need to be able to see in the dark." – Jessa Agilo
"Systems change is about changing the odds. Programmatic efforts help people beat the odds." – Mark Cabaj
"Aspirations inspire movement."
"Use the “Mom Test” Could my mom understand this work?" – Jennifer Roynon
"So much data, so little sense-making." – Mark Cabaj
"Create a radical middle." – Mark Cabaj
"Context + Mechanism = Outcome" – Mark Cabaj, R&D’d this from someone else
"Collaboration moves at the speed of trust." – Deb Halliday (and others)
"Collective impact requires a hundred cups of coffee." – Deb Halliday
"Community building is often framed as a subject to be taught; it is a practice to be practiced." – Jerrold McGrath
"Pioneers need to know why, not how. Early adopters want to know more about how. Late adopters want to know the ecology is right." – Mark Cabaj
"Principles transcend context." – Mark Cabaj
"Build culture through practice." – Mark Cabaj
"Grantees can write and write and write and tell you nothing." – A funder I will keep anonymous
"We are allowed to go back and start from scratch.
Evaluation gives me the opportunity to be accountable.
Innovation is ahead of the evidence curve." – Mark Cabaj
"Data doesn’t speak for itself. It needs sense-making to become signals useful in decision making." – Mark Cabaj
"Hold onto your convictions lightly because you might be wrong." – Mark Cabaj
"If we are in the business of population change, we are in the business of system’s change." – Mark Cabaj
"Collaboration moves at the speed of trust." – Deb Halliday (and others)
"Collective impact requires a hundred cups of coffee." – Deb Halliday
"Community building is often framed as a subject to be taught; it is a practice to be practiced." – Jerrold McGrath