Collaborative Leadership Fellows
InCommons Collaboration Challenge
Collaborative Leadership Fellows
Collaborative Leadership Fellows is a nine-month leadership learning experience designed to strengthen individual and collective leadership skills to enhance the capacity of Olmsted County to solve complex community issues. Members of community agencies formed a design team in 2007 to create this experience because they saw a need for more collaborative leadership in the region. Collaborative Leadership Fellows addresses complex issues that require multi-sector community engagement to solve. Each year’s cohort is a diverse group of people who would not usually work together in traditional community structures, so they face the unique challenge of building relationships and trust across sectors. The cohort is divided into community engagement groups that focus on specific community-identified issues. Each group is mentored by two volunteer community leaders; one who has expertise about the community issue, and another who understands collaborative group processes. Fellows participate in self-assessment and experiential learning activities to understand the need for adaptive, integrative, and systemic responses to current and future challenges. The program prepares participants to take what they learn back to their workplaces to build partnerships across traditional boundaries. Additionally, the community design team engages alumni of the program and other local community leaders in its continuous curriculum improvement.
About You
About You
First Name
Jenny
Last Name
Hegland
Country
United States, MN, Olmsted County
About Your Organization
Organization
University of Minnesota Rochester
Organization Website
Organization Phone
(507) 258-8229
Organization Address
111 South Broadway Suite 100 Rochester, MN 55904
Organization Country
United States, MN, Olmsted County
Your Story
Collaboration Title
Collaborative Leadership Fellows
Country your work focuses on
United States, MN, Olmsted County
Describe your locally-based collaboration and the problem it sought to address
Collaborative Leadership Fellows is a nine-month leadership learning experience designed to strengthen individual and collective leadership skills to enhance the capacity of Olmsted County to solve complex community issues. Members of community agencies formed a design team in 2007 to create this experience because they saw a need for more collaborative leadership in the region. Collaborative Leadership Fellows addresses complex issues that require multi-sector community engagement to solve. Each year’s cohort is a diverse group of people who would not usually work together in traditional community structures, so they face the unique challenge of building relationships and trust across sectors. The cohort is divided into community engagement groups that focus on specific community-identified issues. Each group is mentored by two volunteer community leaders; one who has expertise about the community issue, and another who understands collaborative group processes. Fellows participate in self-assessment and experiential learning activities to understand the need for adaptive, integrative, and systemic responses to current and future challenges. The program prepares participants to take what they learn back to their workplaces to build partnerships across traditional boundaries. Additionally, the community design team engages alumni of the program and other local community leaders in its continuous curriculum improvement.
Tell us about the community in which this collaboration took place
Collaborative Leadership Fellows is a county-wide initiative. Olmsted County includes Rochester, the third largest city in Minnesota, and surrounding communities. We are a rapidly growing community facing challenges because of our increasing racial and ethnic diversity, and the large and growing socioeconomic divide between people in poverty and high-income professionals.
Issue Selector
n/a
Partnership
Who was involved in co-creating or implementing your collaboration (other organizations, leaders, community members, etc.)?
Three years ago, Collaborative Leadership Fellows was created for the Olmsted County community by a multi-sector design team including stakeholders from local government, higher education, K-12 education, and the non-profit community. Currently, over twenty community leaders are actively involved as mentors, program facilitators, and presenters. Forty eight community members have now graduated.
To what extent does your collaboration involve partnerships that are outside or cross traditional organizational or sector boundaries?
Collaborative Leadership Fellows intentionally selects community participants who represent six different sectors of the community including business, K-12 education, higher education, non-profit, local government, and the funding community. Furthermore, the design team members, mentors, and presenters we select also represent a multi-sector balance.
Innovation
What makes your locally-based collaboration innovative and unique?
Currently, Collaborative Leadership Fellows is co-sponsored by a unique partnership between four higher education partners (U of M Rochester, U of M Extension, Winona State Rochester, and Rochester Community and Technical College) that share program responsibilities equally. The Collaborative Leadership Fellows experience is focused on developing a specific skill set for working collaboratively. We use adult learning methods including learning by doing, and addressing real issues in an experiential environment. The six practices of collaborative leaders include assessing the environment for collaboration, creating clarity, building trust and safety, sharing power and influence, developing people, and self-reflection. These practices are reinforced in applied learning experiences called Community Engagement Initiatives. These initiatives are focused on issues relevant to the community. Past initiatives included school readiness, the achievement gap, gang prevention and intervention, access to health care, and immigrants in the workforce. Community leaders serve as volunteer mentors to ensure participants intentionally apply the six practices of collaboration in every initiative.
Did you take risks in establishing this collaboration? Explain
There was a significant risk of failure because there was no initial budget or sponsorship. The community engagement initiative model had never been tried before. The ability to ensure a multi-sector cohort was also uncertain. Lastly, establishing a unique niche that complemented other regional leadership programs posed a risk of perceived duplication and competition.
How did this collaboration differ from the normal way of doing your work?
Collaborative Leadership Fellows encourages participants to extend beyond their traditional networks and work effectively across sectors. Emphasis on the collaborative process, mentored practice, and ongoing reflection truly differentiates this experience from other leadership programs. We challenge fellows to consider their own roles in the community issues they strive to address.
Impact
How do you know your collaboration has been effective?
The effectiveness of Collaborative Leadership Fellows is most evident in the stories of success participants have shared with us about how they have been able to apply their skills beyond the program. In our community we now have Spanish-speaking facilitators for court-ordered domestic violence groups. The Olmsted County Jail now offers the SEEDS parent training to inmates. Byron Public Schools now has a Head Start classroom for three and four-year-olds. We’ve seen effective strategies put in place to reduce obesity in schools, government, and workplaces. Public service announcements addressing early childhood parenting are scheduled to air soon.
What progress or impact has been made?
Graduates have been promoted within their own organizations and gone on to take community leadership roles. The increased quality of relationships in our community makes us stronger and more prepared to act for the common good. New collaborative partnerships have been established because of the trusting relationships that have been built. Community awareness of the program has grown steadily.
Next Steps
How would you go about continuing, expanding, or replicating this collaboration?
Participant fees currently sustain this program, which is viable on this basis. However, program replication and expansion are contingent on growth of financial resources. The potential for program replication exists but has not yet been explored due to limited capacity. Additional resources would allow us to explore methods for extending this model to other communities. We have been able to offer a limited number of scholarships each year. We would like to seek additional scholarship funding to ensure future cohorts include a diverse and multi-sector balance of participants. Additional scholarships will also enable more people from underrepresented groups to benefit from the Collaborative Leadership Fellows experience. Lastly, we would like to develop a network for alumni to continue their work in the community. Additional funding would allow us to provide opportunities for these alumni to continue learning from one another and building capacity for positive change in the community.
Describe the current stage of implementation and desired next steps
We have recently graduated our third class of Collaborative Leadership Fellows, and are currently recruiting participants for the next class. We continue to develop ongoing recruitment strategies for diverse participants. Our curriculum continually evolves to encompass new information and techniques, and also to reflect the ever-changing realities in our community. Our community engagement initiatives require established community leaders to mentor the groups, so we are developing relationships with these potential mentors. Also, we are working to describe and quantify the benefits and impact of the program to communicate these to the community. Our immediate next steps will be the matriculation of our new class, finalizing the curriculum and community engagement initiatives for the year, and securing the resources necessary to carry out these initiatives successfully. Our first desired next step for program growth and development is to secure scholarship funds in order to continue to recruit and enable a diverse group of participants. These resources will also help ensure long-term financial stability for Collaborative Leadership Fellows. Sustaining resources will also allow us to plan and develop our curriculum and community engagement initiatives over the long term, thus not restricting us to a year-by-year focus. Our second desired next step is to create an infrastructure to support our network of alumni. A formalized network will enable them to continue their collaborative work and continue to learn from each other. Continuing to foster their learning beyond the initial experience will encourage their ongoing community engagement. Our third desired next step is to extend the benefits of our program to other communities by creating an outreach strategy. This strategy would lead to a mechanism for sharing the principals of our success while allowing for customization based on the needs of a given community. We would embrace the opportunity to strengthen and further develop Collaborative Leadership Fellows in Olmsted County, and to share the lessons we have learned in order to build collaborative leadership capacity throughout the region.
| 134 weeks ago Jenny Hegland updated this Competition Entry. | |
| 134 weeks ago Jenny Hegland submitted this idea. |
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