Workshop + Lab Sessions: Solving Difficult Collective Impact Challenges

Workshop + Implementation Lab Series Dates: June 26, July 9, July 23, August 6

Doing collective impact well means managing complexity in strategy and implementation across a network. It requires managing change for network members who need to change their work to align with the collective impact initiative’s priorities. And it means addressing differences and even conflicts amongst the group.

By joining this series, participants will learn adaptive leadership and other practices that groups have found helpful to manage and solve for complexity, change, and conflict within their coalitions.

This experiential lab series will ask participants to bring a current challenge in their collective impact work and utilize the tools, peer support, and facilitator coaching to develop options and plans for solving it. Because this session is an interactive lab in which participants work together on a series of steps that build sequentially, it will be most beneficial to have a team of two participate and imperative that participants be present for all three sessions in their entirety.

What kinds of challenges does this workshop and implementation lab series help to address?

Aligning a network of coalition members to move change together is difficult and complex work. These are some examples of challenges we have seen that these tools help to address (not an exhaustive list, just examples):

• Members don’t fulfill commitments and avoid accountability;
• Members have competing interests or even conflicts where they sabotage the collective or refuse to work with each other;
• There are power dynamics within the collective between grass-tops and grass-roots members that are shutting members down, diminishing trust in the process, and leading to member attrition;
• There is a lack of trust with key partners who refuse to share data or information on their programs and outcomes with the group;
• Differences in the group in committing to and centering equity in the collective;
• A small group of members meet together outside the collective’s meetings and make decisions to exclude others and pursue funding for work that conflicts with the agenda;
• Members refuse to change their work to align with the agenda, participating in the collective but continuing programs or activities that undermine the shared strategies.

What will attendees get out of participating in these sessions?

Attendees will first participate in a larger public workshop on June 26 that will be a mix of presentation, personal reflection, and small group discussion. Following the workshop, attendees will participate with a smaller group (up to 28 people) for three additional sessions on July 9, July 23, and August 6. Lab sessions will dive into each attendee’s challenges with direct coaching from faculty and peer-to-peer discussion and consult.

Attendees will gain from these sessions:

1. Identify and analyze an adaptive challenge that is impeding progress of your collective impact initiative;

2. Learn a series of frameworks and tools to help solve complex, adaptive challenges;

3. Generate solutions to your challenge and develop a plan for how you will engage others to test, implement, and evaluate those solutions

Who from our community is the Implementation Lab Series designed for? The Lab Series is designed for the collective impact backbone team (i.e., the person who leads facilitation and support for the collaborative). The second participant can be another member of the backbone team or an actively engaged partner or leader (e.g., steering committee member or workgroup co-chair, etc) who will help apply the Lab Series learnings in the community work.

Why is it important for a team of two people to join from the same collaborative or organization? Often complex challenges require more than one person to address them, and this series is designed to equip two team members from the same organization or collaborative with tactics and recommendations you can work on together as a team to face your challenge.

WORKSHOP FACULTY

• Dominique Samari, Cofounder, P3 Development Group, and Technical Advisor, Collective Impact Forum
• Paul Schmitz, CEO, Leading Inside Out and Senior Advisor, Collective Impact Forum

Session Dates and Times

• Workshop: June 26, 2024, 1pm – 4pm ET
• Implementation Lab Session 1: July 9, 2024, 1pm – 4pm ET
• Implementation Lab Session 2: July 23, 2024, 1pm – 4pm ET
• Implementation Lab Session 3: August 6, 2024, 1pm – 4pm ET
  
  

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Registration Fee: Registration is $1,500 USD for up to two team members. This includes the cost of the June 26 workshop plus 3-part Lab Series for both people. With credit card and Eventbrite processing fees, the final cost per team is $1,602.45 USD.

How many people from my collaborative can register for the Workshop + Implementation Lab Series: Teams of 1-2 people may register for the Workshop + Implementation Lab series. The organizer’s preference is for two people from the same collaborative to join, as often the challenges a collaborative faces require more than one person to implement solutions. Registration does not cover more than two people per group.

What if I just want to join the workshop? Please visit our workshop page if you only wish to join the workshop and not the implementation lab sessions.

Cancellations and Refunds:

• If contacted in writing by June 19, 2024, refunds are available for the workshop + implementation lab series, minus a 10% fee to cover non-recoupable administrative and staff expenses associated with event preparation.
  
• If contacted in writing between June 20 and July 3, 2024, refunds are available for the implementation lab series, minus $199 fee per team member to cover participation in the June 26 workshop. Refunds will not be granted after July 3, 2024. Please see our FAQ below for further cancellation information.

WORKSHOP SPEAKERS

Dominique Samari is Cofounder at P3 Development Group, technical advisor for the Collective Impact Forum, and is an experienced strategist, coach, and facilitator who helps organizations build and sustain equitable and inclusive change. A naturally empathetic leader, Samari specializes in supporting leaders as they navigate difficult and complex change. Samari began her career as a criminal defense attorney and a City of Milwaukee criminal court commissioner. She transitioned from the practice of law to international development, serving in key management positions for the U.S. Department of State’s Rule of Law Program in Afghanistan. There, she designed and implemented culturally-relevant strategies and training opportunities for over 2,000 Afghan criminal justice professionals. In 2011, Samari translated her diverse background and experience into co-founding P3 Development Group. Most recently, Samari has led planning for Imagine MKE, the city of Milwaukee’s first inclusive hub for arts and culture, helped set the strategic direction for the newly-created Milwaukee Parks Foundation, and facilitated racial equity and inclusion strategy development for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. Samari is also the creator of the Belonging Project, a year-long exploration into how individuals create a sense of belonging across differences. Informed and inspired by data from the Belonging Project, she subsequently developed Kin, an online platform designed to authentically connect individuals across real and perceived differences.

Paul Schmitz builds the collective leadership of organizations and communities to achieve greater social impact through his roles as Senior Advisor at The Collective Impact Forum and CEO of Leading Inside Out. He is also the author of Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up, and the former CEO of Public Allies, where he helped more than 5,000 diverse young adults begin careers working for community and social change. Paul is a faculty member of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, was a social innovation advisor to the Obama White House, and has been named three separate years to The Nonprofit Times list of the 50 most influential nonprofit leaders in America. Paul is a faculty member of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute, and a board member of The Corps Network, the NYU Leadership Initiative, Playworks, and The United Way of Greater Milwaukee. Paul previously served on the board of Independent Sector, the association of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, and was the co-chair of Voices for National Service, which led advocacy for AmeriCorps and other national service programs. Paul co-chaired the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign’s Civic Engagement Policy Group, was a member of The Obama-Biden Transition Team, and was appointed by President Obama to The White House Council for Community Solutions.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Are these sessions in-person or online? Both the workshop and implementation lab series are online. We will be using Zoom Meeting.

What currency is this workshop and implementation lab series using for registration? The Collective Impact Forum is based in the United States and registration is in U.S. dollars.

What time zone are these sessions in? These sessions are held in Eastern Time (US & Canada.)

What activities are included in the June 26 workshop? This three-hour online workshop will be a mix of presentation, Q&A, personal reflection, and small group discussion.

Will June 26 workshops be recorded? The June 26 workshop presentations and full group discussion will be recorded. Small group discussions during the workshop will not be recorded. Recordings will be shared within one week of the workshop. Recordings are available for paid attendees for three months after the workshop.

What does the Implementation Lab Series include? The three-part implementation lab will include small group coaching with Lab faculty and peer learning amongst participants. The lab is structured for people to register as groups of two, representing the same collective impact initiative; typically this is the backbone lead plus another backbone team member or representative from a partner organization. You will be problem solving for a current challenge your team is experiencing and through coaching and discussion, will identify specific strategies to start implementing during the three-part series. Sessions are held on July 9, July 23, and August 6, and run from 1pm – 4pm ET each day. It is imperative that teams join for all three sessions to maximize their experience.

Can I register for the Implementation Lab Series as just one person? You can join as one person, but the registration price is still $1,500. We highly encourage you to join with a colleague (from your same organization or a partner organization in your collaborative) since the goal is for you and your colleague to work through a challenge and plan together how to move forward.

Can I register with more than two people for the Implementation Lab Series? No. To ensure a small group size, we are limiting the Implementation Lab to no more than 28 people, or 14 groups of two.

What accessibility practices will this workshop use? We will have Zoom auto-captions turned on for these sessions. In the days ahead of each session, we will send out copies of workshop presentations/handouts. After the June 26 workshop, we will share recordings of the workshop and full group discussion. Please contact Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org if you have other access needs not addressed above.

Can I be invoiced for these sessions? Yes, we can invoice you. Invoices must be paid by ACH or check. Credit card orders cannot be processed by invoice. If you wish to pay by credit card, please register via Eventbrite. All requests to pay by invoice must be made by June 19, 2024. Please reach out to Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org if you wish to inquire about paying by invoice.

Can my whole team / organization participate in the June 26 workshop under one registration? No. Each workshop participant will require their own registration as this is an active workshop where attendees will be broken up into small groups throughout the workshop to discuss learning questions during the session.

How do I cancel my registration and request a refund? All cancellation requests must be submitted in writing.

• If you wish for a refund and contact us by June 19, then registered participants will receive a refund of their registration fee minus a 10% fee. The 10% fee covers non-recoupable administrative and staff expenses associated with event preparation. All refund requests should be emailed to Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org.
  
• If you wish for a refund and contact us after June 19, but before July 3, then registered participants will receive a refund of their registration fee minus the $199 registration cost per person for the June 26 workshop. All refund requests should be emailed to Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org. Refund requests cannot be fulfilled after July 3, 2024.

Have More Questions?

If your question is not addressed in our FAQ, please reach out to Jennifer Splansky Juster at jennifer.juster@collectiveimpactforum.org.