COMPASS Conversation on Collaboration Analysis
- 1. Report published by: North Star Strategies and SchellingPoint : January 3, 2017 12:08 AM Nonprofit Collaborations: A Preliminary Conversation Analysis |Observations| Reflections
- 2. Recognizing, Celebrating and Strengthening People’s Place Page 2 of 10 Background Purpose Thank youfor offeringyourtime toparticipate inthispreliminaryconversation.Participantsinthis processare a randomselectionof peoplewhoattendedthe 2016 Dana annual meeting.Ourgoal in conductingthis assessmentwas,first, toprovidethe participantswithasnapshotof the opinionsof theirpeersregardingcollaborationbetweenandamongnonprofitorganizations. We alsowantedto illustrate howmuchinterestthereis incollaboration,testingoutalistof common(thoughnot exhaustive) ways organizationscancollaborate andpartner. Questionsand Answers You provided great insight but also asked some questions. Here are our thought on those. Q: Please define collaboration. In retrospect,we will certainlyshouldhave giventhe definition tothiswordas an introductiontothe survey.We like tothinkof collaborationasfunctioningona continuumfromcooperationto collaborationtopartnershiptomergerwhere the termsare definedasfollows: Cooperation:neitherorganizationsharesresourcesbuttheydorefertheirclientstootherorganizations whoare capable of fulfillingneedswhichthe referringorganizationcannotaccomplish.Exampleswould be a HeadStartprogram referringclientstothe FoodBank,or the Food Bankreferringclientstoa parentingclassat the local communitycenter. Collaboration: participatingorganizationsshare some level of resourceswitheachother.Theyhave “skininthe game”.For example,one organizationusesavanduringthe day and collaborating organizationusesthe same vanonweekends.Collaborationgenerallyrequires A Memorandumof Understandingtoensure commonunderstandingof expectations. Partnership:the organizationsmaintainaseparate identitybutshare theirresourcesforone ormore programs.An agencythat providesservices9to 5 Monday throughFridaysharesare space witha program that workseveningsandweekends.The relationshipisnow complex enoughthatacontractual relationshipwithdefinedcosts,liabilities,policiesandproceduresisrequired. Merger:generallytwoorganizationswhichhave verysimilarmissionsformanew organizationwhich fillsbothmissionswhile realizingsuchadvantagesaseconomiesof scale,eliminationof duplicationof back office functionsandsharedvolunteerandboardcapacity. O: Observation:You mightdistinguish the difficulty/costsof differentkindsof collaboration between nonprofits.Sharing ideasand bestpracticesin discussion forumsorwritten documentsiseasy,but coordinating shared servicedelivery is often difficultand time consuming. Thispointis verywell taken.Withveryrare exceptionspeople,groupsororganizationsonlychange whenthe statusquo ismore painful thanthe process/strugglethatleadstoa new reality.Saidanother way,the benefitof the newrelationshipmustoutweighthe struggle toestablishthe relationship. The methodologyandtechnologythatwe have illustratedinthisabbreviatedprocesshasbeenshownin for-profitbusinessesandnonprofitorganizationstosufficientlylowerthe barriertocollaborationthat
- 3. Recognizing, Celebrating and Strengthening People’s Place Page 3 of 10 organizationsare more inclinedtoenterseriousdialogue.Suchconversationshave ledtocollaborations, partnershipsandwhenwarrantedevenmergers. Q: How can we get to knowoneanotherto workmorecollaboratively? Our visionasan organizationis toenable deeperalignmentwithinorganizationsandtofoster meaningful collaborationandpartnershipbetweenandamongnonprofits.Ouroriginal intention fosteringthisconversationwastoprovoke thought,providesome insightful data,gaininsightsand wisdomfromthe communityandtoassessthe level of interestin“collaboration”.Thankstoyour graciousparticipation,itappearswe receivedevenmore thanwe bargainedfor! Therefore,inlightof whatwe perceive tobe some genuine interestinfurther conversation,we would be delightedtoconducta webinarwithall participantstowalkthroughthe data.You will be able tosee the analyticsat a deeperlevelwhenthe software islive asopposedtoinPDFform.If that conversation resultsinongoingcommunicationbytwoor more organizationsthatwouldsimplybe agreatbonus. Please anticipate aDoodle Pollthroughwhichwe willbe able todetermineatime convenientforall to participate inthe webinar.Inaddition,shouldanyonehave anyparticularquestionstheywouldlike answeredpleasefeelfree tocontactus viaemail orat 302 – 584 – 2218.
- 4. Recognizing, Celebrating and Strengthening People’s Place Page 4 of 10 Brief introduction to Alignment Theory How to read the data Thisreportis generatedbyoursoftware andprovidesinsightintohow a group thinks.Whendiscussing a topic we all realize manyobjections,insights andopinionsare left unsaid,particularlybythose inthe minority and/orbythose whoare lessassertive.Because thisinformationisunknown,itcannotinform the discussion.Inaddition,these unspokenandunaddressedconcerns (oftenatoddswiththe eventual directionyouchoose tomove in) will underminethe effective implementationof anyplan. While the existence of unspokenconcernsisnota revelation, whatis new iswe can now measurethe degree of support. Insteadof an up/down,yes/novote,we cannow see the groupsthinkingona continuum. We speakof thissupportor lack of supportas Alignment,illustratedinanAlignmentIndex. The title of thisAlignmentAssessmentis‘EnsuringSaintJamesLeadershipadaptstothe changingneeds of ourcongregationoverthe nextthree years.’The goal isto understandhow individualleaders,andthe overall leadershipgroupatSt.James, think aboutstrategiestopursue the missionof St.James. Two examplesfrom your survey Organizationsthatcollaborateare more attractive to funders. 91 The 91 meanshighalignmentamongthe people whoparticipated The colors representthe six optionsforresponse: o Dark Brown:StronglyAgree o Brown:Agree o LightBrown: Slightlyagree o LightBlue:SlightlyDisagree o No one “disagreed”or“stronglydisagreed” o Grey: People whoskippedthe question Collaborationinmyorganizationrequiresboardapproval. 41 The 41 meansverylowalignment –thiswouldbe veryimportantif youhave staff discussing collaborationbutnoone realizesthe decisionmakingprocessisnotaligned.Oftenwe presume our normsare the same for everyone We see the othertwocolors: o Blue:Disagree o Dark Blue:StronglyDisagree Watch the jargon We strive tostay awayfrom “consultantspeak”. Itisinevitable,however,thatyouneedtobecome familiarwithsome technical terms. The firstwe will introduce is Non-Alignment.Inassessingasetof responsesinthe survey, Non-Alignmentiswhere some respondentsagreedwithastatement,while othersdisagreed. Thisdoes notmeanright or wrong.It simply identifiesstatement(s) that warrantfurtherdiscussion. Alignmentalsoisnot about“for” or “against”. Full alignmentmeansratherthat,whenaskedif you agree or disagree, everyoneansweredone orthe other.Soyoucouldbe aligned in disagreeing that youshouldpaintyouroffice orange.Youcouldbe aligned in agreeing that the office shouldhave new furniture. ALIGNMENT INDEX ALIGNEDNOT ALIGNED 990 45 85
- 5. Recognizing, Celebrating and Strengthening People’s Place Page 5 of 10 Report Frameworks GUBA Framework To effectivelydeterminewhen agroupshouldactor notact, we the GUBA framework,which represents the four typesof thinking thatdrive actionandinaction inindividuals. Goals Benefitsanddesiredoutcomesneededtoprovide the stakeholders. Unintended Consequences Respondent’sconcerns of possible negative side-effectsthatcouldbe triggered. Barriers Constraintsrespondentsfeel theywouldface. Assumptions Businessandpersonal factors whichrespondentscurrently experience thatdrive theiropinion. The GUBA frameworkisanintegral part of the report andis visuallyreinforcedwithfollowinggraphic. To achieve amajor goal,a teammust be in alignmentaroundthe assumptions,barriersandunintended consequencesof suchanactivity. You will see belowthateachstatementfitsintoone of these fourcatagories
- 6. Recognizing, Celebrating and Strengthening People’s Place Page 6 of 10 Executive Summary The goal isto understandhow a randomselectionof leaders inDelaware view collaboration. Sometentativeconclusionsare: 1. There is strong alignmentaround collaborating on advocacy,delivery of servicesand events. a. Collaboration around advocacy would providegroupsa strongervoicerelativeto the legislature.DANA doesthis for nonprofitsin general,but whataboutspecifictopics? b. Furtherconversation aboutthenatureof eventssharing could bevery productiveas planning such eventsis notuniquefromagency to agency (forexample,siteselection, marketing,setup,knockdown etc.) .Further,thereis greatbenefitto multiservice events as each participantdrawstheir stakeholders,increasing thelikelihood of critical massin providing exposureof each stakeholderto otherprograms. 2. There isgreat misalignmentregardingsharingstaff andsharingbuildings/equipment. a. Whenwe find misalignmentthe softwareprovidesuswithtremendousamountsof insightsfromthe participants.(Ourthankstoeachof youwhotook the time to dothe 2nd half of the activitywhere yougave narrative responses) thisinformationoftenwill expose datawhichpushesthe grouptoa unifiedconclusion(forexample,the availabilityof newfundsorthe eliminationof previouslyavailable funds) orwe finda wordor phrase wasdefineddifferentlybythe disagreeingparties(how doeseach personto find“sharing staff”?). b. These 2 examplesof misalignmentappeartorequire more resources,effortand programmaticoverlapthanthose placeswhere there ismore alignment. 3. The participantsare alignedaroundtwokeyfactorsrelatedtocollaboration:collaborationis attractive to fundersanditresultsingreaterimpact. a. Our researchsupportsthese conclusions b. while everybodyagreesthisisagreat benefit,there isstrongmisalignmentonthe followingstatementfromthe survey: The effort required to create an effective collaboration outweighs the eventual benefits. 51 - Thismay be the mostsignificantinsightfromthisprocess.A fairinterpretationof the above isthat cooperation,whichmostorganizationsoftenshare,iseasiertodobut haslesspowerful positive impact.Collaboration,aswe have defineditabove,canhave significantlygreaterimpactbutis much more difficulttoaccomplish.Thishasconsistentlybeenourexperience inworkingwithnonprofits. We lookforwardtohearingyourexperience. Analytics The software takesthe data youwill see below andanalysesitfrommanydifferentangles,increasing your insightintothe alignmentof the participants,sub-groupsandoverallteam.We canreview such analyticsinthe webinar– to domore thanthe little we didabove wouldsimplybe confusing.
- 7. Recognizing, Celebrating and Strengthening People’s Place Page 7 of 10 Opinion Survey Statements The following shows the actual statements to which you responded. When warranted, the second Questionnaire brought in your comments (in green), under each relevant statement, If we were doing a full alignment cycle, each of these statements would be processed by the group to determine common assumptions, barriers that need to be mitigated and prioritized strategies. We would then develop actions to implement those strategies. DRIVERS TO ACTION OR INACTION: GUBA The statements you all responsded to were, as we said, broken into four catagories. That is how they are listed below, but starting with “A”, the present state or what we assume to be true today. They are each evaluated by the software and placed in one of three catagories: 1. Convergent ( aligned) 2. Moderately convergent (slightly aligned) 3. Divergent (not aligned) UnderlyingAssumptions/CurrentState Convergent Organizationsthatcollaboratearemoreattractiveto funders. 91 People were invitedtogive reasoningonthisareabut none chose to. Collaboration enablesorganizationsto havea greaterimpact. 89 People were invitedtogive reasoningonthisareabut none chose to. A benefitof collaboration is saving costs. 78 Thisdependsonwhoiscollaborating.A big corporationislikelytobe askedtofundmore of a community-basedprogramthana tinynon-profit.Forexample,diabetesoutreach--the deep pocketsshouldbe payingmore butitis a betterprogramwhenorganizationsworktogether. Savingcost dependsonwhere yousitandwhatcost youincurredbefore the collaboration. Collaboration,whilevaluable,costsalot of time and money,andtherefore leadstohigher qualitybutnotnecessarilycostsavings. Where there are goal or value differences,collaboration cantake more time thandoing somethingalone.Time=money. The Opinion Survey gathered participantresponsesof agreementordisagreement with statementsaround Assumptions: whatwebelieve to be currently true. It is necessary to first confirmthe group’sagreementaboutwherethereis an opportunity or there is a problem to be addressed.Withoutstrong alignmentaround thereasons foraction,gaining agreementon the futurestateand how to attain it will be inefficientand lead to a flawed implementation of thegroup’sobjectives.
- 8. Recognizing, Celebrating and Strengthening People’s Place Page 8 of 10 Divergent Collaboration in my organization requiresboard approval. 41 Everythinginmyorg seemstorequire approval.Perhapsnot"boardapproval"but approval froma higherauthority.It'sa majorbureaucracy. It dependsuponthe level of collaboration,butif the collaborationinvolvessharingof resources, our boardneedsto approve. The Board of Directorshas fiduciaryandstaffingresponsibilities thatwouldrequire their approval of collaborations.Further,the Boardisresponsibleforstrategicdirection,soapprovals of collaborationsinlightof strategiesisnecessary. Because thisishowwe currentlyoperate andit works We have an advisoryboardthat we mustrun decisionsthroughbecausewe are state organization Goals/Objectives/Indicatorsof Success Convergent The followingresponseshighlightthe mostlikelyareastoseek collaboration. My organizationshould collaborateon advocacy. 93 Notsure howthat wouldbenefitusorthe othergroups My organizationshould collaborateon delivering 90 its services. My organizationshould collaborateon events. 89 Divergent My organization should sharebuildingsand equipmentwith otherorganizations. 52 Librariesare alreadyprovidingspace andequipmentforourpartnerstoconduct workshopsetcforthe public.Andthe partnershave accessto all the servicesprovided too. We alreadyshare a buildingwiththreeothernonprofitsandthishasworkedoutwell for all fourorganizations. I workin an educational institutionandwouldlike studentstobe able toengage in cross-departmental projects.Sharedsiteswouldfacilitatethis. By sharingspace,variousorganizationscanbettercollaborate anditallowsmultiple organizationstolearnfromeachother. Our facilitiesare underutilizedbyourorganization,if theywere sharedwithother organizations,the costof ownershipisshared.Again - efficiencies. Perhapsthisiseveneasierthansharingstaff asthere are probablygreatefficienciesto leverage costlyoverhead. I thinkingsharingspace isanexcellentchoice for some organizations,oratleastaspects of theirorganizations.Forexample,we use space inthe UnitedWayof Delaware asa classroomforour ITWorks programhere in Delaware.We alsouse space at Peirce College inPhiladelphiaforourprogramthere.Financially,itdoesnotmake sense atthis pointintime forus to purchase a buildingandmake ourownclassroom.These spaces alreadyexist,andhave proventobe valuable forus.Thatbeingsaid,I thinkthere needs
- 9. Recognizing, Celebrating and Strengthening People’s Place Page 9 of 10 to be clear agreementsthatbothpartiesneedtofollow.Additionally,the sharingof equipmentseemslessof agood ideathansharingbuildings. Why notmaximize resources? We are not a program that needsextensive/expansive space;so,we couldbenefitfrom sharinga buildingandthe financial responsibilities. Because thisishowwe currentlyoperate andit works Assetsare oftenunderused.There'sefficiencyinsharingresourceswhenpossible. It iscost effective forsmall orstartup organizationstoshare thingslike office space.I've evenhadconversationsaboutsharinganexecutive assistant.Itisharderto getquality helpwitha part time positionthatdoesn'tprovidebenefits,sosharingthatpersonina supportrole wouldincrease the pool of applicantsandworkwithinourbudget constraints. My organizationshould sharestaffwith otherorganizations. 49 7 Sharingstaff can be mutual so it isfair.It can alsobe twoagenciesbothneedingapart time worker.Theycanget as more skilledandengaged worker.Tome it isaboutputting skinintothe collaboration Each organizationshoulddowhattheydobest,simplydosocollaboratively We alreadyhave staff whoalsoworkat otherorganizations.Unlessthere isareason that wouldprohibitit,we allow it. Share staff may not be the bestchoice of words.Perhapsbetterstatedthatmy organizationwouldlike tosubcontractmystaff to othersinthe collaborative group Whenthere isalignmentinneedswithotherorganizationsandwhenthe staff position wouldbe lessthanfull time ateitherorganization,sharingstaff gainsefficienciesfor bothorganizations.Italsoprovidesamore justemployment. To be more nimble andagile,sharingstaff withotherorganizationscouldprovide opportunitiestouniquelyleveragestrengths,information,bestpractices,andeven capabilitiesof the otherorganizations.The onlywordthatperhapsI wouldchange is "should".InsteadIwoulduse the word"could". I thinkthisworksif there isa shared"mutual ministry"and goalsare complementary. Can also Withseasonedemployees,the opportunitytoexpandskillswhenprovidedwithan opportunitytoworkwithanotherorganization. Because thisishowwe currentlyoperate andit works DuffysHope doesnothave paidstaff. But we couldconsiderencouragingour participantsandvolunteerstosupportotherorganizationsforsupportfrompeer organizations. In office spaceswhere there are administrative people,itcanbe a good use of resources to share the staff.For volunteerwork,makingemployeesavailable asa resource toa non-profitisapowerful messageaboutsupportingthe community,andhelpstoimprint a volunteermentalityinthe workforce. In close collaborations,itsometimesismore cost-effective toshare specificresources. EG There isno needtohave two projectadministrators,one fromeachorganization,if one wouldbe adequate. Because I workfor a state agency,it isdifficulttoshare staff withotherorganizations. We collaborate oftenandshare resources,butstate staff are paidthroughpublicfunds and cannot.
- 10. Recognizing, Celebrating and Strengthening People’s Place Page 10 of 10 Potential Unintended Consequences Moderately Convergent Organizationsthatcollaboratewilllose theiruniqueidentity. 83 Issues and Barriers Moderately Convergent The effort required to create an effective collaboration outweighs the eventual benefits. 51 Ungrouped Whatother thoughtswould you liketo contributeto this dialogue? None We love collaboration!It'sbeen verybeneficial tousandto Delawareans Collaborationrequiresthatpeople notbe afraid -- sometimesfearisleftoverfromprevious administration'sactionsandisdifficulttoletgoof. Wouldlike tosee specificcollaborationexamplesbetweenorgsthathave worked.What were challengesandhowdidthe respective organizationsovercomethem.How doyou marketthistype of collaborationtoaBOD for approval? You mightdistinguishthe difficulty/costsof differentkindsof collaborationbetween nonprofits.Sharingideasandbestpracticesindiscussionforumsorwrittendocumentsis easy,butcoordinatingsharedservice deliveryisoftendifficultandtime consuming. Doesthiscollaborationdiscussionrelatetonon-profitsOR;isisbroaderdiscussionwithnon- profitandfor-profitorganizations?I'mparticularlyinterestedincollaborationtolowersales cost and salescycles.Aswell asdelivery. Interestingideas! How can we getto knowone anotherto work more collaboratively? Collaborationandmutual supportare essential The keyword inthese itemsis"effective."There'splentyof collaborationthatmightseem interesting,buthasn'tbeenthoughtthroughwell enoughtobe effective. I representanall-volunteerorganizationwithnoequipment,buildings,paidstaff,etc.My answersreflectthis. There are manygreyareas here.Collaborationcanworkwhendone correctlybutmanyof the above questionshighlightpotential problemswithcollaboration. Collaborationistoobroada termfor deepunderstandingonthistopic.Itcan meananything fromjointlywritinganarticle toproposinganddeliveringlongtermworktogether.Inmy experience onlyone brandispromotedata time,sosuccessful collaborationrequiresa solutionformutual promotion.Thismayreduce differentiationinthe market. Collborationiskeytoensure buy-infromacross-sectionof differentindustries.Itpromotes successand providesforfuture alignmentof goals. Collaborationandcompetitionare sometimesare counteracting.Balancingthe twoalong differentinterestsiskey. We alreadycollaborate,sothisisn'tanythingnew tous.Whatelse dowe have to learn?