The new year has just begun, but already it poses a major challenge and opportunity for North Carolinians: How do we work in a coordinated effort to solve some of our community's toughest challenges, from high unemployment to education inequities?
This means reaching across political divisions, the divides between the for-profit, nonprofit and government sectors, and looking past our selfish interests to figure out what is better for the whole.
This isn't easy work. But the stakes are too high for individualistic or partisan behavior.
Fortunately, there are very helpful models to guide us.
In the Winter 2011 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, John Kania and Mark Kramer write about the power of "collective impact" - what happens when a set of diverse organizations achieve measurable effect by working together toward a common agenda. Continuous communication, trust, and a well supported/well resourced process are critical for ensuring that momentum is not lost.
It's equally vital that all partners create a highly cooperative environment where they support each other instead of competing for resources.
An example is the Elizabeth River Project in southeastern Virginia. Determined to clean up the river, more than 100 stakeholders came together, including local city governments, state and federal environmental agencies, the U.S. Navy, and dozens of local non-profits, businesses, schools, and universities. Collectively they created an 18-point plan they agreed to work toward.
Fifteen years later, more than 1,000 acres of watershed land have been conserved, pollution has been reduced by more than 215 million pounds, and 27 species of fish and oysters are thriving.
Or take the efforts of Shape Up Somerville - a citywide effort in Massachusetts to reduce childhood obesity. Again through a widespread collaborative effort, the community set clear goals and rolled out a set of innovative strategies. Schools agreed to offer more healthful foods, teach nutrition, and promote physical activity. Restaurants offering healthful foods were officially certified. And the city helped organize a farmers market and worked with local gyms to offer reduced price memberships for city employees. Sidewalks were widened, crosswalks painted and walking was encouraged.
The result? Healthier children and a city that saw the fruits of its collaborative problem-solving.
In their recent book "Boundary Spanning Leadership: Six Practices for Solving Problems, Driving Innovation, and Transforming Organizations," Chris Ernst (whom we work with at the Center for Creative Leadership) and Donna Chrobot-Mason offer some additional perspectives on leading across boundaries.
For the past 10 years, they worked with colleagues to survey thousands of leaders from six world regions on this key question: How do leaders work together in a highly collaborative way to "span boundaries" and solve complex challenges?
One powerful story emerges out of Durham. In the late 1990s, there was a spate of robberies targeting Latinos. One core reason was that two-thirds of that population didn't have a bank account.
Recognizing the cultural and logistical barriers to addressing this challenge, Martin Eakes, the founder of the Durham-based credit union, Self-Help, approached John Herrera about starting a financial services institution tailored to serve the state's exploding Latino population.
Herrera took the challenge and employed instructive strategies to get the Latino Community Credit Union off the ground.
First he "managed boundaries" by defining a clear organizational mission with its own distinctive identity. Specifically, it would be a bilingual cooperative - where everyone would be an owner and where personal relationships and family would be stressed (vs. the prevailing drive-through mentality of traditional banks).
Once the distinctive identity was established, common ground could be forged. As Herrera said, "we realized that other institutions focusing on minority groups could potentially be a threat to our goals. But... if we worked with them rather than against them, we could turn this threat into an opportunity."
Critical partners were Jim Blaine, CEO of the State Employees Credit Union, and Linwood Cox, CEO of the N.C. Minority Support Center, with whom Herrera cultivated lasting relationships. Blaine later joined LCCU's board. Cox and Herrera collaborated to secure $5 million from the N.C. General Assembly to forward their collective goals and push into new, innovative frontiers - such as a nontraditional business lending model that has resulted in a delinquency rate of less than 1 percent.
Today, LCCU is the fastest-growing credit union in the country. And its story, like the others, represents some important leadership lessons for the new year. Complex challenges cannot be solved by independent actors. Rather we must learn how to better span boundaries and work together to create the collective effect our communities deserve.
