High on the leadership skills list is collaboration. According to Vicki B. Luther, author of Managing Collaboration in Small Towns and Neighborhoods, it is a necessity, not a luxury. Her booklet suggests a “simple approach for managing collaboration at the community level, called ARC, standing for Alignment, Relationships and Communication. The method helps analyze potential for collaboration, organize to take action, then nurtures and maintains a collaborative effort.
To sustain and improve community, ARC seeks the ways to help groups and organizations at the local level by working together.
Luther points out in bold print, “Collaboration happens when groups work together for their own benefit and for that of the community.”
The first step is to measure how potential partners might match up. Mission and membership qualities are prime considerations.
Second is the work of building relationships. Needed is a clear understanding of why the collaboration is worthwhile and which roles and responsibilities are shared and which are shouldered separately.
Trust is built over time and meeting valued expectations/goals consistently. Trust-building behaviors include following through on assignments, meeting deadlines and attaining predictable attendance at work sessions.Clarifying the relationships can be any degree of formal or informal, with either minutes of record or letters with summaries providing evidence and reiteration of agreements among the collaborative parties.
“The care and feeding of relationships must receive a high level of attention,” notes Luther.
With regard to communications: “Clear and consistent communication keeps the collaboration going strong,” adds Luther. “It’s motivational force keeps commitment in place when times get rough.”
Consider the public and private face of community collaboration and structuring messages consistently helps the information make its way back through each group, in addition to the community at large.
Luther is connected to the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, which is a nonprofit, independent organization to develop local leadership that responds to future challenges. The Center activities focus on leadership, training, citizen participation, community planning, facilitation, evaluation and curriculum development. Dr. Vicki Luther and Milan Wall earned national recognition for their landmark research, publication and curriculum, Clues to Rural Community Survival, which examines the characteristics that communities need to compete in a changing world.
These are the Heartland Center’s 20 Clues to Rural Community Survival. Recognize any of them in our McKenzie County??
1. Evidence of community pride.
2. Emphasis on quality in business and community life.
3. Willingness to invest in the future.
4. Participatory approach to community decision making.
5. Cooperative community spirit.
6. Realistic appraisal of future opportunities.
7. Awareness of competitive positioning.
8. Knowledge of the physical environment.
9. Active economic development program.
10. Deliberate transition of power to a younger generation of leaders.
11. Acceptance of women in leadership roles.
12. Strong belief in and support for education.
13. Problem-solving approach to providing health care.
14. Strong multi-generational family orientation.
15. Strong presence of traditional institutions that are integral to community life.
16. Attention to sound and well-maintained infrastructure.
17. Careful use of fiscal resources.
18. Sophisticated use of information resources.
19. Willingness to seek help from the outside.
20. Conviction that, in the long run, you have to do it yourself.
Now, if you see yourself in #20, please call me…or leave me a comment by clicking on the word comment immediately below. Thanks, Dale A. Swenson
