Creating Collaborative Solutions

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Creating Collaborative Solutions Giving Compass

You may have noticed that public, private, and NGO sector leaders and legislators often struggle to overcome differences and reach a consensus regarding important public policy. Unfortunately, that division and discord has become increasingly more commonplace in our world.

But, progress does happen. In the Pacific Northwest, for example, contentious issues have been tackled through collaborative processes, methods, and tools. A few highlights include:

Protecting environmental resources on farmland, while also preserving agriculture;
Advancing the use of wood-based jet fuel by overcoming technical, economic, and environmental obstacles;
Preventing flooding while restoring salmon in the Chehalis Basin;
Creating consensus on residential options for the developmentally disabled;
Removing PCBs and other toxins from the Spokane River; and
Helping the State of Washington form a planning “road map” to reach its desired future.

The William D. Ruckelshaus Center has been behind these successes. In 2004, it was formed as a partnership between Washington State University (WSU) and the University of Washington (UW) to address public policy problems that are resistant to resolution through traditional policy-making processes, cost communities and institutions untold resources, and limit the ability to achieve an agenda.

Key Steps to Fostering Collaboration and Reaching Agreement

In the 15 years since the Ruckelshaus Center began, it has become a trusted third-party facilitator and mediator. The Center uses a toolkit for alternative dispute resolution and collaborative governance and draws on the impressive knowledge and resources available at its partnering universities to help diverse interests come together to create a consensus to the challenges they share. Although the Pacific Northwest is one of the pioneering regions for collaborative governance, the process has spread across the U.S. and into other countries and led to many successes. It is becoming the emerging framework for public policy and governance. This process involves the following key stages:

Consultation—Is a collaborative approach worth exploring?
Assessment—Are circumstances right? And if so, how should the process be structured?
Process Design—Applying the assessment to design a fair and productive process.
Capacity Building—Ensuring individuals and organizations are prepared to participate in a collaborative process.
Information Base—Establishing a set of shared facts needed to reach an agreement.
Facilitation/Management—Enabling groups to be more effective and reach an agreement.
Implementation—Implementing the agreement(s), which includes monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive management.

While the Ruckelshaus Center works diligently to create solutions to complex public policy challenges, it also works to inspire the public through its two marquee events. Each year in the spring, it hosts the Statespersonship Luncheon in partnership with the Slade Gorton International Policy Center. The event welcomes former and current political leaders as they discuss their experience and opinions on what it means to lead as a statesman or stateswoman. The Ruckelshaus Center also hosts its annual Chairman’s Circle Luncheon, which is a means to express its gratitude to its most dedicated supporters, members of its Chairman’s Circle of donors, and as a forum of knowledge for the public on topics relevant to the Center’s mission such as collaborative leadership, bipartisanship, civil discourse, and participatory democracy. Over the years, the event has featured noteworthy authors, politicians, journalists, and political analysts, from former US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice to former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and NPR’s award-winning journalist and host, Robert Siegel.

Ways to Get Involved

No matter what side of the aisle you support, we understand that seeing leaders and legislators unable to come to a consensus is frustrating. Here’s how you can drive progress toward solutions:

If you know of a complex policy issue that needs solving, contact us.
Learn more about collaborative governance as a means to creating solutions for divisive issues.
Invest in the research and projects of the William D. Ruckelshaus Center.
If you’re looking for resources beyond the Pacific Northwest, check out the University Network for Collaborative Governance, the Association for Conflict Resolution’s Environment and Public Policy Section, and the National Coalition for Deliberation and Dialogue.

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Original contribution by Michael Kern, Director at the William D. Ruckelshaus Center.

Since you are interested in Philanthropy, have you read these selections from Giving Compass related to impact giving and Philanthropy?

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Can You Measure the Impact of Capacity Building for Nonprofits?

Giving Compass' Take: • In this blog post, Beth Kanter discusses capacity building — improving organizational effectiveness through financing, consultants/technical assistance, and other methods — and whether we can get better data on how much it matters. • The upshot is that capacity building in general does have an impact, but we need to improve the evidence-gathering to get into more specifics. What kinds of efforts should we focus on? • Here's more on why capacity building is the key to sustainable movements. As a trainer and facilitator, the work I do with organizations and networks, often on behalf of a foundation for its grantees, is capacity building. But, like anything else, to improve results, you need to measure it. My colleague, Teresa Crawford, Executive Director at Social Sector Accelerator, a member of the Counterpart International Network, has been doing research on this topic: Is it possible to effectively measure the impact such 'capacity building' services have? Do these services truly lead to a 'Capacity Dividend' — accelerating nonprofits’ ability to pursue their purpose? If so, what approaches lead to the greatest impact and under what conditions? To answer the questions, they conducted a landscape analysis of existing research on the impacts of capacity building on organizational strength and social impact. They reviewed research from nearly 60 academic, think-tank, and thought leader sources published after 1990 and interviewed leading practitioners from both grant-makers and capacity building service providers. They also facilitated discussion with others funders that invest in capacity building. What they discovered is that the existing research, both anecdotally and qualitatively, largely supports the notion that organizations that receive capacity building support can achieve greater social impact. Unfortunately, on the whole, the review unearthed a lack of robust empirical research linking capacity building support with improvements in measures of organizational effectiveness, and even less research linking capacity building with greater social impact. The field needs stronger evidence that investments in capacity building — instead of or in addition to — other forms of support pays off. Read the full article about capacity building for nonprofits by Beth Kanter at Beth Kanter's Blog.

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