Collective impact is one way for people to work together to solve complex problems.
Simple Problems
The right “recipe” is essential, but once you’ve discovered it, replication will get you almost the same result every time.
Complicated Problems
The right “protocols and formulas” are needed, as are high levels of expertise. Experience is built over time to get the right result, which can be repeated with the expectation of success.
Complex Problems
There are no “right” recipes or protocols that work in every situation. There are many outside factors. Experience helps, but does not guarantee success.
Learn more about Collective Impact from the University of Kansas’s Center for Community Health and Development’s Community Tool Box.
“Business as usual” often focuses on individual impact, where each business, agency, or organization pursues its own individual mission without coordinating or collaborating with anyone else. Collective impact exists at the other end of this spectrum, where businesses, agencies, and organizations are deliberately and intentionally working together towards the same outcome.
Conditions of Collective Success
One of the most widely cited articles on Collective Impact is 2011 article by John Kania and Mark Kramer that was published in the Standford Social Innovation Review. The authors described five things that help Collective Impact efforts succeed:
Common Agenda
All participants have a shared understanding of the problem and how to solve it.
Shared Measurements
Collecting data and measuring results consistently creates a way to understand the impact of the group’s actions and hold each other accountable.
Mutually Reinforcing Activities
Everyone works together in a way that allows them to do what they do best and moves everyone closer to the goal.
Backbone Support
The backbone is a single organization that helps plan, manage, and support the work.
Continous Communication
It takes time to build trust and a common language between the people involved.