Ask an Advisor: How to deal with 'challenging' partners

Ask an Advisor featured question, by Regina D. Langhout

      Ask an Advisor is a feature from the Community Tool Box in which anyone around the world seeking for advice regarding community work, could find a brief and personalized response. For this week’s post, we feature the following question:

Question: How do you deal with 'challenging' partners?

Answer: As you note, working with others can be very challenging. I think different people would have different answers to this. For me, the answer has a lot to do with setting up goals and expectations at the beginning of the partnership. What seems to work for me is to have a conversation at the beginning of a partnership where we each discuss our values, goals, and the values and goals of our institutions (if we are representing them). We talk about where the similarities are and where there might be differences. It's also a good idea to talk about how you will handle conflict when it arises. This puts a lot on the table at the beginning and can lead to some really interesting conversations. It also normalizes conflict by pointing out that you know it will happen at some point. Then, when you are having challenges, you can return to this conversation and talk with your partners about what might be inconsistent with your values, or what might be getting in the way of you meeting your goals. Raise this conversation in a way that is consistent with how you agreed to deal with conflict.

You can also look here for other ideas: Maintaining Partnerships

I hope this helps and good luck with maintaining your partnership!

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To submit a question about your community-based work to Ask an Advisor, please visit http://ctb.ku.edu/en/ask-advisor

Ask an Advisor: How to contact a policy maker

Ask an Advisor featured question, by Nate Israel

      Ask an Advisor is a feature from the Community Tool Box in which anyone around the world seeking for advice regarding community work, could find a brief and personalized response. For this week’s post, we feature the following question:

Question: Hello, I am taking a healthcare policy class and I would like to know how to contact a policy maker with regards to my policy issue/request. What office do I call on the local level to get an appointment with a policy maker. Thank you 

Answer: This is a great question. We all want to be able to figure out how to make an impact, and talking to local policymakers is one potential way to make an impact in a local community. In order to get the most out of your interaction, there are some things you can do ahead of making contact. The first thing is to figure out to whom your policy perspective matters. Public health departments, particularly in large cities, are often tremendously varied in their responsibilities. Employees’ responsibilities often range from prevention to intervention, and the areas of concern may range from ensuring animal welfare to preventing cancer to administering publicly-funded hospitals. Understanding the structure of the department, and targeting your request for an audience to the person(s) for whom the policy is most relevant, will help insure that all parties gain from the interaction. The second is to be clear about what you are offering. Officials in policy capacities are often very considerably under-resourced. Be clear about what you are offering. For example, you may be offering direct feedback on a policy’s effects in the community, access to a previously unknown resource for implementing a policy, or a summary of information about the potential usefulness of a new policy in your community (among myriad possibilities). Once you have clarified your intended audience and your message, contacting the policy official is relatively easy. Nearly all public officials have their contact information available on the public website of the appropriate department. Alternately, you can call the department directly and ask for the person’s contact information. E-mail contact is often very useful; it allows you to succinctly introduce yourself and describe the nature of your preferred contact. It also allows you to forward along any materials germane to the meeting. This may be especially helpful if the policymaker is particularly pressed for time. All the best as you move forward with this.

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To submit a question about your community-based work to Ask an Advisor, please visit http://ctb.ku.edu/en/ask-advisor

Ask an Advisor: Group decision making

 

Ask an Advisor featured question, by Al Ratcliffe

                Ask an Advisor is a feature from the Community Tool Box (http://ctb.ku.edu) in which anyone around the world seeking for advice regarding community work, could find a brief and personalized response. For this week’s post, we feature the following question:

Question: Our coalition has recently made an attempt to broaden the stakeholders at the table. We are currently realizing that although we have been a group for some time, we have not really addressed/discussed what it is to be a coalition member or how to take on roles etc. We're beginning to do this. But a pressing and challenging issue is how we make decisions? Consensus vs. majority or super majority. Do you have helpful reading on this?

Answer: We refer you to the Troubleshooting Guide in the Tool Box: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/solveproblem/index.aspx. Take a look at chapters 4 through 7 for information that may be helpful. Many new groups face the dilemma you describe, and a very important early decision is how the group will make decisions. There are at least three options your group might choose: Require consensus on all decisions; Accept the will of the majority (or perhaps a supermajority) on all decisions; or identify those issues that will require full consensus and those that can be decided by majority vote. Requiring consensus on all decisions will slow you down, as democracy can be a ponderous process. Accepting the will of the majority may introduce a higher level of conflict and may leave some members feeling like losers. Whatever method you choose, it is fundamental to engage in a fair negotiating process.

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To submit a question about your community-based work to Ask an Advisor, please visit http://ctb.ku.edu/en/AskAnAdvisor.aspx

Ask an Advisor: Identifying non traditional out reach methods

Ask an Advisor featured question, by Al Ratcliffe

Ask an Advisor is a feature from the Community Tool Box (http://ctb.ku.edu) in which anyone around the world seeking for advice regarding community work, could find a brief and personalized response. For this week’s post, we feature the following question:

Question: I was wondering if I could have help identifying non traditional out reach methods that I might use in high risk high crime low income family residence

Answer: We can offer only general advice that a good first step would be to try and identify natural neighborhood leaders with whom you can become acquainted and establish your own credibility and trustworthiness over a period of time. Enter being clear about what skills you bring and that you are willing to learn from them what outreach approaches will work best in their neighborhood. Partnering with them over a period of time will bring you in contact with other concerned members of the neighborhood. Coalition-building and goal-setting can evolve from there.

To submit a question about your community-based work to Ask an Advisor, please visit http://ctb.ku.edu/en/AskAnAdvisor.aspx

Ask an Advisor: Is it possible to extend Social Programs?

Ask an Advisor featured question, by Nate Israel

            Ask an Advisor is a feature from the Community Tool Box (http://ctb.ku.edu) in which anyone around the world seeking for advice regarding community work, could find a brief and personalized response. For this week’s post, we feature the following question from Nepal:

            Question: Dear sir Its me Baburam Niraula from kathmandu, Nepal. I would like to work in social sectors. Is it possible to extend to social program in Nepal. thanking you Best regards.

            Answer: This is a very important question—thank you for asking it. Social programs contain parts which can be extended, and parts which must be adapted. The aims of most social programs – to provide people with a voice, meaningful choices, and the power to achieve their goals, can probably be extended to people in nearly any place. However, the ways of achieving these aims likely differ. In each local context one must identify appropriate ways of achieving these aims. Often it is difficult for people to understand why change is happening, even if it is for the better. Old ways of interacting with people, even if they are not helpful to everyone, are often hard to change. For this reason, it is important to understand how one can achieve the aims of a social program while being sensitive to how people will respond to change in your specific environment. There are resources in the Community Toolbox which can help you better understand your local needs and resources, and these may be helpful in identifying what kind of social programs might be helpful and how to extend them in your community. These resources are available at: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/index.aspx

To submit a question about your community-based work to Ask an Advisor, please visit http://ctb.ku.edu/en/AskAnAdvisor.aspx