Kaylynn Hamilton: OK well, thank you Veronica. I am very pleased and excited to be here this afternoon. And I don't want to spend a lot of time getting us started because we have a full agenda and we're going to try to make it as interactive as possible. I know it's not a fun way to learn when you just listen to somebody, so we're going to be doing a lot of interactive activities. Next slide, please.

So as Veronica had mentioned, my name is KayLynn Hamilton. I am an associate professor at the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy at Penn State. However, my work really is working with all of the adult education providers across Pennsylvania in their efforts to meet our will requirements. So I work a lot around partnership building and integration of services, integrated education and training programming career pathways, and the kinds of things that we all think of when we think about our work as it relates to WIOA.

So today we will be focusing on collaborative partnerships. Next slide, please. So before we actually begin, just to get us moving around, I do ask that you have a piece of paper and a pen or pencil handy for something we're going to be doing later on. Scratch paper will be fine. But before we actually dig into the session, I'm wondering for you to write in the chat please. Again, we're going to be using the chat throughout the session. But just to get everybody a little bit organized with working with the chat and trying to make sure we have everybody able to contribute, this is Just for fun.

Which would you rather do? It's a number 1 or a number 2. Would you rather work alone on a project from now until your retirement or would you rather work with the same team of five people of your choosing for the rest of your career? So it's a 1 or a 2. Are you a team player or use somebody that likes to go it alone? And I see those-- that chat really going quickly with number 2s.

We are exclusively saying number 2, no one is really interested in going it alone for their work requirements. So that's good to hear because that tells me that you are a collaborative group, not just in your own personal work but hopefully that's going to expand into the work of your program. Is there anyone that would say, mm, sometimes I think it's just easier for me to do things myself. And I imagine that most of us feel that way with some of the activities that we're challenged to do.

But for the most part we like to have input and to actually share the work with others that hopefully are competent in doing the same work that we're doing. So again, you'll hear throughout the session, and Veronica pointed out, if something comes up, if you have any questions, it's a very informal webinar, so please don't hesitate to ask your questions via the chat. Next slide, please.

So today, the three elements of the work that we're going to be looking at today are the elements of successful partnerships and then we're going to identify foundational steps for collaboration, and then we're going to wind it up with determining ways to overcome challenges with a case study as our final breakout. So next slide, please. So we're not going to do our own word cloud, but I'd imagine if we would do a word cloud around partnerships. It might look something like this.

Some partnerships go buy a lot of different names-- coalitions, consortia, networks, commissions, alliance, and of course, many more. The name that we give partnerships however, doesn't always clearly indicate the degree or the intensity of the partnership. So we are aiming to have collaborative partnerships. So let's take a moment to see what that really means. So we're going to start off by really going into a breakout. Next slide, please.

So in this breakout, we're going to use something that I use a lot in the sessions that I provide. And I used to use it a lot when I was an Adult Basic Education teacher. And I didn't really give you my background, but that's what I started as. I started as an Adult Basic Ed teacher, part time teaching at nights in the early 1990s teaching GED preparation, and I advanced through the ranks to now working at Penn State as a project manager and associate research professor. But I use the Frayer model a lot.

And if it's not something that you're familiar with, I would encourage you to think about how that would look in your practice, regardless of whether you're an administrator or whether you do some teaching or whether you're a coordinator but whatever it is that you use. So the Frayer model is a way to help people understand and get ideas about describing words and vocabulary.

So it's a graphical organizer that's divided into four squares, and it prompts you to think about and describe the meaning of a word or a concept by, first of all, defining the terms, defining its essential characteristics, and then providing examples and non-examples of the vocabulary word. So this strategy stresses understanding words within the larger context of a reading selection by requiring all of us to think about what we're actually talking about.

So if you look at the screen, you'll see that the word we're going to be talking about is collaboration. The definition that we're going to use is what you see, the most intense way of working together while still retaining your separate identity, I'm sorry, identity as an organization and working together. So in the upper right hand corner, you see some images that may provoke you to think of what collaboration looks like.

So we are going to break out into three or four rooms. I'm not sure how many we're going to break out to, but you will have a facilitator in your room and we're going to share that screen and then we're going to ask you, we're going to take a few minutes to ask you about what are some examples in your world, in your work world, what are some examples that are collaborative and what are some non-examples of collaboration? And then we're going to reconvene in the large group and see what folks have come up with.

So if you have any questions, your room facilitator will be able to answer that. And if we can get around 10 minutes on the clock once we get into our breakout rooms for our discussion, that'll be great. So let's go to our breakout rooms and come back in around 10 minutes. OK, we had a really great discussion in our group. We could have probably stayed on for another 10 minutes. But in the spirit of moving along and collaborating through this session, we're going to see what was talked about in the other session. So Veronica, can you tell us about some of the examples and non-examples in your breakout group.

Veronica Parker: So KayLynn, since I am the host, I was unable to join a breakout room.

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK.

Veronica Parker: But one of my [inaudible] but I found another facilitator.

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK, great.

Veronica Parker: Colleague Dr. Diaz. So Dr. Diaz, can you please share what the breakout room talked about please.

Emma Diaz: Yeah, absolutely. It was great discussion. And we talked about the use of PLCs as a good way, co-enrollment of students, digital inclusion across different counties, working with the workforce boards and through WIOA for referral process so then everybody benefits that's cooperating in that, overall consortium work where people are actively collaborating and they provide their strengths in their roles, specifically also during right now the three-year action planning is having these work groups that are project experts.

They're the engine that drive a lot of the activity. So those are individuals at multiple levels about ESL departments and non-credit, which has brought on collaboration within departments of a college that weren't collaborating previously, hosting off campus sites that involve the community. And one of the areas where they talked about the non-example would be partners that show up to meetings but are not necessarily actively contributing.

They just kind of show up and they just kind of sit there but don't actively contribute to really much, either through any activity but yet they want to be included in a lot of marketing materials but aren't necessarily putting in the same effort. So that was--

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK.

Emma Diaz: --the only nonexample we had. And it was very robust good dialogue

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK, great. You did. You talked about a lot in 10 minutes. You really packed it in though 10 minutes in your examples and your things that work collaboratively with the group in your chat. Oh, I'm sorry, in your breakout room. So thank you very much. Who else was a facilitator?

Holly Clark: I was.

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK, Holly.

Holly Clark: This is Holly.

Kaylynn Hamilton: Holly, what happened in your group?

Holly Clark: So we had a lot of the same discussions. It was a very active group. Some of the examples were braided funding, common formative assessment, articulation, alignment, sector partnerships, non-fiscal relationship for sharing services like co-location, we also discussed dual enrollment and common professional development, PLCs, community as a practice, regional meetings for consortia directors, leveraging resources, data teams reviewing data together, regional assessments, bridge program development, consortium wide WIOA applications, grant writing for those that are non-WIOA and other grants, and clear collaborative decision rules.

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK. And how about any non examples? Did you have time-- again, sounds like you did a lot in 10 minutes.

Holly Clark: Yes. So for our non examples we had working in silos. Not learning about partner agencies procedures and policies. Adult Ed not working with K-12 and K-12 not working with adult Ed. Members refusing to certify the CFAD, although the consortium voted to approve. Members developing and implementing programs without dialogue with other consortium members, which in turn is duplicating services for students. Failure to implement agreed upon norms, policies, and procedures for the consortium and failure to attend meetings. Failure to vote if they disagree on an item.

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK. Again, any questions or comments about our first two before we move into the breakout room that I was working with? OK. Great. So in my group we spent a lot of time talking about virtual collaboration and how that has looked during the pandemic and ongoing continuum of when things started and where they are now.

And we had some folks that thought that the Zoom meeting by Zoom really has been helpful with collaboration in the fact that you can be in a meeting-- you can be in multiple meetings in one day whereas nobody has to drive over a great distance and you can participate that way. But we also talked about the drawbacks of that in that face to face always adds nuances that are helpful when trying to collaborate.

Sometimes it just is easier and better to do when you are face to face. But we did look at some specific examples. We talked about leadership teams in organizations where programs come together keeping their own identity of their program but working for the good of the agency. And also community ESL programs and how they seem to in that example work a little bit better because they are ESL programs and we're able to assess the needs of the community.

We did talk about some non examples. One of them being new people coming on that take a while to get accommodated or to get adjusted to actually the goals of the collaboration, the group. Sometimes the consortia work is a little bit non-collaborative with agency or partners bringing their own agendas and they bring their own priorities to the table.

So I think probably the collaboration during the pandemic I think some of us would agree with both of those examples. So yeah. I didn't realize that we had a fourth room. So our fourth facilitator we would love to hear from you and what happened in your room.

Mandilee Gonzales: OK. So this is Mandilee Gonzales. Yes, we did have a fourth room. And to be fair it's hard to follow up after the other three rooms. You guys really did cover it. I would say that the one piece that I may not have heard it could have been said, but really collaborating with other partners in the community to help bring resources and services to various students was an example of the collaboration that was talked about.

And then as far as a non example is really having those people just not show up and just not being present for those opportunities. Having information and not divulging it, really not being a partner in growing the program or each other and just helping people grow in that way. And then the best one was just not collaborating period, just doing it all yourself just to get it done. So those were the biggest examples I would say of the non example and examples that we shared.

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK. OK, thanks. So that was a good 10 minutes spent doing a little networking, see what ideas we have, see what things we learned especially in the breakout. So thanks to everyone. And again, any questions or comments, please put them into the chat. And we do have staff monitoring the chat who are going to jump in and let us know what kinds of conversations are going on in the chat.

OK. So next slide, please. So thinking back up to the examples that you used in your breakout room, how well did your examples and non examples line up with the collaboration columns on the screen? So let's take a moment to look at those degrees of partnerships if you will.

So we are striving for the one on the far right, which is at the end of that continuum, which is collaboration. But where are we with cooperation, coordination, and then collaboration, with collaboration being the highest intensity. So cooperation we're describing as low intensity, where you share information only about the subject at hand. It's a simple yes or no question if you think about an analogy to it. And resources are kept separate. What's mine is mine and what's yours is yours and that's the way it is.

If we think about coordination, we're kind of moving along and we'll describe that as having medium intensity. There is some planning and division of roles. And resources and rewards we start to share them but there's still not a big pool that everybody can contribute to and take from.

We are striving for collaboration, which is of the highest intensity. Full commitment to a common mission. Well-defined communication channels at all levels. And resources are brought together, jointly secured, and rewards and results are shared.

So a common mission that your collaborative partnership will have is to meet expectations of the three year plan, right? So using this definition, using what we see on our screen, can anyone jump in and talk about either one of the examples that we shared in the breakout or something that comes to mind now after looking at this definition broken down a little bit more.

And if you want to unmute your screen, could you give us another example that we could say it's high intensity for commitment to a common mission, a well defined communication channel. So if it's one that we already talked about in the breakout maybe we could do subsets of it. Anyone have anything that comes to mind that they're willing to share at this moment. Ryan, you want to unmute yourself?

Ryan Whetstone: Yeah, I'll chime in. So in my consortium, one thing that I've seen and very happy pleased proud about is my members collaboration with local America's job centers of California. So I have three members that have physical co-locations. So those America's job centers have placed offices and staffs at those adult schools.

And our college is Mt. SAC, Mt. San Antonio College. And they're there and progressively actively working to establish co-locations at members progressively. And so they have staff that participate in what we call our work group meetings. And so they all participate. We have a career tech ed group, and we have a counseling group. And they will come in. They'll share information about recruitment. And they also work with our staff that represent in those meetings to say, how can we work together on a project, or, we have a company that needs some staffing.

So it's just when I see those bullets of collaboration, it's like it's there, you know. It's like the intensity is there. They're committed. They work together. We communicate. And the resources are there.

So they will actively almost walk a student to enroll in a class and use the resources through the AJCCs or any access to funds so that they can pay for students books or supplies, et cetera, bus passes so is that real integral interaction. So that's one of those a collaborative partnership that I'm seeing that's in place and expanding across my area.

Kaylynn Hamilton: That's a great example. So your one stop is actually going out into the colleges rather than the colleges going into the one stop.

Ryan Whetstone: Well, yes. It's sort of a mandate out here but you have to stay at it. You have to stay connected with those leaders and your workforce board and really just keep pushing it. But it's just it is a common mission you know. So when you get more synergistic with it, it works really well. So I'm proud of that.

Kaylynn Hamilton: It sounds like it does. You know, here in Pennsylvania we have a few examples where the ones sub we call them a career link in Pennsylvania where the one stop is actually in a community college in the examples that I have. I am the one stop operator in Delaware County, and we have two career links there.

One is in Chester city which is a typical community one stop and the other one is in Delaware County Community College. And that's where the customers are and that's where they decided to put the job center. But that in Pennsylvania is more unique than common. So I'm glad to see that you see the value in that, Ryan. I appreciate you contributing. Any other examples before we move along?

Vittoria Abbate: I'll tag on to what Ryan said. And it's so interesting that he brought it forward because we have done something similar in Contra Costa County, we're a large county. And when the federal regs changed up for how our workforce development boards operate related to the one stops which previously had been in our county operated by the Workforce Development Board with participation much like Ryan is sharing from partners, adult schools, et cetera, we actually bid.

We got a group together. Our school led it and we have a collaborative, our Contra Costa workforce collaborative art colleges. We have a number of our regional adult schools NCBOs. So we are the one stop operators under contract with the Workforce Development Board for the one stop and access sites, which are very much like Ryan was explaining with the exception that they're at all our sites central East and West.

We have our staff help. We pay for the staff. We do this all collectively and collaboratively and chose one of our CBOs to be our lead and fiscal agent to help us with all of that. And I'm on the Workforce Development Board so that was really helpful to bring this forward and go for it and also to help work out the nuances of the complexity of it for the Workforce Development Board and how would this even work.

And so I'll leave it at that except to echo what Ryan said it is making a major difference. We started in 2018 and certainly with COVID we are seeing now a lot of the results of the hard work we put in and the relationship of the various members to each other in collaboration and that warm handoff. All the things we talk about are really happening. So I'm really glad to hear that this is really blossoming elsewhere.

Kaylynn Hamilton: Yeah, and I am too. So yeah, your stakeholder group serving as the consortium for the operator is an interesting concept. And we have in Pennsylvania mixed models. We have that taking place in particular in the areas where they are multi county workforce development areas which is most of Pennsylvania except the southeastern, the Philadelphian suburban Philadelphia or a single county, which looks a little different.

But I don't want to digress too far. Your examples are very collaborative by nature and by design, right? So it happened naturally in some cases. It made sense for stakeholders to do it. And then in other cases you intentionally move along that path. Next slide, please.

So just a reminder. Your three year plan objectives are to assess the impact of services provided over the previous period, define strategies and activities to meet the need, and then identify educational and workforce needs among beneficiaries and providers in the region. So keeping that in mind and keeping in mind what we discussed in our breakout room we're going to try a little technique here in the next few minutes to get some input into what your thoughts are on collaboration. So can we have the next slide, please.

So specifically around the three-year strategic plan, why are collaborative partnerships essential? Now, I'm going to ask you that we're going to do something a little different to share your answers and thoughts on this question. So what I want you to do is I want you to type your response into the chat but don't send it.

So I want you to keep it in the chat and then I am going to say waterfall and then I want everybody to push the send button so that everything kind of cascades into the chat room at the same time. And then we'll have a way to debrief one of the things as they come up. So take a moment to think about the response to that question why are collaborative partnerships essential for the three year strategic plan.

So by establishing some solid or some solid collaborative partnerships, you may be better able to meet the goals of the three year plan. And this may mean moving some current partnerships from cooperation or coordination into collaboration. It could also mean establishing some brand new collaborative partnerships.

So take a moment to, in the chat room, provide an answer for that question. And then again, don't send it until we're all ready and able to cascade. OK. Let's waterfall. OK, great. We have a lot of good answers or good responses coming in. And I'm going to ask Veronica if you could just read a few of those for us.

Veronica Parker: All right. So the first one we must work together to maximize and duplicate our efforts to understand multiple perspectives regarding gaps and needs in the community in order to better serve students so everyone can feel connected and committed to the goals set. Because the goal is an integrated regional strategy across agencies and partners. Because adult Ed goals intersect with the goals of other community organizations such as, for example MCWDB, so a workforce development board.

Buy in necessary to be able to help support our students to the fullest degree possible. Better decisions are made when you work with others, coordinated delivery of services, avoid duplication, shared resources. Everyone working on a common goal and supporting each other. We are able to expand services to students with collaborations and this helps us to meet our related goals.

Adult education involves the entire community and so collaborative partnerships are essential to determine a consortium's three year plan. Accountability to leverage as many services as possible for the people we serve across the geography. Ownership slash partnership reflects consortium needs/plans with members/agencies. See different points of view or ideas which serve all students from experience.

Goal of CAEP achievement to better our communities with educated adults ready for the workforce. And collaborative partnerships to bring in a variety of perspectives to be able to better understand and meet the needs of our community. Collaborative partnerships translate additional services and support for our students therefore it is essential that we partner.

To meet different goals of the plan by leveraging resources, collaborative partnerships maximize local resources to support student success and outcomes. Leverage strengths and resources, balance strengths and weaknesses and increase opportunities. Being collaborative allows all partners/stakeholders to achieve their own goals while participating in each other's plans. Collective impact, social change on a large scale. Share responsibility to set and meet targets for student outcomes accountability.

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK. So thank you. Thanks. And I think they'll stay up there. So please continue to read those along. But you can see we had quite a diverse list of people actually putting thought into what's this look like and how is it going to help us succeed in what we're trying to do. So can we move on to the next slide, please.

Please take an opportunity to continue reading and finish out that list. And Veronica, are we going to be able to copy the chat so we can share what's in there? I think we had some great ideas.

Veronica Parker: Yes. So the chat, if you click on the three dots, the three communication dots, and you save the chat, it will save to your device.

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK, great. I think those would be important things and I'm going to make sure that I share them because there are some great examples to use regardless of whether we're in California and/or in Pennsylvania working on this work. So we do have a bulleted list. So if we can go through the list. Next slide or click, please.

So I don't think there's anything on this list that we did not-- that was anything that we hadn't heard already. Because we've talked extensively in different venues about what the collaborative partnerships particularly with the work that you're challenged to do how they can be useful with what we're doing. So we'll move on to the next slide, please.

So some examples that were shared with me from the work that you're doing in California. You'll see those on the screen. I'm going to take a moment for you to take a look at those. But then I'm going to ask what are some examples of things that are particular to you.

So we haven't really gotten to the nitty gritty about naming names except for in a couple of instances. But what we have, we have very specific partners and we have some very specific examples. What's missing? Who are part of your collaborative efforts that you think might be unique that others could learn from or may want to reach out to in their work. What are some examples that we're missing here again that you think might be helpful for other folks? Anything?

Ryan Whetstone: I'll time in. So what I'm pursuing, I'll put it out there, is LA County has an office of immigrant affairs. So they've actually come out to conferences that we have. But I really would like them to be an active partner. So they're entities out there that would just be really strong relationships for us and that's one.

Another one I'm working on it because it's interesting and it's part of that adult Ed silo type phenomenon. And LA County has an office of education. So through the LA County Office of Education our adult schools all function through the K-12 or K Adult School districts. They get their credentials.

The County Office of Education provides a lot of professional development in areas. But our teachers or staff don't necessarily participate in them because all their energy goes to the k-12 schools. So I want to see that, see our schools and our teachers and staff participate much more in the County offerings. And it's just kind of building that relationship.

The last thing I'm going to say is that I've noticed that even within our own school district somebody mentioned it earlier I think in our group that adult education tends to be sort of a silo onto itself. And it's almost like we have to treat our own school districts that house us provide our paychecks as a community partner, and we have to keep informing them and just working with them not-- it's almost like they're outside of what we do.

And so we have to really keep an active relationship even within our own internal company that we get our paychecks from. So I think it's just those are a couple of things that just kind of went through my head looking at this list right here.

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK. Well, thanks, Ryan. And while you were talking we had folks contributing in the chat. And just some examples of that are the local libraries, unions, nonprofit legal assistance, nonprofits and cities with housing assistance. Unions again, affordable housing, local bus companies.

So take a moment to make sure that you check out the chat room and to see where others in your group are coming from. They're providing examples that may or may not be relevant for your particular area. But please, I encourage you to keep an eye on the chat as we're moving along.

Joan is saying community centers that have other services that can be accessed by students. So yeah, reaching out into the community about places. Again, we're looking for collaboration. Again, a win-win. We don't just want to take from things but we want to be able to give back to these other organizations that are part of our collaboration. Tribal councils with educational centers, OK? So thank you again all of you for your contributions. You're really helping to spread the word about what we're trying to do here. Next slide, please.

So think about one of the partnerships that you have. And think about the bulleted points that you see on the screen and decide if the current partnership is not collaborative on its way to becoming collaborative or already collaborative. So you'll want to review the purpose of the relationship or the partnership. You'll want to survey the environment, examine members characteristics roles and responsibilities, identify processes and structures, determine the communication channels and effectiveness, and then define the shared resources.

So think about that partnership or relationship. You know, I used to-- I've been doing this kind of work for a long time in Pennsylvania. And I'd work with agencies, we talked about partnerships. And we have a partnership tool kind of like a partnership assessment self-assessment that we had agencies doing. And we asked them to make a list of their partners or who they felt were their partners.

And we'd ask these questions of them. What's the purpose? What's this? So how often do you communicate? Well, you know, I go to a meeting once a month and we give an update about what we're doing. To some, that's a partnership, right? To me that's not, right? So what are the things that can move that along into a partnership or is it even worth doing that?

So if it's not collaborative, ask yourself if this is a partner that you should work toward collaboration or not. And later on this afternoon here we're going to share some tools that you can use to better analyze your partnerships. But not everything needs to move along to that level. We only have so much time, we only have so much energy, we only have so many resources. Which are the ones that are going to be beneficial for both you and for the agency or the organization that you are attempting to partner with? Next slide, please.

So then if we're moving along to the cooperation to collaboration stage. If you do have a partnership that you would like to move from cooperation to collaboration you might want to follow these steps. So think about the individual visions to form a common vision. If you can't, maybe they're not. Maybe they're just well enough alone to be in the cooperation phase.

Clarify the responsibilities and outline how communication would occur at all levels. Determine current resources to be shared and identify ways to jointly secure additional resources. Are you going to do some grant writing? Is there a foundation that you might be able to contribute? And then how would you reshare the results and rewards of what you each have to offer?

Any questions or comments? Anyone feel that they have a cooperative relationship that is worth moving to collaboration or better off just staying and cooperation and you get what you need from that partner in the cooperation stage. Anybody have anything to share?

Marianne: Yes. This is Marianne from Glendale. And sometimes the partner representative is the wrong person. So it may be the right partner and you're in and out moving from collaboration to cooperation. Sometimes it's the wrong person and sometimes we can change that. Sometimes we can't. So sometimes I'm thinking of one particular partner has great services, we need them. The person is so overwhelmed that I basically have to do all of the work for her so that we can provide the service to our students that need those services.

It's very exhausting but you know, that's all I'm going to get out of this partner. They are very bureaucratic. I have to accept that that's what I got and just double my workload to make sure that our students are able to access that service.

Kaylynn Hamilton: Yeah. And thanks for sharing that Marianne. And you got to know when it's time to say enough that's all the better it's going to be. It doesn't mean that that's not, and I rarely say this word, that's not to say that it's not good enough. But maybe it is good enough. Maybe that is what it is. So thanks for sharing that Marianne, I appreciate it. Anyone else have anything to share? OK. Then let's move along.

So you might need to establish new collaborative partnerships in order to, and if you want to click, please, help address identified gaps in services to help to provide supportive services that reduce barriers to participation of your learners or may bring additional resources to help meet the objectives again of the three year plan. Next step, please.

So in order to establish a new collaborative partnerships, I'm going to ask you to consider these foundational steps. Again, identifying the partners, explore mission and vision statements, determine purpose and goals, and examine available resources. So you might be sitting there thinking, is all of this worth it? It just looks like a lot of things that I'm going to be expected to do to try to get to where I need to be. Or should I just do hit or miss? Or should I just try to pull a group together, and those that come come, and those who contribute contribute?

We've all been in those kinds of relationships. But if we're truly looking for some collaboration then I'm going to suggest thinking about how this would look and what are your action steps for doing these steps. How do you do it? Is it just the work that you need to do or is it something that can be done kind of as a SWOT analysis with your partnerships and your collaborative relationships or how is that going to look better? We're going to talk in a minute on the next slide about that kind of SWOT analysis.

So you will be getting a copy of today's slide deck with links to these resources. So the collaboration factors inventory is a research based inventory that you and your partners can do and then have discussion around the results to help form future goals. A SWOT analysis, and we probably all have been part of that, can help your group determine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And it's best to have data to support the claims in the SWOT analysis and then make data informed decisions for partnership improvement.

And finally, the toolbox has a lot of resources, including support for writing vision and mission statements, strategic planning, and ways to identify community assets and resources. So each of those are links. When you're getting the PDF they will be part of the resources that contributed to this presentation.

Anybody familiar with any of those resources or has anyone done any kind of SWOT analysis with the groups that you're working with and what have been the outcomes of that? Anyone? I almost want to say anyone ever have to suffer through a SWOT analysis because sometimes they can just be really, really good activities and other times they just seem like why are we doing this, it doesn't make a lot of sense to be spending time on this.

Anybody have any kind of good or-- so Marianne has SWOTed before. OK. I've never used it as a verb but I like it and I'll probably be using it in the future. Was that a good experience, Marianne? You can unmute yourself.

Marianne: Yes. I've always had a good experience. And I actually did a SWOT analysis. One of our partners was a youth program or young adult program and all of the leaders were former gang members. So they are actually the ones who said-- who used to refer to it as a verb and--

Kaylynn Hamilton: OK. Yeah. OK. Well, I like it as a verb, I do.

Marianne: They said, I didn't realize we were going to have to SWOT anything today.

Kaylynn Hamilton: Yeah. That SWOT may be S-W-A-T, but I like the idea. I like the idea behind it. The question has asked what is the SWOT analysis? SWOT analysis is a group activity that you do with your group and the way you-- SWOT is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

And you work with the group to identify what are the strengths of our group? What do we bring together? What are the weaknesses? Where are the gaps in us working ghetto? What opportunities do we have as a consortium, as a partnership, or whatever we're calling our group? And oh yes, it is an acronym. Again, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And then what are the threats? What are the outside influences or internal influences that could be problematic to the work that we're trying to do?

So if you haven't participated in one of those, I'm going to strongly recommend that you check out that resource and think about doing that with your group. Because I would say it's easy for us to identify strengths. It's sometimes the weaknesses and those gaps are kind of tough to identify where we specifically look for those sometimes it is a way to be direct about it. Next slide, please.

So we have discussed that partnerships go by many names. But we want to have some partnerships be collaborative instead of just cooperative. We've identified ways to move partnerships from cooperative to collaborative. However, to create new collaborative partnerships and how to continuously work to improving partnerships, we'll need to spend some time discussing how to sustain and maintain those partnerships as we build them. So next slide, please.

So this is nothing new. So you're going to begin with the end in mind. And Dr. Stephen Covey who you may or may not be familiar with his work has said that the most important work is always ahead of you and it's never behind you so keep your eye on the prize. So where do you want to go and how will you get there?

You need to know where you're going first. So if you're planning it-- and the easy examples. If I'm planning a trip to San Antonio, right? That's my destination. There are many, many ways that I can get there. So let's think about the way that makes most sense and uses our resources most effectively. OK. Next slide, please.

So changes and challenges will occur. Staff will change, funding will change, and new government regulations will always provide challenges. How do you anticipate and address changes and challenges. And we're just looking for one or two examples. And you can throw them into the chat or you can unmute yourself.

And just what are some examples that you do to address those challenges that you see on the screen? We all face them. I've been trying to hire somebody in the project that I work with at Penn State since May. One person, looking for one person. We've made a couple offers that have been turned down. It's hard. Staff turnover is really challenging.

So what kinds of things for my own benefit are you using to address these kinds of changes and challenges? Anyone have anything to share? OK. Talking with trusted colleagues to strategize next steps and checking for understanding.

Yeah. At the very beginning of the session we talked about would you prefer working by yourself or would you prefer working with a team. And to the person you guys said you'd rather work with the team. So use those teammates. Use those members of your team to share ideas.

Pull people together and mobilize like converting to distance learning in a week to address the pandemic, right? So we change quickly. Adult education is typically very nimble and very flexible. I know in Pennsylvania our adult education providers were able to adjust to the pandemic and start doing remote learning within a few days. Our workforce development partners were not able to do that.

Project teams versus individual project managers to anticipate staff transitions and vacancy. So again, keep throwing those ideas into the chat as we move along. Next slide, please.

So again, you'll want to appreciate diversity. We all have different beliefs, behaviors, and bias. Set some ground rules for how your team can continually accept and appreciate that kind of diversity in beliefs, behaviors, and bias instead of having folks sitting around a table and rolling their eyes when something new comes up or crossing their arms when somebody's speaking. We want to have all of our staff and all of our partners and all of our collaborative efforts appreciate those kinds of things that we see on our screen at the moment.

Next slide, please. So when working within a diverse group with many members, promoting inclusion and mitigating bias may be one of the most important and challenging components of being able to successfully maintain partnerships over a long period of time. So we challenge you to encourage people to regulate their personal emotions, continuously build partnerships, and always show empathy and compassion to one another.

And again, you'll be getting this slide deck so you don't need to be making notes. But I think these are things that are important to remember. Because in even though we're part of a team, we are still individuals. And as these bulleted points show up, you want to make sure that you are being inclusive and trying to mitigate things that are toxic to any kind of partnership.

Next slide, please. And I'm going to ask you to-- Veronica, just go over the next slide. We're running slow or out of time so we're going to just skip this activity. And if you're interested in it, it will be in the slide deck.

So collaborative environment look-fors. So what are the kinds of things that make an effective collaboration? Group has common purpose and goals. Trust among members of the group. Roles are clearly defined. Diversity is welcome and appreciated, and diversity meaning the things that we talked about in the previous couple of slides. And then the results are monitored, measured, celebrated and I'm going to also add reflected upon together, right?

We want to continue to go back to our results, whether they're good, bad, or indifferent and continue to analyze them and reflect on them. What worked well so that we can repeat those kinds of things. What kinds of things did not work well so that we don't necessarily try to continue to-- like I try to say beat our head against a concrete wall. If it didn't work Once or didn't work twice it may be an idea to let's examine that a little bit more closely before we just try to do the same thing again.

Any questions or comments? Anything you could add to the look-for. OK. We see from Michele, having clear structures for governance, communication, and collaboration helps us work through changes and challenges. Having these exist beyond the current staff. As people move in and out the structures maintain.

Yes. We talked about that in my group. You know, people come and people go but the structure is going to remain the same. Our collaboration has improved with bylaws, norms, and documenting our structures. Getting it down on paper, it sounds like has worked well. So I appreciate that comment. Any other comments? Anything else that has worked well for your group?

Bylaws, norms, and documenting structures. We did talk about purpose and goals through mission and vision statements. What else? We use an independent facilitator to just guide the discussion in the room. I love that idea. I've been that independent facilitator and I do see the value in that.

It's not always practical and it's not always something that you can do. But when you can bring somebody into the room that does not necessarily have as we say skin in the game and they can bring up points that aren't going to be seen as self-promoting for their organization or looking for things that could benefit one and not all really can be helpful when you have that person helping to lead any kind of activities or facilitate any kind of discussion. So yes. Emma, I appreciate you bringing that up. Good idea.

Anything else? OK. As we are winding down, we want to break out into another breakout room. And we're going to actually look at another case study. Or I'm sorry we're going to look at a case study. And we're going to look for a collaborative partnerships in this case study. So the case study is fairly routine. It'll be something that sounds familiar to you. It actually is something that I took from our work in Pennsylvania.