Leading or Facilitating Leading or Facilitating? Creating effective and sustainable community partnerships ... ... a personal perspective Ilena Young Centre Manager, Wangaratta Regional Study Centre Division of International Education and Partnerships

partnerships and CSU CSU engages with a broad range of organisations as partners Our partnerships at an organisational level assist in achieving strategic objectives But at the other end of the spectrum staff are asked to engage in networks, alliances & partnerships at a community level The opportunity and potential for a large multi-campus, multi-faculty, multi-school organisation like CSU is the breadth and diversity of community based partnerships But this in itself becomes the key challenge ... how do we see, monitor and manage what is going on, so that what we build achieves our goals and becomes sustainable CSU engages with a broad range of organisations, both within Australia and overseas,

Why community partnerships are different Strategic partnerships follow traditional legal business definitions of partnership Highly structured and formalised Business - community partnerships Philanthropic - Funding community delivery Community partnerships Integrative – creating new solutions - dynamic, fluid, evolving Community partnerships can create a sustainable competitive advantage. They can also be used by CSU to leverage our potential, create synergism and extend our responsiveness

What makes a community partnership work Instigation - a shared idea … the entrepreneurial leader Initial explorations the welcoming facilitator Group formation the creative facilitator Within this space are Respect / Transparency / Trust / Relationship / Commitment Definition of shared goals the inclusive leader Delivery and activity the project managing facilitator Evaluation and review the reflective leader Deciding what to do next both leader and facilitator

The challenges of multiple Community partnerships By nature community partnerships are integrative, dynamic, fluid and evolutionary And it is exactly this that gives them their potential, and that makes them so valuable as we increasingly move into a complex and changing environment En masse though, the challenges this presents a large multi-campus, multi-focus organisation are going to be Overall management, review and evaluation Maintaining alignment and avoiding splintering away from core focus

understanding multiple Community Partnerships Level 5 – Integrating activities into every day practice Level 4 – Collaboration on new activities Level 3 – Extension activities Level 2 – Core agreement and action plan Level 1 – Information sharing Level 0 –Dialogue

Managing Multiple community Partnerships   Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 Site 4 Totals Level 0 - Dialogue 7 9 4 24 Level 1 - Info sharing 5 8 6 Level 2 - Core activity 21 Level 3 - Extension 25 Level 4 - Collaboration 3 16 Level 5 - Integration 1 No of partners 38 22 30 115 Average 1.64 1.97 2.04 2.23 2.00

Maintaining alignment and strategic focus Categories of strategic intent   Site 1 Site 2 Site 3 Site 4 Totals Level 0 - Dialogue 7 9 4 24 Level 1 - Info sharing 5 8 6 Level 2 - Core activity 21 Level 3 - Extension 25 Level 4 - Collaboration 3 16 Level 5 - Integration 1 No of partners 38 22 30 115 Average 1.64 1.97 2.04 2.23 2.00

So - creating effective and sustainable community partnerships ... leading or facilitating? Community partnerships are as complex as the communities within which they sit They hold tremendous potential for CSU to strengthen our position into the future Creating effective and sustainable community partnerships involves a complex skill set There are time to lead – whilst listening There are times to facilitate – whilst guiding There are times to manage – whilst allowing dynamism, flex and evolution For CSU to do this effectively in an environment in which we have multiple campuses, multiple focuses and many varied staff members engaged in different activities We first have to know what is going on