P&P August 2015

Figure 1. Human Services Value Curve Components, adapted from Antonio Oftelie, Harvard’s Leadership for a NetworkedWorld.

for procuring and allocating resources

assistance or facilitation. However, a toolkit coupled with limited technical assistance can work well, as evidenced by our testing with Hampton, Olmsted, and Sonoma counties. The toolkit is available electroni- cally through APHSA’s web site, and will also be delivered through our “learning by doing” institutes and direct OE consulting activities. It is designed with the following sections: 1. An introduction that defines the stages of the Value Curve in opera- tional terms. 2. A brief summary of transformation themes stemming from our docu- menting of innovations taking place around the country and also from our three test sites: Sponsorship, Staff Engagement, Partnerships, and Resources. 3. A brief discussion of readiness for change and links to the APHSA readiness assessment tool. 4. A discussion of “big leadership” as a driving force for sustaining a trans- formation effort, as the most critical readiness and sustainability factor, and links to APHSA’s adaptive lead- ership tool. 5. Specific sections with links to related tools and templates for: a. Defining the desired future state b. Opening up stakeholders and staff to the possibilities of transformation c. Establishing a strategy platform and sponsorship structure for the work d. Establishing improvement teams and work teams to connect the strategy to effective and empowering planning and imple- mentation activities e. Effective facilitation as a critical support function to teaming f. Building capacity in critical change and sustainability areas, including data and analysis, support functions, general work- force, through partnerships, and

n Planning strategies that will address the reasons for the gaps between their current and desired state. Having such tools raises aware- ness for how agency leaders and their partners can concretely move through stages of the Value Curve together, and helps to build efficacy and, therefore, commitment to actually doing so. Indeed, our recent self-assessment scan of state and local agency CEOs indicated that these leaders, by and large, clearly want to advance to the Integrative and Generative stages, yet, at the same time, make very limited progress in across most of the related fronts required. Some very high-readiness agencies will be able to use the toolkit without additional support and actually advance through the Value Curve stages in a self-directed manner, but most need some form of technical support. We do not think a toolkit alone can be designed for systems to apply in transformative efforts without any form of additional technical

g. Communicating for impact throughout the transformation effort h. Monitoring progress, impact, lessons, and adjustments to form a continual learning cycle i. Topic-specific tools for common barriers and enablers to change and innovation While appearing robust and complex, this toolkit is comprised of a small fraction of the APHSA Organizational Effectiveness Handbook, and only includes those tools identified by the test sites as relevant and clearly useful to them. The full range of tools avail- able can, therefore, be reserved for an experienced internal or external OE facilitator to employ once a system is committed to moving forward. In Closing Agencies, MSOs, and communities around the country using the tools and language of this toolkit will further strengthen the impact resulting from similar efforts to the annual Harvard Summits. Indeed, it is already evident in many ways that our field is speaking and working in a more unified manner using the precepts of these materials. As we continue distributing and sharing the toolkit, through future efforts—a peer-to-peer “learning by doing” institute or other means of tech- nical support—this value will continue to grow. And through our efforts to facilitate understanding and application of these tools, as well as through embedding management strategies to ensure con- tinued improvement and innovation, we have, by extension, more communi- ties aligning around common ideas, goals, frameworks, and strategies. This “collective impact” will grow as we advance the use of these models, tools, and facilitative techniques.

Phil Basso is APHSA’s deputy executive director.

Anita Light is the director of

APHSA’s National Collaborative for Integration of Health and Human Services.

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Policy&Practice   August 2015