Policy and Practice February 2019

Instead of delivering fixed benefits and supports, weworkwith families and

NATALIE: How does OE contribute to the culture of the agencies with which you work, helping them to be more adaptive? PHIL: Three things come to mind when answering this question. First off, let’s define culture by how an organization and system does business, how it gets things done. Second, it’s clearer to recognize that critical thinking methods, methods of staff empowerment, and using lenses like the Value Curve are ways to assess where you are and where you want to go—all cultural phenomena. Third, when we facilitate groups, we aspire to be “good doctors,” meaning we embed the capacity to do all these things for one’s self, just like we try to do with families. NATALIE: So how do we know that OE matters, that it has the desired impact on organizations and the people they serve? PHIL: Great question! OE has been evaluated twice, and we are in the midst of a third evaluation. The first external evaluation in 2013 was a look back, surveying and interviewing about 30 past client organizations. The data showed our tools continued to be used long after our projects were completed; the objectives set out in the projects were, for the most part, achieved; and the impact on those served in achieving those objectives was also apparent. With the second external evaluation, we used goal attainment scaling within one state to compare counties that worked with OE to those who had not worked with OE. The data showed that the OE counties were achieving higher levels on the goal attainment scale than the counties that had not yet employed it. Our current evaluation, being conducted by the National Opinion Research Center through 2021, is studying the impact of our OE work within a related theory of impact at the ecosystem level for seven different cities or counties. We hope to substantiate connections between OE, ecosystem network development, service innovations across multiple partner entities, social and economic mobility, and improved structural equity by race and place. Now that’s a lot to evaluate!

communities to discover the root causes between themandwhat they see as the desired state, and customize fromthere.

NATALIE: Who has beenmainly responsible for sustaining this effort over such a long time and in so many places? PHIL: A ton of people and organiza- tions! I’m sure some will be left out but here are the ones that come to mind most readily. In delivering 4,600 days of consulting through 123 projects in 33 states, we’ve had 12 on-staff OE consul- tants over the years, most of whom have moved on to bigger responsibilities in the field. The University of Pittsburgh was an early adopter and collaborator. Casey Family Programs supported us for many years in child welfare projects. Now the Kresge Foundation is a key strategic partner. On the private- sector side of things, Public Consulting Group, Accenture, and most recently, Optum, deserve mentions. For the Value Curve, Harvard has been a great leader and supporter. Finally, as this is a “learning by doing” practice, we devel- oped and sustained our practice with and through our members, who wanted it to be better and better over time. OE belongs to them. NATALIE: How have you been per- sonally and professionally enriched by taking this journey yourself? PHIL: My professional journey now consists of 30 years of work focused on increasing outcomes for organiza- tions, 15 of these years for Fortune 500 companies, and 15 years at APHSA. Because of the 15 years at APHSA, I sleep well at night because I know the cause we’re about is true north. APHSA has been uniquely open to the work we’ve done around OE, and at this stage in its own strategic path, sees OE as a core asset and driver. Here, what we do is not about money, not about compliance, not about pleasing the boss or even the stakeholder. It’s about helping the people we all col- lectively serve reach their potential.

In that adaptive spirit, even though we didn’t know the destination of OE, and in some ways, we still don’t, we’ve always known we were using the right compass setting. This has enriched me more than I can easily express. NATALIE: What’s next for OE, what do you see in your crystal ball? PHIL: Looking out 5 to 15 years, I see OE being more connected to advancing our field’s approach to data and ana- lytics, linking social determinants of health to equitable outcomes, cracking the code on social and economic mobility, and moving fromwaking to really working through racial inequi- ties 2 inherent in community structures. I also see us having turned the corner on workforce well-being and health; it’s always been important, but we haven’t really cracked the code on it yet. Finally, through that crystal ball, (with tears in his eyes), I know that someone is going to give this interview 10 years from now and it won’t be me. It will be someone else from the team, and I am excited and inspired because our current team is great, and I am excited about what they will be doing well into the future. Not sad tears…this is gratitude and appreciation. NATALIE: Thank you, Phil, for your visionary leadership and your commitment to making the world a better place! Reference Notes 1. The Human Services Value Curve can be viewed at https://aphsa.org/APHSA/ Value_Curve_Toolkit/Toolkit__Moving_ through_the_Value_Curve_Stage.aspx 2. Awake to Woke to Work: Building

a Race Equity Culture—Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. https://www.

nonprofitleadershipalliance.org/resource/ awake-to-woke-to-work-building-a-race- equity-culture/

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