<\/p>\n

Fuzzy language can lead to weaker inquiry, overly global solutions and a false sense of alignment in partners. For example, people generally agree \u201ccommunity engagement\u201d is a good thing, but you may not really have buy-in about sharing and ceding decision-making power to young people unless you are explicit about the goal. \u201cDe-fuzzify\u201d your language so that your \u201cHow might we\u2026?\u201d question drives targeted inquiry, insight and action.<\/p>\n

After hearing lessons and takeaways from my co-panelists \u2014 \u00a0a consulting group (Ross Strategic Group) and a grantmaker (the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation) \u2014 I began to reflect on the evolving role that StriveTogether has played over the last decade.<\/p>\n

When we work with communities in the early stage of this work, we operate somewhat like a consulting group, sharing the wisdom and expertise of communities that have built the civic infrastructure to get better results for children and youth at scale. When we work with Cradle to Career Network members that are more advanced in this work, we serve as a connector and a coach. And with the Accelerator Fund<\/a> and other funds in the Cradle to Career Community Challenge<\/a>, we have added the role of grantmaker.<\/p>\n

As an organization, we are learning and continuously improving. Progress is one of our core values: We aspire to share learning and progress in real time, view professional development as personal growth and fix problems through continuous improvement. Because as Hanh Cao Yu said, \u201cIt\u2019s not about beating the odds. It\u2019s about changing the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n

If we are to collectively make progress on transforming systems to change the odds for every child across our country, we need to intentionally build a culture of equity and results \u2014 with a powerful learning engine.<\/p>\n

So take time to reflect. Be brave enough to share your learning \u2014 particularly when your views diverge from the norm \u2014 and turn those insights into action with others. When we make thinking visible, we increase our ability to get things done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTrust comes from truth telling,\u201d Hanh Cao Yu from the California Endowment said from the plenary stage at the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations Learning Conference last week in Seattle. Her words rang true from multiple perspectives. As I\u2019ve learned in my work\u00a0with communities across the country applying StriveTogether\u2019s collaborative improvement approach, one of the most…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":11571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-11479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","tag-blog","category-216","description-off"],"yoast_head":"\n