Phase 1. Readiness Runway
is all about cultivating urgency for change, having conversations and dialogue about the need for working differently, forming relationships, and building trust.
What you might see
- Community members talking about the need for leadership but looking to others to lead;
- Government agencies acknowledging the need for community leadership, but not being sure how to enable or support it;
- Service providers committed or tied to existing service provision and feeling that they are too busy to ‘step up’;
- Existing leaders being encouraged and rewarded for maintaining the status quo, with change initiatives being ad hoc or short lived;
- Recognition that the way services are delivered and existing ways of working together need to change, but thinking that change lies with others;
- Community members have an emerging sense of urgency and possibility for change.
What you can do
- Identify existing leaders who are open to new ways of working;
- Identify and support potential or emerging leaders to advocate for collaborative change;
- Explore how to build trust and ways of working together before attempting to establish a shared agenda, or forming a formal leadership group or ‘backbone’;
- Lead with questions to diagnose where there is readiness for change and resist the pull to providing solutions;
- Develop a sense that it is possible to achieve different outcomes by working differently;
- Identify where there is urgency for change and consider those who have the most at stake.
Leadership Tools & Resources
See our latest Facilitator Tools
Understand where your initiative is on the Collaborative Change Cycle
An overview of important things to consider (beyond Cultural Competency) before entering into partnerships between First Nations and Other Multicultural Australians. It includes concepts such as understanding the historical patterns of working, being aware and making decisions about language and growing awareness around different types of power.
Deep Collaboration
1. Readiness RunwayDeep Collaboration is a way of working that was created by First Nations and other Multicultural Australians to find new ways to work and lead together. In this video, Deep Collaboration Lead, Mark Yettica-Paulson and CFI’s Jane Martin discuss why a new approach to working together is needed.
Deep Collaboration
John Kania talks about 'System Leadership' as the leadership required for systems change and identifies leadership as the biggest distinguishing factor of successful Collective Impact efforts. This is an excerpt of a video interview in 2020 with John Kania by CFI Director, Kerry Graham
This tool will help you to map and interpret stakeholder dynamics in your initiative. This tool can be useful at the start of an initiative when you are working out the ‘lay of the land’, if things go wrong, if there is conflict, or if you are not making progress.
Downloadable pdf
This resource helps individuals think systemically about social change, explore what is happening below the surface on issues they care about, and determine how they and their organizations can pursue large-scale change in a disciplined and holistic manner.
This resource describes the core capabilities of system leaders and describes the means by which they may be acquired.
This resource describes different approaches to leadership and identifies those best suited to collaborative community impact and systems change.
This resource describes the difference between leaders who need to be the centre of attention and leaders who create the conditions for collaborative outcomes.
Change Cycle Locator Tool
Take the quick survey to work out where you are on your change journey and access information specific to your needs