Really effective collaborations between communities and universities are of increasing interest to organizational leaders, policy-makers, students, teachers, and researchers. They have the potential to be a crucial source of social innovation in the 21st century. SiG@Waterloo has worked with five outstanding examples of such collaborations to find out what perspectives, processes and practices allow them to significantly support innovation to emerge, be sustained and to positively affect some of the most challenging problems of our time. For a list of resources and to hear the webinar associated with this slide-deck, visit http://sigeneration.ca and click through to our Canadian Social Impact Series

1. Nov 23, 2011

2. ! These partnerships have
been sustained over a
significant time period!
! Strong examples of
achieving social impact, as
well as organizational/
institutional change!
! Partners obviously think
and act in quite unique
ways - “rule-breakers” !

3. Multiple inner city organizations and UBC’s
Learning Exchange
Multiple, cross-sector partners and Lakehead
U’s Food Security Research Network –
First Nations community around Fort Albany
and U Waterloo’s Department of
Environment Resource Studies

4. Université de la Rue / Écol-Hôtel / and other
community initiatives with U Québec à Trois
Riviéres
City of Guelph / McNeil Pharmaceuticals /
and other community initiatives with U
Guelph’s Research Shop

5. !

6. ….is an initiative, product, process or
program that profoundly changes
! the basic routines,
! resource flows,
! authority flows or
! beliefs
of any social system.
!

7. ! Awareness of processes of emergence in a system
! The jazz metaphor describes this comprehensive
approach - improvisation and listening are key
! Sensitivity, humility, ‘tuning-in’ to system helps include
multiple perspectives, work with emergence
! Enables emphasis on high-leverage areas
! Letting go of control and fixed agendas
“The First Nations in the North “This strategy’s intentional
and down here, I generally don’t focus on emergence and
have to explain systems to them. complexity demands that we
They have a really clear sense of facilitate interactions
how political, social, ecological, amongst many diverse
historical systems interrelate. It groups of people. The big
is sort of intuitive.” challenge for most is to
resist the urge to control.
!

8. ! Follow the passion in people – use this
! Invest in relationships over time
! Appropriate pace and sequence
! Invite trust and connection
“When you bring
together enough people
“…we held our meetings after who are open to their
8pm, and we went to their passion, something will
living rooms because that is happen.”
where they like to meet; we
established this “inside-ness”
but we didn’t set the agenda
or the timing, we just let it
emerge.”
!

9. ! Requires strong willingness to question
assumptions & habits, remain open, humble
! Basic deconstruction of positional/financial
power is necessary, but implicit or foundational
– it doesn’t lead
“We work with
“So if there is that community
obvious sense of organizations
disparity and inequality who feel they
between people’s are powerful
circumstances, how do and who act
we relate to that? This is positively.”
simply an important
starting point for me.”
!

10. ! Power is not a zero-sum game – new power is
an emergent quality of effective community-
university collaborations
“It’s the emergent power of
working collaboratively: how do
we mobilize it? How do we
generate it? Not approaching it
as, what power does someone
have because they have a PhD
and a higher salary? Let’s not
waste our time on that.”
!

11. ! One or more individuals who are trusted
authorities in multiple contexts – community,
classroom, university
! Harness or weave energies towards
collaborative action
! Accessible, informal mentors
! Blend personal and professional - passion,
values, purpose
“[She] recognizes the complexity
and concentrates on the dynamics,
the relationships between the
different parts and people involved
in our work. She and her team
build connections between
different cultures, all of which she
understands and honours.”
!

12. ! Intentional development of “third spaces”, “hybrid
spaces”, “insideness”, “we-ness”
! Institutional and personal relationships both
important
! Passion, purpose, fun, and energy are hallmarks
! NOT bureaucratic – direct, messy relationships
We have to get faculty members,
students, staff, going to the
community, and people from
community coming to the
university to lead reflection
sessions, giving presentations…
we need people from each space
to infect the space of the other.
!

13. ! Work comes from a sense of calling, service,
connection
! Requires self-change, humility, transformation
! Motivation from deep, collective values
! Can bring up strong resistance/fear
“These partnerships can
allow the idea that you no
“They are doing the longer see yourself as so
work because it separate. The ego structure
has to be done, for bumps up against these
their children’s collaborative approaches –
children.” no one talks about that
very much.”
!

14. ! New ways of knowing and learning are fostered in
community organizations, among community members
and within university participants
! Connected to larger paradigm shift in academia and in
the social sector
! Breaking down old institutions of knowledge, opening up
new avenues for solving problems
“We are currently operating in a
period of global transition
between two world views - an
old one and a new one that is
non-linear, non-mechanistic, and
interconnected.…We’re like a
termite group that’s chewing
away at the old structures.”
!

15. ! Central Catalyzers: initiators, weavers, boundary-
spanners, institutional entrepreneurs!
! Gatekeepers: release resources and support!
! Practitioners: academic and community-based!
! Students: bring enthusiasm, authenticity!
! Observers: internal or external, offer encouragement
and/or recognition!
! Investors: financially support and therefore guide
development, implementation and evaluation
!

16. “Ideally the creation of these hybrid spaces
between the university and community happens
because people from both sides realize that it is
way more fun, and ultimately powerful, to work
with each other than it is not to! !
I really truly believe if we can bring these two
forms of knowledge together, we can solve some
of the problems in the world, we can understand
and do things di"erently. Part of the reason that
these problems seem intractable and complex is
that these two domains of knowledge have not
been e"ectively married.”
!

17. ! To ensure necessary TIME (to see the system, to
assess readiness, to develop relationships, etc):
implicitly ask for time from funders – point to
outstanding examples, highlighting TIME taken to
create foundations for sustainability and impact!
! To attune to POWER in a productive manner:
intentionally engage with individuals passionate
about change on an issue, and work to focus on
the emergent power that comes with
collaboration; do NOT waste time convincing
uninterested parties to participate
!

18. ! To create conditions for PARTNERSHIPS: identify a
‘central catalyst’ to move across the system,
internally and externally; must be individual(s)
with established trust in multiple places, with
access to those who hold resources, with capacity
for keeping the big picture in sight (system sight),
values-driven, purposeful, strategic and engaging!
! To enliven relationships: reduce the distance
between key actors; for example, encourage
faculty members to join the Board of Directors of
organizations with whom they partner.
!

19. ! How can we more fully describe the ‘hybrid space’ or
‘insideness’ that supports these partnerships?
! What skills and competencies do central catalyzers
have? How to cultivate these? Can they be trained?
! Is it possible to institutionalize this work without
diluting it to where the power and potential is lost?
! What does it take to keep these highly interpersonal,
values-driven partnerships alive beyond the
originators?
! How much does language limit our attempts to
describe these partnerships and patterns? How can we
best tell these stories?
!