July 9, 2026

During Our State, Our Future Forum Two, we presented to the community teams about how to build a collaborative agenda for change – how to work with others to build an effective, collaborative plan to tackle "wicked problems" in a community. Solving these complex problems requires the cooperation of many people from all areas of the community to work together towards shared goals, such as increasing youth employment, improving access to affordable housing, and increasing availability of mental health services.  

Joys and Pains of Collaborative Implementation 

Working together in collaboration with others requires significant investment of time and energy. Collaborative work is hard! That is why we often see siloed approaches to community problem solving that don't result in the kind of long-term change we hope to achieve. Embracing a collaborative approach to work comes with its own joys and pains. Knowing this up front can help us manage the process more successfully.  

The Our State, Our Future teams shared that collaborative work can lead to the following positive outcomes: 

• Team members learn from each other's expertise, expanding their understanding 

• Team members can accomplish more together as a group than if they were working alone 

• Team members can establish trust, count on others, and work together  

• Ideas can feed each other, leading to ambitious, bold transformation as a result. 

However, collaborative implementation can also present the following challenges: 

• Managing competing priorities that can limit the ability of team members to fully participate 

• Navigating bureaucracy, especially when working with multiple systems and sectors 

• Coordinating schedules and varying levels of commitment to the issue 

• Different understandings of the root causes of the problem or best way to move forward 

• Time! Collaboration is time consuming, but pays off in the long run 

To maximize the benefits of collaboration and minimize challenges, we presented several tools that can help community groups plan, prioritize, and coordinate their shared efforts.  

Tools for Navigating Implementation Challenges 

Implementation Challenge: We want to do so much! How do we figure out what to prioritize and what can wait?    

Consider using a Prioritization Matrix. Prioritization matrices can help you fairly compare all your potential strategies for change using criteria that matter most to your team. People often start by considering the potential impact of different strategies and how much effort each strategy will take to implement.  

In the simple matrix below, the two criteria (impact and effort to implement) have been put on two axes. In this example, high impact strategies go towards the top of the diagram and high effort strategies go towards the far right. Once you have mapped all your strategies to the matrix, you can choose what to prioritize. Your action plan can include a mix of activities from different quadrants, but it's a good idea to include some "quick wins" to keep up the group's momentum for those longer-term strategic projects.  

Simple 2×2 Matrix 

Advanced Prioritization Matrix 

If you want to consider more than just the two criteria of impact and effort, you can create a more advanced matrix like this one. To use this table, follow these steps:  

1. List the strategies you are comparing 
2. Identify what criteria you want to use to compare each strategy  
3. Assign a score to each strategy across the different criteria on a scale of 1-5 
4. Total the scores to compare which "performs best"  

If some criteria are more important than others, you can "weigh" each one differently based on importance. This tool is customizable to different situations, and team can the criteria that are most relevant and helpful. Some criteria to consider are cost to implement, feasibility, political buy-in, alignment with vision, urgency, and likelihood of advancing equity.  

The scores aren't intended to be a "final verdict" about what to do next. Instead, they provide a starting point for discussion within a team so that everyone can fairly compare the options and decide on a path forward together.  

Implementation challenge: We have many cooks in the kitchen! We all have a stake in the outcome, so who does what?  

Tool to clarify roles and responsibilities, consider using a RACI Chart/Matrix. A RACI chart makes it clear who on a team is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed about parts of a project.   

When everyone knows their role and what is expected, shared work plans are much easier to implement.  

 

Implementation Challenge: We have limited resources, especially TIME! How can we sequence our work so that it is manageable and realistic?   

To map out project tasks on a timeline, consider using a Gantt Chart. A Gantt Chart is a bar chart illustrating the anticipated time required to complete all the various steps required in a project. 

Free and low-cost Gantt chart templates are available online including Canva, Smartsheet, Miro, and others. Choose a template based on how much detail you would like to show on your timeline and how easy it will be for your team to update as plans or target dates shift.  

 

Implementation Challenge: We're not sure that what we're doing is really working. How do we step back and figure out if we're on the right path?     

To help teams maintain connection between their big picture goals and their activities, consider using the A3 Problem Solving Method. 

Part of the Lean Management approach, the A3 originated in complex manufacturing (Toyota) and spread across industries and sectors. The A3 gets the problem, the analysis, the action plan, and the follow-up summarized on a single sheet of paper.  

Benefits of A3: 

• Provide an at-a-glance, 1-page summary sheet that keeps team members focused on their shared goal 

• Activates the slow (non-reactive) parts of the brain involved in rational, logical thought, concentration, and using facts as the rationale for action. 

• Leads to stronger alignment between the problems identified and the solutions proposed.  

There are many templates for the A3 Problem Solving Approach online, such as this toolkit. 

Conclusion 

Lots of different tools can help teams plan, organize, and manage their collaborative work effectively. The tools recommended here are just a sampling of the tools available to address the challenges inherent in collaborative work. Remember that: 

1. There is no one right path to achieving complex community change. 
2. System change practitioners have a diverse array of tools that they thoughtfully select and carefully deploy to manage the tasks at hand. We are constantly adapting and shifting to manage complexity. 
3. These are your tools – use them, adapt them, and make them work for your context.  

 

The purpose of the Office of Community Engagement and Outreach is to reinforce, reimagine, and reenergize the ways the UNC School of Social Work partners with communities to support the School's mission to advance equity, transform systems, and improve lives. The Office does this by building capacity for community engagement within the School of Social Work and by strengthening the capacities of communities to achieve social change. 

Our State, Our Future, is a 12-month commitment to equip communities with tools to strengthen cross-sector collaboration and improve outcomes in youth workforce development, mental health, and housing  

Carolina Across 100 is a five-year initiative, coordinated by the ncIMPACT Initiative, seeking to support community-driven recovery and build sustainable efforts in all 100 counties by providing human resources, data insights, coaching, facilitation, coordination efforts, and program design. Our State, Our Future is the seventh program in this larger initiative.