Getting a collaborative group going involves eight basic steps. The process isn’t perfectly linear; you’ll be taking some steps simultaneously, and working back to others. The following paragraphs provide a rough outline of the process. The next issue of Benefits2 will delve more deeply into some of the most critical aspects of collaborative work contained within these steps.

Convening a group. The first, and perhaps most critical, step is to bring together the people who need to be involved. The most basic requirement for a collaborative to succeed in the goal of supporting both school and community is that the group must represent all of the diverse populations that comprise both environments. As one guide puts it, "It isn’t enough to simply round up the ‘usual suspects’" (U.S. Department of Education, 1996, p. 13).

For manageability’s sake, you may want to start with a small core group and then expand, but it is essential to draw in all the constituencies in your community. And don’t forget to include students in the mix. Students need to have an active voice in determining the direction of their educational program. Moreover, Miller and Hahn note that "in rural communities, where the workload can overwhelm the capacity of the available adult population, students represent a hidden resource" (p. 15).

Assessing strengths and needs. Early on, the group will need to take stock of the school and community’s needs, and of the resources and expertise you can access. This assessment may be formal or informal; some groups use inventories and needs assessment instruments, while others take a less structured approach. The important thing is to be thorough, and realistic, and to focus on assets as well as problems. When groups start with what SEDL program manager Cathy Jordan calls "a deficit perspective," they often feel overwhelmed by the obstacles they face. SEDL’s collaborative approach emphasizes building from a community’s strengths.

Establishing purposes and priorities. Finding a focus for the group, and stating that focus explicitly enough so that everyone in the group shares similar expectations, is another important step. One set of experts observes that, "for a collaborative to succeed, members should consider spending time . . . examining their assumptions of common intent in order to develop ways of accommodating inevitable differences in these critical underpinnings" (McClure, Jones, & Potter, 1996, pp. 395-396). Most guides for collaborative groups suggest developing a mission statement as well as specific project-by-project goals.

Learning to work well together. Most, if not all, members of the collaborative will bring with them some experience in working with a group. Experience, however, doesn’t always guarantee effectiveness. And if you’ve done a good job of recruiting a diverse membership, it’s almost certain that this particular configuration of folks has never before worked together. SEDL and other sources offer structured activities that can build the group’s skills in working collaboratively. While some group members, anxious to get on with business, may resist such learning activities, taking time for skills-building can make a significant difference in your group’s ability to achieve tangible results.

Planning projects. Groups sometimes tend to bog down in the effort to move from what to how. Deciding what’s manageable, how to best use the resources available, working out costs and schedules, assigning tasks – all these require a clear sense of both the big picture and the many small pieces that must come together to complete the puzzle. Plotting out the details can be time-consuming and frustrating; again, groups need to resist the impulse to hurry through. For complex or ambitious projects, the planning phase alone may take six months or longer. One way of coping with the frustration of inaction is to build in smaller activities that can give the group a sense of accomplishment without diverting too much energy from the larger agenda.

Implementing your plans. Most people will tell you that planning is half the battle – and experience shows that to be true. However, many groups make the mistake of taking the other half for granted. Things never go quite as you intend them. There are always unknowns, from the weather to the chicken pox to miscalculations about time and money. As you put your plans into action, be prepared for setbacks, build in contingencies, and provide opportunities for revamping plans to adapt to changing conditions.

Assessing the results. People often think of evaluation as something that’s needed only for grants or government mandates. But it’s important to have a yardstick for success, even for the most modest of projects. Identifying your criteria for success – whether it’s the number of townspeople who turn out for a community cleanup, or the ability of a student-operated enterprise to cover its own costs, or a decrease in the school’s dropout rate – should be an integral part of planning your project. And specific provisions should be made for documenting to what extent those criteria are met. Such documentation can be valuable in several ways: to increase local support for the collaborative, to obtain funds from outside sources, to help the group feel a tangible sense of accomplishment.

Sustaining your achievements. Once you have implemented a specific project, it’s time to determine whether and how it should continue. Can the activity be incorporated into the ongoing school operations? Are extra resources needed? What is the activity’s logical lifespan? And, once the collaborative group’s work is accomplished, what other priorities need to be tackled? With a good working group, you should be able to begin the process all over again: assessing needs, setting goals, planning new projects, and putting them into action.