Collective
Decision Making
Collective decisions cannot be made if one group has, or appears to have, all the power. If partners have respect for each other's abilities and potential contributions, power struggles should be avoided. Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993) note the importance of sharing power and responsibility within the collaborative:
"A collaborative is most effective when all partners exercise leadership. Partners need to work collegially instead of dominating those they perceive as less powerful. Partners ideally bring a variety of strengths and potential contributions to the table. Recognizing each partner's strengths and expertise lays the groundwork for genuinely shared leadership. It also begins to replace top-down, competitive notions of power and control with a new operating principle that sees the whole collaborative as greater than the sum of its parts. Leaders from partner organizations may experience difficulty in sharing power, but collaboratives will fail unless partners willingly cultivate a new style of leadership--partnership among equals." (p. 31)
Members of a collaborative may consider rotating planning meetings among different agencies to establish a sense of collective responsibility. Partners also will want to make collaborative decisions or rotate responsibility for setting the agenda for meetings, facilitating meetings, and determining and dividing up responsibilities among agencies or group members.
When group members collectively decide upon objectives and activities, they should establish clear lines of authority to facilitate implementation of agreed-upon tasks. Shared participation and responsibility help all partners develop a sense of ownership. Dryfoos (1994) recommends that partners develop a written agreement that "creates a formal structure and clarifies roles and responsibilities in great detail" (p. 150). Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993) note the details that should be included in such a formal written agreement.
