Henry Ford
Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success
Leading and managing a coalition, partnership, consortium or any other kind of organization where individuals or people representing organizations come together to coordinate efforts and achieve shared goals is not easy. And, it’s not a one-time task – it is an ongoing endeavor that requires dedicated attention. Luckily, for comprehensive cancer control coalitions, there’s a guide to help: The Nine Habits of Successful Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalitions
Developed by Strategic Health Concepts for the Comprehensive Cancer Control National Partnership, through support from the American Cancer Society, this 2nd edition of the guide incorporates updated concepts and new examples to illustrate nine healthy habits of coalitions that are essentially ways of doing business that can lead to a better functioning coalition. The Nine Habits are:
1. Empowering Leadership – Effective leaders empowering members to make decisions
2. Share Decision Making – Decisions are made with input from members
3. Value-Added Collaboration – Members forge alliances and work on efforts that might not happen otherwise
4. Dedicated Staff – Dedicated support, such as staff with specific roles and responsibilities assist the coalition’s efforts
5. Diversified Resources – Diversified resources create wider support of the coalition’s efforts, allowing the coalition to remain viable if one source of support disappears
6. Effective Communication – Coalition communication is consistent, purposeful and timely
7. Clear Roles and Accountability – Members understand their roles and the mission of the coalition, and feel accountable
8. Flexible Structure – Coalition structure is flexible and facilitates implementation of the cancer plan
9. Setting and Implementing Priorities – The coalition chooses priorities from the cancer plan for implementation and creates written action plans to guide partner efforts
Using the Nine Habits is easy. You can:
- Use the Nine Habit assessment questions to find out how you are doing as a coalition – answer the questions with your leadership group, within a workgroup, or with the full coalition during your next meeting
- Once you find out which habits you need to improve upon, focus in on the “make it a habit” suggestions in the guide for ideas about how to put the habit into practice
- Look at the examples from other coalitions about what they have done to be successful
- Download the adaptable tools to get started
What habits have you used in your partnership or coalition work?
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For more information or questions about the Nine Habits, contact Strategic Health Concepts:
Leslie Given leslie@shconcepts.com
Karin Hohman karin@shconcepts.com
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