USFWS/NCTC Managing By Network

Learn how the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, state agencies, private landowners, educational institutions and community organizations came together to connect area youth to their heritage with Jeremiah Martinez, Supervisory Natural Resource Specialist, Recreation, Conejos Peak Ranger District, CO, USFS.

Explore an evaluators insights into Wicked Problems and the Theory of Change with Matthew Birnbaum, Ph.D., Instructor, Partnership and Community Collaboration Academy. Lean how to apply these evaluation concepts to the goals and objectives of conservation partnerships.

Review how logic models are used as evaluation planning, implementation, and assessment tools for conservation with Matthew Birnbaum, Ph.D., Instructor, Partnership and Community Collaboration Academy.

Learn more about the methodology of evaluation and the importance of validity, usefulness, feasibility and distribution. Discover what criteria to use in rating an evaluation plan with Matthew Birnbaum, Ph.D., Instructor, Partnership and Community Collaboration Academy.

Practical Tips with Matthew Birnbaum, Ph.D., Instructor, Partnership and Community Collaboration Academy, provides useful insights on evaluation capacity building through internal and/or third-party evaluation expertise.

The Ladder of Inference helps us recognize how our perceptions and assumptions can affect our beliefs and actions. It reminds us to pause and check in, make our assumptions explicit, and take the time to explore everyone else's. The Ladder of Inference is an example of cognitive bias and was developed by organizational psychologist Chris Argyris and used by Pete Senge in his book, The Fifth Discipline. Learn more with Susan Goodwin, Collaboration and Conflict Management Specialist, DOI Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution.

Competing community interests related to water access, use, and conservation sets the stage for the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Plan. Discover the practices used to support stakeholder collaboration. Learn more about how water law, hydrology, drought of record, threatened and endangered species and stakeholder analysis provided a context for community discussion with Kevin Connally, Fish and Wildlife Biologist, Washington State Office, USFWS.

Facilitation has been called "a state of mind and a set of skills." When you step into the role of facilitator, your primary focus shifts from the "what" to the "how" as you take on some new responsibilities for group's communication. Explore the role, responsibilities, and practices found in a facilitator's toolkit with Anne Desmarais, Assistant Director, Partnership and Community Collaboration Academy.

An Action Agenda provides a visual script to get your players across the stage in achieving the goals of collaboration. Understand how to translate individual task and time commitments into an overall budget and cost-benefit analysis of a collaborative undertaking using an Action Agenda Matrix with Cate Bradley, MLA, Ph.D., Landscape Architect, RTCA, NPS.

Mapping the decision-making space early in the formation of a collaborative helps manage expectations, define roles, and inform the scope and scale of community collaboration. Learn more about how to define the decision-making space of a collaborative enterprise with Joy Lujan, Community Planner, RTCA, NPS.

A stakeholder analysis identifies the individuals and organizations that can impact or be impacted by the goals, objectives, and strategies of a collaborative project. Learn more about the frameworks of stakeholder identification with Joy Lujan, Community Planner, RTCA, NPS.

Obstacles to effective collaboration sometimes show up before we even begin to work together. Those obstacles are often based on our implicit, sometimes unconscious assumptions, and biases. Learn how to use observation, active listening, understanding, and compassion to break through those barriers with Joy Lujan, Community Planner, RTCA, NPS.

Learn about the use and management of FACA committees and their role in advising federal agencies and/or the President. Consider if your community collaboration outreach meets FACA criteria. Explore four alternatives to FACA management for community engagement with Karen Simms, Assistant Field Manager, Gila District, Tuscon FIeld Office, BLM.

Explore the process and practices associated with federal partnership agreements and how to build an internal network of support. Learn about how to align federal practices with the decision-makers of partners with Liz Madison, Director, Partnership and Community Collaboration Academy.

Private foundations contribute to the public good through their time, talent and treasure. But what exactly is a foundation, and how can a government agency work with them? Explore the organizational cultures of foundations with Anne Desmarais, Assistant Director, Partnership and Community Collaboration Academy.