You can be too inclusive. You can be too exclusive.

    During the early days of the Stark County Family Council, a retreat for all the System Executives was held. This retreat, while highly publicized was very exclusive and targeted for those System Executives. On the day of the retreat, the Executives showed up ready to talk and get some business done. A program supervisor from one of the systems also showed up. She hadn't been invited but had heard about the meeting. The facilitator asked her what she was doing there. She said she thought she had valuable input. The facilitator agreed but questioned the retreat was the best place to give it. The facilitator finally asked, "how would your Executive Director like it if mid-managers from other systems were here when we are trying to get commitments on an Executive to Executive level?" The program supervisor agreed to leave.

    Several years later, a visitor came to Stark County to see the Family Council in operation. They happened to arrive on the day of a Board of Trustees meeting. The meeting, which occurred in a large room consisted of a fairly typical board set-up with chairs around a set of u-shaped tables. Twenty five people came in and took their seats at the tables. Fifty others came and sat in the audience. The Board did their business and took a fifteen minute break. The rest of the morning was spent with the fifty people networking and sharing was happening in their systems and communities. When the visitor asked what was going on and who was the Family Council she heard two answers. The first was from one of the Executives who said, "We realized that we couldn't do this all by ourselves and we needed to include others." The second was from one of the audience members who said, "You have to understand. The Family Council is more than just the Board and what they do. We all are part of this mission and have a role to play."

A common question which is asked by visitors to Stark County is "How did you initially get everyone together?" The answer in Stark County is "we didn't." As they began to build their infrastructure it was very apparent that the same level of commitment did not exist across every system. Some of the system partners didn't see the potential of an integrated approach and others were so focused on their own system activities that they didn't feel they had time for collaborative efforts. One of the unique elements of Stark County is that they have produced a meaningful and enduring infrastructure which continues to grow and adapt as the environment changes. One of the reasons that infrastructure has become so adaptive is that System Executives have a clear role and stake in developing a management culture which is relevant to families and communities. This is in contrast to some collaborative efforts where System level Executives meet infrequently to decide who they will delegate the task of collaborating to others within each of their systems. This is not true in Stark County.

In Stark County the role of System Executives is clearly delineated at a policy level and decisions made at that level are held accountable by constituents (Appendix T). System Executives sit on a Family Council Board of Trustees which makes public decisions about Family Council business. In the early days of development, leaders in this county understood that they needed to develop an arena in which System Executives could come together to discuss management and system development issues. They strategically thought about which executive level needed to be represented in order build a common framework for responsible public management. Initially, the group was exclusive rather than inclusive. It included only those executive level representatives who could make policy and funding decisions on the spot. Other constituents were not included during this initial development for several reasons. These included:

  1. A need for System Executives to have a safe place to share their concerns around public sector management.
  2. A need to keep the group small enough so that work could get done and commitments could be made.
  3. A need to establish a tradition that this type of collaboration and infrastructure building was too important to pass down to the next level.
  4. A need to develop a holistic view of all systems which impact children and families.

This exclusive approach was controversial in the early days of Stark County development. Individuals who were not included at that early table could and often did feel left out or threatened about what the Executive level might decide. Despite the initial discomfort, this initial core group was a key ingredient to developing the commitment of top level executives which has kept them at the table over the last ten years.

After the initial development time Beth How Long? of getting to know each other and each other's systems, Executives began to realize that they needed to move from an exclusive approach. At this point, trust across Executives had been built, and it became clear that they couldn't accomplish a change agenda by themselves. System Executives developed an intentional process to include other community members and system stakeholders. The mechanisms to build this inclusive agenda included:

  1. Developing a membership with a role in Family Council business. Anyone who shares the values as established by the System Executives can be a member of the Family Council. To that end, members are encouraged to attend Executive level Board of Trustees meetings. Additionally, seats at the Executive level for members at large are filled from this membership.

  2. Developing an inclusive family participation component. In Stark County this started as an family advisory board and eventually moved to six parent members on the Executive level board of trustees as well as the creation of FACES, a not-for-profit parent organization operating in the county.

  3. Building cross system structures at many levels within the county system. These range from the Mid-Manager ACCORD level which collaboratively manages out of home care treatment based resources to the Creative Community Options process which affects the direct service level.

Stark County system members agree that early intensive involvement of top level executives is necessary but must move to include others to broaden investment. Another lesson is that the Executive level can build structures which foster involvement in the overall mission and values. Building an inclusive structure at the right time is as important as making sure that a small enough group is gathered in order to commit to some action during the early stages of development.