Shared Outcomes Discussion Guide

Discussing Shared Outcomes

The following discussion or workshop facilitation guide covers a sample agenda for a meeting of individuals and organizations — including housing, education and other civic leaders — coming together across sectors to address housing and education challenges. Objectives for a discussion using this guide can include the following:

Understanding the housing and education landscapes in a given community or area of focus.
Understanding attendees’ perspectives on the community’s priorities, gaps and opportunities.
Informing ways to build stronger cross-sector relationships through shared outcomes.

It is important to tailor a discussion guide to your particular community and goals. Although this guide is intended for an approximately hour-long conversation with one or two stakeholders in an interview format, the guide can be shortened easily or adjusted based on the size of the group or the familiarity of participants with the discussion material.

Depending on the format of the discussion, a variety of roles can be needed to ensure a successful discussion, particularly when adapting these discussion questions to a workshop format. In an interview format, it is helpful to have one person serve as the note taker while another person serves as the discussion facilitator. The roles to consider for a workshop format include the following:

Presenter: Introduces topics, provides an overview of materials
Facilitator: Guides conversation and activities, makes suggestions or contributions when needed, engages participants
Note Taker: Captures notes from discussions or activities for the purposes of later review
Recorder: Writes notes from discussions or activities on poster paper, whiteboard or other readable format so that participants can see ideas in real time

Take Action

We encourage you to make this script your own. To edit the sample questions below, click the edit icon (look for the pencil) in the orange header above any section. Then click “edit” or “remove” on any row. You can add questions by typing into the blank rows at the bottom.

When you are finished updating the script, be sure to download, print, or share your guide directly with your colleagues and partners to continue the conversation.

Shared Outcomes Discussion Guide

Introduction - 5 minutes

[rkworkbook:guide-sectiontitle-0] - [rkworkbook:guide-sectiontime-0]

[rkworkbook:guide-intro]

Information About Interviewee(s) or Workshop Participant(s) - 5 minutes

[rkworkbook:guide-sectiontitle-1] - [rkworkbook:guide-sectiontime-1]

Solicit the following information from each respondent:

Name, title and organization/affiliation
[rkworkbook:guide-q1-1]
Role at [organization name]
[rkworkbook:guide-q1-2]
Length of involvement with the organization
[rkworkbook:guide-q1-3]
[rkworkbook:guide-q1-3a]

Organization Overview and Vision - 10 minutes

[rkworkbook:guide-sectiontitle-2] - [rkworkbook:guide-sectiontime-2]

Can you describe your organization’s overall mission (or mandate) and intended goals/outcomes?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-1]

Who are the primary beneficiaries of the organization’s services? At what scale?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-2]
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-2a]

Does [organization name] focus on economic mobility/mobility from poverty? If so, how do you define that?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-3]

What would your community look like if this vision was realized?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-4]
What would need to be different or change in your community to achieve this vision?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-5]
What current efforts in your community are helping make progress toward that vision?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-6]
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-6a]

What are the primary ways that [organization name] works toward your mission?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-7]
What programs, services or initiatives are core to your work?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-9]

What are your organization’s current priorities?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-10]
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-10a]

How does [organization name] typically go about making decisions to create or modify programs/services?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-11]

Have any changes been made to your programs/services in the past two years? If yes, what were those changes, and why were they made?
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-12]
[rkworkbook:guide-q2-12a]

Data Collection and Tracking Within the Organization - 15 minutes

[rkworkbook:guide-sectiontitle-3] - [rkworkbook:guide-sectiontime-3]

Does [organization name] have a way of measuring its success? If yes, how does it do so, and how does that vary across programs?
[rkworkbook:guide-q3-1]

How were these measures of success developed/set (i.e., funder requirements, strategic planning process, alignment with regional/city initiatives, etc.)?
[rkworkbook:guide-q3-2]
[rkworkbook:guide-q3-2a]

Do you collect data to track and measure your success?
[rkworkbook:guide-q3-3]

What methods or systems are used to collect data or measure success?
[rkworkbook:guide-q3-4]
[rkworkbook:guide-q3-4a]

[rkworkbook:guide-q3-5a]

Partnerships - 30 minutes

[rkworkbook:guide-sectiontitle-4] - [rkworkbook:guide-sectiontime-4]

Local Challenges

What challenges or community needs is your organization working to address that would benefit from greater alignment with the [housing/education] sector?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-1]
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-1a]

Local Partnerships

Who are your partners?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-2]
Has [organization name] ever partnered or worked with the [housing/education] sector on a program or initiative?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-3]
If yes, what was the nature of the partnership? What were you hoping to achieve? What was [organization name]’s role in the partnership?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-4]

Describe the collaboration. Were there key stakeholders who needed to buy into the new partnership? If so, who were they, and why was their buy-in important? How did you obtain their buy-in?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-5]
How was the program/initiative funded? Did the partnership involve shared fundraising?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-6]
Did the partnership include any target measures of success or shared data collection/measurement activities to assess performance?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-7]
To what extent did the project meet expectations? What worked well? What were the main challenges? How were they addressed?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-8]
Can you share any documents that describe this partnership/program? Can you share some of the lessons learned or data collected along the way?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-9]
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-9a]

If no, is your organization interested in partnering with the [housing/education] sector on an initiative/project?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-10]

If yes, what types of initiatives/projects would you want to collaborate around? Why?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-11]
Who would need to be involved/brought in for this type of partnership?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-12]
If no, why would you not be interested? What obstacles or challenges do you anticipate?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-13]
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-13a]

[rkworkbook:guide-q4-13b]

Closing Out the Discussion

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
[rkworkbook:guide-q4-14]

[rkworkbook:guide-q4-15a]

All done? Click here to Download your guide as PDF

Better yet, send your discussion guide directly to a colleague or partner! You can write a message here:

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Take Action

Getting ready to facilitate a shared outcomes discussion? Looking for further support? Enterprise can help!

Contact:

Anne Griffith or Alexa Rosenberg