Collaborative Management Group

The Challenge

YRAEH has been working on three collaborative HPI-funded projects that focus on Transportation, Capacity Building, and Street Health. In the past, we have had three individual working groups each focusing on these projects as separate topics.  Because of the time commitments for three sets of meetings, it has been difficult to involve management staff directly, which left a gap in the decision-making level.

The Solution

To respond to the challenges of availability and multiple meetings for multiple causes, YRAEH has begun a new Collaborative Management Group to bring together senior management staff at a single table to integrate strategies across intersecting projects to impact change with a systems level approach. 

What does this mean?

In this new approach, key components that need to be discussed at a management level are focused on to make it easier for decision-makers to be directly engaged with fewer meetings (once a quarter for two hours).  This way, senior management staff can provide direct input and recommendations across multiple topics to impact change in York Region through an integrative, systems level approach.

What about non-senior-management staff contributions?

Non-management and middle-management staff are equally as valued in this process because there will still be topic-specific working groups formed to drive the task-oriented work to support the strategies and decisions made by the Collaborative Management Group.  There will be regular and frequent communication between the Collaborative Management Group and topic-specific groups to enable all members to contribute valuable recommendations, suggestions and contributions.  The formation of the Collaborative Management Group also takes some pressure off non-decision-making staff by directly engaging decision-makers.

In effect, YRAEH is working towards working smarter to impact real change.