In addition to including a quick guide to supporting residents in multiple roles of resident engagement, the March PM magazine’s cover story, “Harnessing the Power of Community Collaborations,” gives managers these seven tools that can help make community collaborations more manageable, more responsive to community needs, and more accountable to the community for results:

1. Robust engagement of residents as partners in multiple roles.
2. Causal diagrams to diagnose the problem.
3. Evidence-based practices.
4. Strategy maps.
5. Performance measurement of drivers and outcomes.
6. Detailed action plans keyed to strategy, performance, and partners.
7. Community results compacts.

Experience from the cover story authors Lyle Wray, executive director, Capitol Region Council of Governments, Hartford, Connecticut, and Paul Epstein, Results That Matter team leader, Epstein & Fass Associates, New York, New York, show that successful change often comes from better cross-sector coordination rather than from individual organizations.

For more information on community results compacts, read the cover story on PM’s website.