Coalitions

Have you ever been in a coalition where you were not sure why you were there or what you were going to do? Have you been in a coalition that was clearly focused and seemed to be functioning smoothly? Coalitions, like other groups (think Tuckman’s stages of group development) have stages of development. And the […]

In the public health world, the word “coalition” is pretty common. When I try to describe my work to others, I often get confused looks and questions about what I mean by “coalition.” Without realizing it, many of us may be involved in coalitions but we don’t necessarily call them  “coalitions.” If you have ever

When we are in the position of doing it all and are always the one to answer the questions, solve the problems or handle the decisions, we rarely have an opportunity to take a break and rejuvenate. When we don’t delegate or take a break, we are well positioned for a continual place of overwhelm.

Over the past several weeks, we have been diving into delegation and one of the biggest reasons that we try to do it all ourselves is because we have had experiences when delegation did not work. We tried to delegate and it did not go well so we gave it up and decided it would

When it comes to delegating, one of the hardest parts is figuring out where to begin. When you are overwhelmed and juggling a thousand different things, how do you choose which one to share first? Do you start with the easiest? Or the one that is keeping you up at night? As I am practicing

In our coalition work, there are a ton of big and little details involved in building partnerships, developing plans, reporting on progress, maintaining progress. From meeting planning (which has at least 25 tasks in itself) to prioritizing, strategizing, implementing and evaluation, there is a lot. And if you have been doing this work for a

Similar to new year’s resolutions, beginning the year with an ideal week can be an energizing, exciting and expectation-filled process. We block time to focus, develop boundaries on work and non-work activities and are excited to implement this new method of managing our time. Then, we hit the third or fourth week of January –

One of my favorite practices every new year is to reflect on my schedule and redefine my “ideal week.” I consider the areas that worked well and the areas that did not. I reflect on my meeting vs. focus time cadence and consider what may need to change to live in rhythm more than a

The beauty of our coalition work is that we get to work with people. The people we work with are partners, colleagues and often become dear friends. We learn from them, we learn about them and we treasure the gift of them in our lives. Our partners, colleagues and friends make the coalition work less

In our coalition and team work, we can get caught up doing things that need to be done without considering whether we need to be the one doing them or not. We may have a meeting or a project with a long list of tasks and a short list of people to do them. Although