Effective Partnership with Your Organizational Peers

Wednesday, April 6, 2016, 9 a.m. - Noon

Hosted at North Park University, Chicago, IL

Half-Day Workshop: $90

Thank you for your interest. Registration for this workshop is now closed.

About this Session:

Collaboration, alliance and partnership are buzzwords, but as you may have discovered the hard way, building and maintaining multi-organization partnerships can be challenging. There are lessons to be learned from successful collaborations that can guide leaders who are deciding whether and how to partner with others. This workshop will analyze various types of partnerships, examples of successful collaborations, and key considerations and approaches for establishing effective alliances. Participants will explore what options might work best for their organization. 

Who Should Participate: Executive directors, upper management and program staff

About the Presenters: Tom Lenz is a senior consultant at Millennia Consulting LLC. He has worked for over 35 years in neighborhood development, public policy, and community organizing. His background includes community consultation and planning, leadership development, facilitation, strategic planning, and program/policy development. In his work with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the nation’s oldest and largest network of broad-based community organizations, he worked with religious congregations, unions, and nonprofit organizations to build internal leadership capacity and shape successful campaigns in health care expansion, education reform, and affordable housing. He provided training and mentoring to staff and leaders of the Berlin-based German Institute for Community Organizing as Checkpoint Charlie Foundation’s Alinsky Fellow from 2000 to 2013. He developed and co-taught “Community Organizing for Missional Living” with Seabury Western Theological Seminary and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Tom has a master’s degree in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor’s in American studies from the University of Notre Dame.

Mirja Hanson is a senior consultant at Millennia Consulting LLC. She has served as a facilitator, consultant and trainer for 40 years. She specializes in participatory decision-making and facilitating inter-organizational collaborations to address systemic issues affecting multiple stakeholders. Major projects include Timber-Harvesting Stakeholder Roundtable, U.S. House of Representatives, Blandin Foundation, 25 state agencies including the Governor’s Cabinet, United Nations Sustainable Development Program and Habitat for Humanity. She has facilitated town meetings in over 100 municipalities in the U.S.

Mirja authored numerous publications including “Clues to Achieving Consensus: A Leader’s Guide to Collaborative Problem-solving." She teaches in the Community Leadership Program for Editors and Publishers and the Law Enforcement and Education Leadership graduate programs at the University of Saint Thomas in Minnesota. She is a founding member/past chair of the International Association of Facilitators. Prior to private practice, Mirja was a senior consultant with the State of Minnesota and the Institute of Cultural Affairs, an international community development nongovernmental organization with its U.S. office in Chicago. Mirja has a Doctorate in Education from the University of Saint Thomas, an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a BA degree from Minnesota Metropolitan State University.