Assessing Alternatives

The next phase of the development of a community health promotion project is to research, design, and present a prioritized list of viable intervention alternatives to a group of key decision makers so they have the necessary information to approve a plan to take the project to the next step. The designated project leader should hold an initial meeting to foster effective communication and lay out ground rules to avoid silo thinking. The goals to be accomplished in this meeting should include the following:

Educate the team in a systems-thinking approach, including definitions and identification of system elements.
Create guidelines for collaborative norms to establish trust among team members.
Identify the criteria needed to reach agreement.
Based on the final recommendation, create an agenda for the term of the project.
Your task in this assignment is to identify viable alternatives, provide criteria for the selection process, prioritize feasible solution interventions, and offer a “best of breed” recommendation that clearly meets the goals and outcomes of the project stakeholders.

Note: It may be helpful to assume that your audience is a planning group. You will need to incorporate what you learned about typical values and expectations of planning-group members into your development of selection and prioritization criteria.

Instructions

Part One
Create a 5–7 page Assessing Alternatives—Leader Guidelines document that could be used by you to lead a working meeting that accomplishes the following:

Demonstrates strategies to integrate the knowledge and skills of the stakeholders participating in the meeting.
Presents viable alternatives (supported by relevant sources) for consideration by the group.
Provides criteria (based on best practices from the literature) for the selection process.
Describes the consensus-building structure for arriving at feasible solution interventions.
In the closing section of your document, imagine that your group has arrived at a recommendation that clearly meets the goals and outcomes of the stakeholders in the project (the organizations and community members).

Provide a summary of the analysis and results based on the alternatives you presented.
Describe the implications and recommendations for next steps.
You will need to demonstrate how you would apply best practices in formulation, organization, and operation of a community health planning group and process.

Part Two
Create a brief (5–7 slides) PowerPoint slide deck to present your meeting agenda and guide the flow of your meeting. Remember: it is a visual aid, not an educational presentation.