March 23, 2021
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts
Many of you may have heard of the phrase, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” This saying is often in reference to a dynamic system and/or organization that has multiple parts. For KSRE, it encompasses research and the application of that research through effective extension programming. Extension, as a whole, operates in multiple program areas (Agriculture and Natural Resources, Community Vitality, 4-H Youth Development, Family and Consumer Sciences). Each program area has multiple parts (Program Focus Teams, Transdisciplinary Teams) with activities broken down into different tasks. These parts are supported by the rest of the system by content (State Specialists), evaluation (PEARS), communication (Communication Solutions Group) and organizational (Administration) functions. All these parts, and corresponding relationships, are key to how the overall systems operates.
To be successful, each part must fulfill their role and responsibilities to the development and implementation of our programs. Leadership roles (whole and parts) include our Program Leader Coordinators who have a role to assist and facilitate efforts in program development, implementation, and evaluation of extension programs as well as help with agent professional development surrounding programming. The program leaders Coordinators, who hold partial administrative appointments, include: Gayle Price, Family and Consumer Sciences and Southeast Region FCS Specialist; Trudy Rice, Community Vitality and statewide CV Specialist; and Cheryl Boyer, Agriculture and Natural Resources and Nursery Crop Production & Marketing Specialist. These three work collaboratively with Wade Weber, Department Head/4-H Youth Development and State 4-H Program Leader; plus Laurie Chandler, Associate Program Leader. Together, this five-member team works directly with the Associate Director for Extension Programs, Dr. Rick Peterson, to build our programming capacity.
Of course, this group could not do its work without all the Program Focus Teams and Transdisciplinary Teams and their leadership which includes: agents, specialists (state or regional), evaluation and communication liaisons. Each team helps identify professional development opportunities needed to move programming forward as well as create statewide action plans and signature programs. These teams work in collaboration with the Program Evaluation and Reporting System (PEARS) staff to collect data and report our outcomes for our local, regional, state and national stakeholders. The outcomes are then packaged by the Communication Solutions Group to disseminate the results of our efforts to stakeholders including our funders. All of these efforts could not function without the collaboration of the Field Operations side of KSRE which Dr. Hadley discussed in last week’s letter.
Moving forward, the goal for our system should be to create and foster a synergy (the interaction or cooperation of two or more parts/organizations to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects) around extension programming that will provide high quality educational programs which meet the needs of the people of Kansas and our mission.
Yes, when it comes to extension work, “ the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”