SECOND OPINION
Common myths about other sectors The third sector
• Poorly staffed and lacking expertise • Totally reliant on grants • Unfocused and lack business skills • The voice of the person who uses support services
• Small and unsustainable • Great at low level support but not at supporting people with complex needs
• Political at a local level • Regulated in a different way
The private/independent sector
• Only interested in profit • Poorly staffed and lacking expertise • Operating outside of governance and regulation processes that drive public sector provision
• Funded by different funders • Trying to suck people in • Run by people who have no commitment or values
• Don’t understand quality services • Don’t want to work with other organisations
• Are wanting to ‘privatise’ public services
• Don’t invest in staff or community
People who use support structures and their families
• Unable to be involved in strategic discussion
• Only focus on their own needs • Slow down the work and make it too simple
• Can’t get involved in decisions about resources
• Negative and complaining • Can represent everyone in a local community
• Have a long term relationship with services
The public sector
• Full of hierarchy and meetings but nothing changes
• Wasteful and focused on professional need not consumer need
• Lacking talent management • Has no real strategy • Full of do-gooders rather than doers • Trying to assess people out • Don’t understand productivity • Don’t want to work with other organisations
• Believe they are immune to competition
• If the joint venture is between more than two organisations, double check the myths and dragons.
Networking, stakeholder manage- ment and collaboration
Jargon is one way of keeping organisational or personal power.
However, even
something as simple as the meaning of the word ‘partnership’ can lead to miscommunications from the beginning. Some leaders view networking as the key to making things happen based on mutual connection, others see that ‘collaboration has to make something happen, otherwise it is just networking’. In the development of collaborations it is important not to see the relationship as networking. The outcome has to have measurable impact that both organisations are signed up to, but you may jointly agree the stakeholders you need to manage to support your shared objectives. So, a way of differentiating these three important words is:
• Networking: a set of individual
relationships connected to paid work that enable the individual to link into other individuals who connect their work colleagues and objectives. It might lead to a collaborative approach but will certainly impact on whether it can work. People check out other people and organisations through their networks, so if your network tells someone that you or your organisation are not to be trusted, it is unlikely to happen.
• Stakeholder management: agreeing
a defined number of people needed to support the plans you have for a particular timeframe. The individuals involved are connected to you because of their job, without any personal or individual connection. When the task is achieved the stakeholders may stay involved or not. From this structured connection, some networks may develop.
• Collaboration: where two or more organisations represented through individuals agree to work together for mutual benefit. They need to agree
The pragmatic part is best summed up by recognising this way of working really is about seeing the bigger picture. It is about finding the common purpose but respecting the different requirements and non-negotiable of each sector that you can help each other achieve. What this adds up to is moving away from vertical power relationships to those that are flexible but have enough clarity to meet the need of each separate organisation. It isn’t about translation; it is about sitting inside both organisations and supporting innovation where people can create something new that helps them personally as well as the people they work for and with.
This should be exciting, about having fun and learning. However it must also be about being able to say ‘this isn’t worth it any more’. It is about taking risks but always assessing them – not about sitting with a lot of people for a lot of time with no measurable outcome.
Steph Palmerone is director of strategic initiatives for Barchester Healthcare. She is a qualified occupational therapist and worked in senior positions with the public and voluntary sector before joining Barchester Healthcare in 2007.
A longer version of this article, with references, can be found on the NHE website.
Steph Palmerone
FOR MORE INFORMATION Steph Palmerone will be talking about Barchester Healthcare’s experience of collaborative working at the NHS Confederation Annual Conference and Exhibition 2012 in Manchester from 20-22 June. W:
www.nhsconfed.org
national health executive Mar/Apr 12 | 19
stakeholders and, if the collaboration is a trusted one, begin to share networks. If the collaborating partners don’t agree on the stakeholders, the mutual benefit is unlikely to be realised and together their networks will either support and enhance the collaboration or dampen it down from the beginning.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84