twyfords collaborative governance pathway; when business as usual is never likely to get you there...

Twyfords Collaborative Governance Pathway

1st August, 2014

A new way for leaders and the ‘community of interest’ to do business together on complex planning processes and

“wicked problems”

Typical ‘Complex’ Scenarios• No agreement on the scope of the plan• Lots of uncertainty, disagreement around the data• No clear solution • Many perspectives and ways to look at the issues• Political leaders are very anxious• ‘Competing futures’• Values and ethical considerations important• No clear path forward

“No one entity alone – no individual government (local, state, or national), corporation, or NGO – can address the sustainability issues we face. No one has sufficient resources. No one has sufficient understanding. And no one has sufficient credibility and authority to connect the larger networks of people and organisations that real change must engage.”

Peter Senge – The Necessary Revolution

Collaboration moves beyond shared agreements to become a process of shared creation – the groups should create an understanding that didn’t exist previously and couldn’t be arrived at individually. Something is new that wasn’t there before, including transformation among the collaborators.

Zorich, Diane, Günter Waibel, and Ricky Erway: 2008. ‘Beyond the Silos of the LAMs: Collaboration Among Libraries, Archives and Museums (PDF)’

"In these adaptive cases (ie complex situations), reaching an effective solution required learning by the stakeholders involved in the problem, who must then change their own behaviour in order to create a solution."

Collective Impact- Stanford Social Innovation Review

John Kania & Mark Kramer, 2011

Conventional Collaborative… deciding what can be influenced by the community and what can’t

… determining the scope of the collaboration collectively

… assessing risks that certain interest groups pose to our plan

… identifying who has an interest in this plan so we can invite their contribution

… providing reasonable opportunities for people to provide feedback or input

… co-designing how we will work with the ‘community of interest’ on this challenge

… trying to obtain feedback on the merit of various options we are considering … co-creating possible solutions together

… considering feedback provided by the community & possibly making changes

… deliberating over possible solutions taking into account agreed criteria

Catherine Howe, @curiousc, via Twitter, 31st July, 2014

Complex multidisciplinary working

Unlock collective wisdom

Develop shared values

No one person has the truth

We will all have to walk away from the arrogance of professional

knowledge and embrace humility in trying to shape a constantly

changing reality

Collaboration

Reverse logic

Stakeholders support implementation

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Stakeholders co-develop the strategy or plan

Stakeholders agree how they will work together

Stakeholders co-define what they want to achieve

Sponsors believes collaboration is the way to go

Stakeholders understand each other’s perspectives

Collaborative Governance

Practical tools for the process

• A decision-maker commitment

statement• A Complexitometer

• Appreciative stakeholder mapping tool

• Dilemma definition tool

• Governance arrangements

• Collaboration design template

• Processes for dialogue and deliberation

Implementation template with roles and responsibilities

Iterative nature of Collaborative Governance

Commitment to Collaboration

Co-define

Co-design

Co-create

Co-deliver

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“Leaders do not need to know all the answers. They do need to ask the right questions!”

Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie 1996 ‘The Work of Leadership’

Implications for leaders