Comments on: The Need for Collaborative Capacity

By: John Folk-Williams

John Folk-Williams — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:20:38 +0000

Thank you, Sandy -

That’s a great example. It reminds me of the examples of collaborative cases discussed in Linden’s Working Across Boundaries. A write-up of the Coalition’s experience would be very helpful, and I’d be glad to mention it here.

Thanks for your comment.

John

By: Sandy Upchurch

Sandy Upchurch — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:46:21 +0000

Very insightful article. I am on the board of directors of the Early Learning Coalition of Flagler/Volusia in Florida. The Coalition has recently banded together with several other agencies in our area to create one-stop shopping. For example if someone needs information about the food stamps program and has ended up at the Coalition, instead of turning them away to another building across town, the staff at the Coalition has the pamphlets on hand to answer the person’s question or has the phone number handy to get that info for them. No one is turned away frustrated and confused with bureaucracy. This required much collaborative work and negotiation amongst the agencies as many of these agencies are not otherwise linked to each other. A good example of the concepts of your article at work, don’t you think?

Sandy Upchurch
Mediation Counsel
Upchurch Watson White and Max Mediation Group

By: John Folk-Williams

John Folk-Williams — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:36 +0000

Thank you, Jeff -

Those are interesting questions – and I’ll be writing about them soon, as I mention in my reply to Ben Ziegler’s comment. Getting past the entrenched mindset does pose a lot of problems. If the top leadership just doesn’t get it, then it’s hard to initiate a larger shift, but it’s also possible for change to start incrementally at lower levels, working from the ground up. But at some point you have to get beyond isolated examples of effective collaborative practice, and that means solid support from top leadership. I read a fair amount in the change management literature, and most of the books and major articles mention that two-thirds of all change projects fail. There are lots of great ideas and systems/processes to effect organizational change, but actually getting the job done is a different matter. No clear pathway, I’m afraid.

On the generational shift, I’m not so sure. In my experience, it takes a while to see which traits stay with a younger generation as it matures.

Hey, Jeff, these are huge issues! How about a guest post to share your ideas on some of this? It will definitely take some crowd thinking to make progress.

John

By: John Folk-Williams

John Folk-Williams — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:28:14 +0000

Thanks, Ben -

That’s the key question – how to change organizational culture to be supportive and rewarding of practice in developing the skills. I’m gathering material on this for the next post on this subject. One area has to be the recognition-incentive system for staff. A lot depends on the criteria for performance reviews and also on the leadership style and tone set by managers.There are many ideas about changing the organizational culture that I can review, but I also wanted to follow that up with real world examples. Let me know if you run across any case studies – especially in government agencies. There are many examples of change projects in private business, but most of what I see in the public sector are the mandated changes from broad policy shifts – like reinventing government or the current gov 2.0 trend – or collaboration itself.

I’ll be trying to sketch out the range of possibilities over the next month or so.

Thanks for coming by.

John