Post on 01-Apr-2015
Making Collaboration Work
Paul ‘t Hart
Australian National University/ANZSOGUtrecht University/Netherlands School of Government
Collaborative Public Management: Arenas
At the ‘front line’: wrapping services around clients
Within executive government: ‘joining up’ departmental silos/baronies
Between sectors: getting more out of public-private interface
Across jurisdictional borders: matching scale of ‘solutions’ to ‘problems’
Government-citizens interface: from ‘consultation’ to ‘empowerment’
Collaborative Public Management: An Emergent Ideology?
“Holistic” (as opposed to fragmented)
“Partnership” (as opposed to hierarchy)
“Engagement”/”Consultation” (as opposed to ‘we know best’)
“Relational” (as opposed to job-driven)
“Transformative” (as opposed to transactional)
Collaborative Public Management: An Idea Whose Time Has Come (Again)?
-Network society scholars/enthusiasts: From ‘government’ to ‘governance’
-Wicked problem sectors: ‘There is No Alternative’
-Non-profit grass roots and peaks: A cry for a ‘New Deal’
-Collaborative Federalism enthusiasts: Moving ‘beyond COAG’
Example: Compacts
Bilateral relational agreements between govt and not-for-profit sectors
Have no statutory or legal force
Intended to codify the values, expectations and behavioural/procedural norms expected to prevail between signatories
Focus on the characteristics of the relationship between the parties rather than on discrete transactions
Source: Butcher, 2010
A wave of ‘Compacts’
ACT NSW NT QLD
Social Compact (2004)
Working Together (2006)
Common Cause (2004/05)
Q’land Compact (2008)
SA TAS VIC WA
Stronger Together (2008)
Tasmania Together (2006)
Partnership Agreement/ MOU 2002-2012
Partnership Forum (2010)
Collaboration:Rationales
Acknowledging one another: empowerment(e.g. offsetting principal-agent perversities of contract-driven approaches;
participatory policy-making)
Overcoming fragmentation: pooling resources(e.g. complex case management; emergency response/recovery; one-stop
shops for citizens)
Addressing complex/’wicked’ problems: forging innovation
(e.g. area development/regeneration strategies; cross-sectoral challenges)
What collaboration does not (necessarily) mean:
Doing things (more) efficiently
‘Everybody wins’, all of the time
Governing as a ‘love-in’
A panacea for all dilemmas and conflicts
Collaboration: A Public Service Paradigm Shift
‘Genuine collaboration… requires public servants who, with eyes wide open, can exert the qualities of leadership necessary to forsake the simplicity of control for the complexity of influence… [T]hey need to operate outside the traditionally narrow framework of
government, which they have for so long worked within’
Peter Shergold (2008: 21):
Making collaboration work: StrategiesSeduce stakeholders: Forge a sense of interdependence among all actors involved
Keeping talking: Orchestrate intensive and sustained communication between participants
De-politicize processes: Create ‘off-line’ venues with new interaction rules
Develop shared understandings: Align expectations what partnership is for and what constitutes success
Build relationships: Don’t be in a hurry, be prepared to earn trust, expect setbacks
Maintain momentum: Invest in joint administrative support systems
Perverting collaboration
Going through the motionsConsultation/engagement/partnership as ritual
Boxing it in from the outsetRestricting mandate, terms, duration etc.
Playing small-p politics in the processLeaking, blaming, ducking
Breaking commitmentsCreating ‘surprises’
Under-investing in continuityImpeding capacity-building
Organizing for Collaboration:Implications
For political and public service leadershipPrivileging superordinate goals/identitiesResisting the tyranny of the short termSharing responsibility and risk
For institutional design of policy/deliveryInstitutionalizing meaningful interfacesBalancing horizontal (siloed, internal) with vertical (integral, networked) funding and accountability incentives
For developing ‘in-between’ competenciesSelection/rotation (taking longevity seriously)Boundary spanning skills (‘brokers’, ‘diplomats’, ‘interpreters’)Process management skills (as distinct from project management)