This report examines the preconditions for systems change in a place. It unpicks the critical behaviours and vision that makes system change more likely, more deliverable and more sustainable. In doing so it addresses a critical gap in the thinking and practice of system change – the need to systematically build readiness to work towards outcomes in more collaborative ways.
‘Behaving Like a System’ is more than a tag line. It is a critical part of delivering more effective services to support people facing multiple and complex needs. The following pages show why this is the case drawing on a period of deep collaboration between Collaborate, the City of Coventry and the Lankelly Chase Foundation. The conclusion is that without understanding and getting the system preconditions right, transformation in public services cannot achieve lasting and fundamental change citizens
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Read the report to find out more about:
- Nine preconditions for systems change (focusing on vision and behaviours)
- What these preconditions look like to people when they do (and don’t) exist
- Ways in which places might use these preconditions to support place-based system change
These preconditions, now identified, are starting to act as a convening narrative; enabling people and organisations in a place to have an honest conversation about what really needs to be done together to enable individuals to flourish within a system of services. Developing this approach across service areas and into the granular challenges of delivery could not be more critical at a time of acute spending cuts and sustained social demand.
Table of Contents
| Overview | |
| Place-based systems change: Introducing Coventry | |
| Getting an understanding of the culture of a place to inform our understanding of system change | |
| An approach to system change: Six things that are important | |
| Introducing our pre-conditions for systems change: A focus on vision and behaviours | |
| Nine pre-conditions for systems change: | |
| – Beneficiary impact over organisational focus | |
| – Citizen-centred: from concept to delivery | |
| – Issues are acknowledged as systemic | |
| – Grounded in place but open to new approaches | |
| – Trusted partners: understand and adapt to each other’s values | |
| – Strengths based: utilising the assets of people and place | |
| – Distributed leadership: enabling, convening, fluid, no egos | |
| – Resilient & risk embracing: safe to fail, able to bounce back and learn | |
| – Able to let go: act as a platform for innovation | |
| What could the preconditions mean for an individual facing complex needs | |
| How do these preconditions come together in Coventry – three case studies | |
| – ‘Case study 1: Homelessness and housing’ | |
| – ‘Case study 2: Troubled families’ | |
| – ‘Case study 3: Ignite’ as the three | |
| From pre-conditions to conditions – from vision to delivery | |
| How might a place use these pre-conditions? | |
| Appendix 1: Steering Group members | |
| Appendix 2: List of interviewees and focus groups | |
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