Keynote: What’s Your Collaborative Intelligence?Collaborative Intelligence?

9:15 – 10:45 am

Dale Ainsworth, PhDDale Ainsworth, PhDValley Vision

Keynote Session Sponsored By:

Collaborative Competence: How Collaborative Competence: How Does your Does your Organization Stack Organization Stack Up?Up?

The 27th Annual Rural Health Care SymposiumSymposium

February 29, 2012February 29, 2012

The California Hospital Associationp

What thehell is water?

A Short Story About CollaborationA Short Story About Collaboration

DefinitionsDefinitions

• Col-lab-o-rate [kuh-lab-uh-reyt] (verb): to work [ y ] ( )with others on a joint project.

1 ( )• 1Col-lab-or-a-tive [kuh-lab-uh-rey-tiv] (adjective): characterized or accomplished by collaboration.

• 2Collaborative (noun): a group of organizations, agencies, institutions, and/or individuals that g , , /have agreed to work together to accomplish a jointly held goal.

“Wicked Messes”“Wicked Messes”• Entangled, large-scale, intractable, and

complex societal problems and issues that have unique characteristics:&&

Big ProblemsBig Problems

have unique characteristics:

– Transcend and span known boundaries and domains (jurisdictional, (j ,functional, professional, organizational, generational)

d d k– Interdependent nature makes it difficult to disentangle root causes

Complexity makes them unyielding to– Complexity makes them unyielding to single, overly simplified efforts

– Beyond the capacity of any oneBeyond the capacity of any one agency, organization, government, or jurisdiction

BigBigBig Big Problems Problems Need Big Need Big SolutionsSolutions “No problem can be SolutionsSolutions

solved from the same level of consciousnesslevel of consciousness

that created it.”

Albert Einstein

Why is it so hard to Collaborate?Why is it so hard to Collaborate?

“ trying to build a [collaboration] is like a…trying to build a [collaboration] is like a polyglot crew of laborers constructing a

house out of misshapen fragile and costlyhouse out of misshapen, fragile, and costly lumber on a muddy hillside swept by

periodic storms ”periodic storms. Eugene Bardach, author, Getting Agencies to Work Together

“…simply agreeing to work together does not automatically ensure success.”

Barbara Gray, from The Oxford Handbook of Inter-organizational Relations

Why?Why?• Unique structures that require unique skills and

competencecompetence

• Society is built to support organizational y pp geffectiveness (not inter-organizational)– Schools seldom teach collaborative effectiveness

Over reliance on experts focusing on one topic or– Over-reliance on experts focusing on one topic or discipline

– Still hung up on the Cartesian view of reductionism

• Organizational sciences have not examined collaborationscollaborations

The “Science” of CollaborationThe “Science” of Collaboration

Elements Elements of of

StructureStructure

Shared Goals and Feedback Access to ResourcesShared Goals and Feedback Mechanisms

Access to Resources(Political, Social Capital, Economic)

The “Right” Stakeholders

Client CentrismLeadership & Administration

Function

Group Process Skills

Stakeholders Function

Group Process Skills(Functional norms, conflict resolution,

governance structures)

Information Distribution System(Supports real-time communications)

Foundation of Trust and Readiness to Act

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know.“

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeldy

Top Ten Issues that Keep Hospital CEOs Top Ten Issues that Keep Hospital CEOs Up at NightUp at NightUp at NightUp at Night

1. Financial challenges

2 H l h f i l i2. Health care reform implementation

3. Patient safety and quality

4 Governmental mandates4. Governmental mandates

5. Care for the uninsured

6. Physician-hospital relationsy p

7. Patient satisfaction

8. Technology

9. Personnel shortages

10. Creating an accountable care organization

Source: American College of Healthcare Executives, Annual CEO survey, 2011.

The Old and the NewThe Old and the New

Linear Strategy Adaptive Strategy

• Focuses on prediction based on past performance

• Assumes consistency — the

• Honors the past, but isn’t bound by it

• Assumes the future will be• Assumes consistency the future will resemble the past

• Assumes the future will be consistently inconsistent

• Goal is agility — to • Goal is stability — to

maintain stability and maximize organizational

maximize organizational performance through developing the ability tomaximize organizational

performancedeveloping the ability to integrate changes quickly and painlessly

Collaborative Competence as an Collaborative Competence as an Adaptive StrategyAdaptive StrategyAdaptive StrategyAdaptive Strategy

“The measure to which an organization can establish, maintain, and leverage productiveestablish, maintain, and leverage productive

relationships with other organizations, agencies, institutions, and community groups to attaininstitutions, and community groups to attain

mutually held goals.”

Dale Ainsworth

BuiltBuilt to Collaborateto CollaborateBuiltBuilt to Collaborateto Collaborate

“All organizations are perfectly designed to h l h !”get the results they get!”

Arthur Jones (from David Hanna’s Designing Organizations for High Performance)

HighHigh--Leverage Design ComponentsLeverage Design Components

Reward Systemsy

The manner and method in which Information

employees are both formally and informally remunerated for their

work in the

Systems

The method in which Measurement S twork in the

organization information is

distributed, and to whom, throughout and

beyond the

Systems

The methods of h i ibeyond the

organization gathering, assessing,

and disseminating organizational performance pinformation

Reward SystemsReward Systems“Th i b bl i l“There is probably no single

action management can take that will affecttake that will affect

credibility more than making sure that the

organization’s strategies, policies, and pay, as well as

informal rewards andinformal rewards and signals, are in conformity

with each other.”with each other.

Richard Beckhard & Wendy Pritchard, h hChanging the Essence

Assessing Reward Systems to Assessing Reward Systems to Produce CollaborationProduce CollaborationProduce CollaborationProduce Collaboration

• Do job descriptions include an expectationDo job descriptions include an expectation that individuals expend time and effort to collaborate both internally and externally?collaborate both internally and externally?

D i d i i• Do compensation and incentive systems include financial rewards for individuals

f ll i i i i ll b isuccessfully participating in collaborative efforts both internally and externally?

Information Information SystemsSystemsSystemsSystems

“Information is the oxygen of the modernoxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped bythe walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrifiedacross the electrified borders.”

Ronald Regan

Assessing Information Systems to Assessing Information Systems to Support CollaborationSupport CollaborationSupport Collaboration Support Collaboration

• Is information collected and cataloged at theIs information collected and cataloged at the “collaborative level”?

• Do individuals within the organization have d i f i d dready access to information needed to

support collaborative efforts?

• www.healthylivingmap.comy g p

Developing Collaborative Measurement Developing Collaborative Measurement SystemsSystemsyy

Point-of-Vi

Degree of Effectiveness

AlbView Tucson, AZ Akron, OHAlbuquerque,

NMProvidence, RI

Client &Family

Low Low Moderate High

Case ModeratelyL Hi h

Moderately Managers

yHigh

Low Highy

Low

Source: Provan, K. G., & Milward, H. B. (1995). A preliminary theory of interorganizational network effectiveness: A comparative study of four community mental health systems. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40:1, 1-33.

Assessing Measurement Systems Assessing Measurement Systems to Support Collaborationto Support Collaborationto Support Collaborationto Support Collaboration

• Do community level metrics exist that extend beyond organizational boundaries?

• Are there agreed upon goals and objectives that can only be attained through collaborative y gefforts?

f h h ll b f h• If so, are there metrics that allow members of the collaboration to assess progress toward these goals and objectives?goals and objectives?

Tolerance for DiversityTolerance for Diversity

"Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival "virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.

René Dubos(1901-1982)

French-born American Microbiologist, Environmentalist, HumanistHumanist

Overwhelmed by Diversity

Toward greater effectivenessiv

enes

s Toward greater effectivenessup

Eff

ect

Gro

u

Diversity of Group Members

Assessing Tolerance for Diversity Assessing Tolerance for Diversity Withi th O i tiWithi th O i tiWithin the OrganizationWithin the Organization

• How diverse is the organization along multipleHow diverse is the organization along multiple dimensions, including, but not limited to?

Race/ethnicity

Generational

Gender

IdeologyIdeology

Economic status

OtherOther

ConclusionConclusion

“Change before you have to ”Change before you have to.Jack Welch

“The only way to make sense out ofThe only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it,

and join the dance ”and join the dance.Alan Watts

Thank you

Dale Ainsworth, PhDValley Vision (916) 325-1630d l i th@ ll i idale.ainsworth@valleyvision.org