Leadership and Collaboration

Welcome

26th November

Today’s Panel

Bill GrimseyGrimsey Review

Matt ColledgeIntoplaces

Margaret DaleHolmfirth

Cathy Parker

1

Place leadership, partnership and collaboration

Professor Cathy Parker

Institute of Place Management

inspirational local leaders, working in collaboration with all sections of their community have put a buzz back into their town centreThe High Street Report 2018: Timpson

Belper Crickhowell

Yarm Hitchin

“a source of energy and capacity to bring about and manage change, spread across various groups in a particular location”

Place leadership

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/767529/High_Street_2030-Achieving_Change.pdf

(it) transcends from the actions of individual leaders, organisations or sectors to a series of more collaborative movements, in other words, partnerships. The partnerships focus on the actual work of ‘doing’ leadership, rather than sticking to an outdated, top-down hierarchical structure that just administrates place.

Place leadership

Coordination

Transfo

rmatio

nC

risi

s

RESTRUCTURE REPOSITION REBRAND REINVENT

Leadership + Governance

New and refreshed

partnerships

Collaborative Vision

Data and evidence

Placefulness

Constant dialogue

Multifunctional hubs

Innovate, activate, don’t

give up!

What is blocking transformation?

Place leadership not widely understood

Real capacity gap in local authorities

Lack of effective partnerships

Very few visions, most lack evidence

Little real engagement by community and businesses

Bill Grimsey (no slides presented)

2

Matt Colledge

3

Matt ColledgeHSTF Board Member &Director at Intoplaces

EFFECTIVE VISION

3Key Elements

Must convey where the town is going

2

Bespoke to that town3

People make places –

Have a shared vision for change

1

STRONG PARTNERSHIP

BreadthInvolve all aspects

of a towns ecosystem

DepthEmpower local place leaders to make change

happen

Margaret Dale

4

Leadership in the community

Working with

• local people

• local authorities

Who is the leader?

• The loudest

voice?

• The facilitator?

Leadership and powerAll leaders need to be accepted and legitimate

• Community leaders are often issue focused and devote their available time and energy to that issue

(e.g. scouts or opposing a particular development)

• How to lift their focus on to broader issues?

• How to keep their interest and involvement once issue has faded?

Different types of leadership - which is more appropriate for community leaders?

• Structural from position in an organisation

• Charismatic leader – god given right – born to lead

• Moral - speaking on a social problem

• Expert - has knowledge to contribute

• Personal - a trusted person

Leadership

• Can be claimed

• Should be earned – by being trustworthy and trusted

• Needs work – need to be consistent and reliable and credible

• Use power and influence with caution

What do community leaders need

• Support and networks

• Time and some skills

• Resilience and energy

• Access to information

• Abilities

• Spot opportunities

• Keep people informed

• Take people with them

Who is the leader of the community

There are loads of leaders:

• Different types of leadership

• Different interests

• Different amounts of commitment

• Different amounts of time available

• Different skills and expertise

• Different roles

The real skill of a community leader is their ability to draw in

others and present a common voice

All councils are bureaucracies

This term just applies to a particular organisational form.

All have to keep recordsand have rules andformal structures.

Have choices about how they work.

Difference with LA is the two roles:

Councillors

Officers

Councillors

• Role comprehension - get stuck in the minutiae, stuff brought up by their electorate

• Role confusion – mix up their role with officers or campaigners?

• Quality of relationship with officers

• Intellectual abilities and ability to grasp the meta goals

• Need to be re-elected so there is a tendency to look after their own ward (even if they have a portfolio)

• Political imperatives and party politics

• Ego and abuse of power

Officers

• Not many people wake up thinking I am going to do a bad job today and get up the nose of a community leader

• Difference between senior and front line staff (focus changes somewhere)

• Professional arrogance – I know best or I have to keep these people at arms length; they might know more than me

• Role comprehension – expert or advisor, jobs worth or enabler

• Relationship with councillors

• Pressure and competing priorities

• Skill, stress, resources to do the job

Bureaucratic obstacles

• Need to keep records – formal systems take time

• Need to follow the rules

• Need to find the person in the hierarchy who can

make a decision

• Ultra vires – can’t do what we don’t have

permission to do

• Limited resources

• Different priorities – what are the priorities?

How can a community leader get the best from the local

authority?

• Understand the pressures and the system

• Work with the flow and seek to influence –

more effective than campaigning against

an issue

• Try to find common ground and solutions to

shared problems

• Identify areas where there can be joint wins

How can a local authority get the best from the

community leaders?

• Trust them – they can help!

• Involve them

• Work with them to head off problems

• Keep them informed

• Listen to them

• Give them the recognition of having

been heard

Question responses

https://www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk

@HighStreetsTF