TOPIC 3.4: Further skills and capacities for community strengthening initiatives
The approaches to working collaboratively suggest a number of key skills and capacities that will enable public sector managers to participate effectively in community strengthening. Below are some of the key skills and capacities, although this is in no way an exhaustive list:
| 1. Developing a community focus. | This means looking at problems, issues and potential solutions from the point of view of communities, rather than just from that of government departments and agencies. This is a key principle in systems thinking – seeking to understand all viewpoints in a complex relationship. It is about listening rather than telling, getting out there rather than sitting in offices, and engaging with people with a range of different views and perspectives. It is about understanding what works and what doesn’t, from the point of view of local communities. This requires good interpersonal skills, including effective communication and an openness to the views of others. |
| 2. Developing and using networks. | Community strengthening requires skills in developing and using networks, both within governments and outside. Within government, this means establishing networks across departmental or agency boundaries and working with people with different professional and skill backgrounds. Working with community networks involves identifying formal and informal leaders, encouraging a range of people to become involved and accepting that levels of involvement are likely to vary considerably. Network management requires proactivity, effective communication and the ability to negotiate to achieve specific outcomes. |
| 3. Using creativity in developing solutions. | Community strengthening requires the capacity to develop specific rather than ‘one size fits all’ solutions. What works in one community may or may not work in another. Public sector managers may need to move beyond precedent and procedure and look at issues anew. This may be difficult in the context of established program areas and budgets. It may require teams working across departments with local communities and at least some specific funds. Appreciative Inquiry can bring multiple intelligences, together to assist innovative thinking. |
| 4. Managing effective partnership arrangements. | Attempts at community strengthening may elicit responses ranging from cynicism to a great deal of enthusiasm. Public sector managers will need to work to clarify expectations of all parties, including on timelines, process, resources and a range of other important matters. Appreciative Inquiry is a sound process to underpin partnering arrangements. |
| 5. Focusing on outcomes. | The essence of all the approaches to community strengthening outlined above is about what works in terms of local communities, and about outcomes instead of inputs (budgets, staff) or outputs (units of service produced, number of people assisted). Public sector managers need to look broadly at outcomes for local communities, counterbalancing statistical and departmental information with the views of service providers and community members. While it is essential that performance management targets are outcome-based to support this type of approach, the participant-centred language of Appreciative Inquiry transcends cultural, sectoral and organisational boundaries. |
Required
20 mins
An increasingly popular approach to integrating these demands is “Collective Impact”. This approach proposes a model of governance and principles of relationships that have been shown to be effective in achieving change in complex social contexts. The model is explained in the reading below.
Kania, J., & Kramer, M. (2011). Collective Impact. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 9(1), 36-41.
Recommended
15 mins
Skills and Capacities in your own Agency
- List the skills and capacities that you think are required if your department or agency is to play an effective role in strengthening communities (do not restrict your answer to the examples above).
- How could these skills and capacities be developed in your unit or agency?