How can process monitoring support transformative change?

The key to success in complex multi-stakeholder collaboration is regular reflection among key actors about achieved results as well as about the quality of the collaboration patterns, as this has a direct effect on results. Establishing a learning culture needs to be developed right from the start. The purpose of process monitoring is to keep track of the quality of the process architecture and key success factors.

Process Monitoring

  • Is a commitment to progress and helps to check if the collaboration is leading towards the expected outcome.
  • Reviews the quality of process architectures and gives indications where and how to improve.
  • Cultivates a learning culture that makes the collaboration ecosystem agile and resilient.
  • Helps all key actors involved understand the condition of success for high quality collaboration.

Process-monitoring is best done in the form of a collective assessment based on the collaboration catalysts as success factors for Collaboration Ecosystems that can deliver.

While process monitoring can start early in a collaboration (in Phase 1 phase 2) it is best done when the transformative change envisaged has yielded the first results in phase 3.

The collaboration catalysts

  1. Show the fundamental connection between the quality of the collaborative process and the quality of the outcomes.
  2. Capture success factors which indicate how well the Compass dimensions have been enacted in a collaboration ecosystem.
  3. Guide stakeholders in maintaining or improving process architectures that enhance tangible outcomes.
  4. Help improve process architectures that lead to ownership and commitment
  5. Entourage the observation of both rational and intuitive aspects that influence progress and outcomes of collaboration.

Process Monitoring with the Collaboration Catalysts

Process-monitoring is best done in the form of an individual or collective assessment based on the collaboration catalysts as success factors for Collaboration Ecosystems that can deliver.

While process monitoring can start early in a collaboration (in Phase 1 phase 2) it is best done when the transformative change envisaged has yielded the first results in PHASE 3.

How can you implement process monitoring with the collaboration catalysts?

  • Introduce process monitoring in the Container (core Group) once the collaboration ecosystem has been build and is beginning to deliver in PHASE 3.
  • You can run the assessment individually by each member of the Container and then combine the results.
  • Alternatively you use the online tool as a conversational session and go through the assessment together while discussing the ranking for each of the statements.
  • You can introduce the process monitoring tool to a wider group of stakeholders as a basis of a reflective dialogue on progress in PHASE 3. Make sure stakeholders have familiarized themselves with the tool and the Collaboration Catalysts. Always use the results as an invitation to a reflective conversation, not a judgement.
  • Although process monitoring is best done as a collective assessment in PHASE 3, you may want to use it early on in your collaboration process in PHASE 1 with the Container (core group) to keep regularly track of success factors right from the start. Naturally, not all factors will score high in the beginning, but paying attention to them helps in designing high quality processes.
Go to process monitoring application

The Collaboration Catalysts

The Collaboration Catalysts are indicators for the quality of process architectures in multi-stakeholder collaboration.

  • They reflect the collaboration ecosystem’s aliveness that emerges in a complex and dynamic balance between emergent processes and consciously designed process architectures.
  • They correspond directly to the dimensions of the Collective Leadership Compass, and indicate how the Compass comes to life during the collaboration process.
  • They are a lens through which the core group or conveners can look at the quality of the collaboration process and review process architectures.
  • They influence each other and become leverage points for the improvement of process quality and, subsequently, leverage points for the positive effect that the collaboration will have.

Co-Designed Strategy

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Co-designed Strategy belongs to the Compass dimension of FUTURE POSSIBILITIES. It means ensuring that over time all relevant stakeholders drive strategy and implementation as a functional collaboration ecosystem. It is enhanced by goal clarity, inclusivity and accountability.

Goal Clarity

What can you do to enhance GOAL CLARITY ?

  • Co-develop and regularly revive emotionally compelling goals.
  • Agree on objectives, but anchor them in their contribution to a larger goal that all stakeholders can identify with.
  • Ensure a joint diagnose of current situation together with relevant stakeholders.
  • Co-develop the future vision and the theory of change.
  • Jointly develop agreements on impact chain and milestones.
  • Obtain high-level sponsorship for the emotionally compelling goal.

INCLUSIVITY

What can you do to enhance INCLUSIVITY ?

  • Conduct a thorough stakeholder analysis.
  • Start small with a good container (core group), but gradually involve more stakeholders.
  • Strengthen weaker partners with advocacy and capacity building.
  • Ensure inclusive decision-making.
  • Establish inclusive and representative steering or governance structures.
  • Introduce appropriate support structures such as project secretariat and working groups.

ACCOUNTABILITY

What can you do to enhance ACCOUNTABILITY ?

  • Define clear roles and responsibilities.
  • Jointly agree on implementation plans with milestones.
  • Agree on reporting procedures.
  • Jointly agreed on result and process monitoring.
  • Establish regular joint progress reviews.
  • Be as much as possible transparent about resource allocations and financial flows.
  • Create adequate legal structures where necessary.

Understanding the Collaboration
Catalyst: CO-DESIGNED STRATEGY

Multi-stakeholder collaboration taps into people's desire to collectively shape the future. The development of vision and strategies is a multi-layered process that begins with a core group, but eventually needs to include all relevant stakeholders.

Cooperative Delivery

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Cooperative Delivery belongs to the Compass dimension of ENGAGEMENT. It means ensuring ownership and result-orientation of the collaboration ecosystem through well organized engagement of stakeholders. It is enhanced by quality engagement management, network building and result-orientation.

ENGAGEMENT MANAGEMENT

What can you do to enhance ENGAGEMENT MANAGEMENT ?

  • Build step-by-step engagement of core partners and relevant stakeholders.
  • Ensure reliability of planning and implementation processes.
  • Foster relationships.
  • Build high quality process architectures.
  • Cultivate space for meaningful conversations.
  • Ensure transparent decision-making.
  • Obtain backbone support (project secretariats) for coordination of process and events.

NETWORK BUILDING

What can you do to enhance NETWORK BUILDING ?

  • Foster and regularly revive stakeholders' identification with the collaboration ecosystem.
  • Create topic-related and action-oriented networks between key stakeholders.
  • Foster the network of actors with transparent communication on progress.
  • Foster and maintain high level political and institutional support;
  • Support actors to communicate the purpose of the collaboration initiative to their institutions.

RESULT ORIENTATION

What can you do to enhance RESULT ORIENTATION ?

  • Ensure achievable milestones in joint implementation plans.
  • Orient process architectures towards tangible results and early wins.
  • Attend to joint or complementary implementation.
  • Ensure sufficient resource allocation.
  • Establish and maintain a well-functioning, mandated and stable cross-partner core group (container).
  • Combine progress reporting with mutual learning.

Understanding the Collaboration
Catalyst: COOPERATIVE DELIVERY

Multi-stakeholder initiatives need to build cohesive collaboration systems around issues of common concern. Clarity on process planning, strategic alignment of all partners, and professional process management provide the basic level of certainty that people require to stay engaged.

Adaptive Innovation

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Adaptive Innovation belongs to the Compass dimension of INNOVATION. . It means ensuring novel pathways of the collaboration ecosystem through co-creation of transformation prototypes and attention to emergent opportunities and concerns. It is enhanced by creative prototyping, knowledge management and planning flexibility.

CREATIVE PROTOTYPING

What can you do to enhance CREATIVE PROTOTYPING ?

  • Look for existing innovative approaches.
  • Create space for exchange about and co-design of new approaches.
  • If challenges arise, let stakeholders participate in solution finding.
  • Organize exposure to different world-views and experiences (visits, study trips, exchange, experts).
  • Design learning and innovation into process architectures.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

What can you do to enhance KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ?

  • Benchmark experiences and expertise.
  • Integrate high quality technical and content expertise.
  • Ensure a continuous update of state-of the art content knowledge.
  • Integrate capacity building for collaboration literacy into process architectures.
  • Keep all stakeholders informed on new developments, learnings and innovations.

PLANNING FLEXIBILITY

What can you do to enhance PLANNING FLEXIBILITY ?

  • Build regular collective reflection and joint progress reviews into process architecture.
  • Keep plans flexible and agree on ways to jointly adapt project strategy.
  • Attend to emergent opportunities.
  • View crises and conflicts as opportunities to strengthen the approach and the collaboration ecosystem.
  • Establishment complaint mechanisms.

Understanding the Collaboration
Catalyst: ADAPTIVE INNOVATION

Multi-stakeholder collaboration fosters the human longing for new pathways and innovative solutions to existing challenges. Providing state-of-the-art knowledge, content expertise, and creative learning exchanges become the fertile ground for prototyping new approaches.

COLLECTIVE VALUE

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Collective Value belongs to the Compass dimension of HUMANITY. . t means ensuring that the transformative change process creates value for all stakeholders in the collaboration ecosystem. It is enhanced by appreciative approaches, balancing power and mutual understanding.

APPRECIATIVE APPROACHES

What can you do to enhance APPRECIATIVE APPROACHES ?

  • Acknowledge the different interests of individuals and institutions.
  • See all stakeholders as people who can make a difference for a transformed future.
  • Respect individual or organizational constraints.
  • Acknowledge the contribution of weaker partners.

BALANCING POWER

What can you do to enhance BALANCING POWER ?

  • Stay aware of power differences.
  • Ensure in process architectures that voices of weaker stakeholders get heard.
  • If need be, organize or support advocacy for weaker stakeholders.
  • Build capacity for weaker stakeholders to join the collaboration.
  • Ensure value creation for all stakeholders.

MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING

What can you do to enhance MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING ?

  • Make the effort to understand the operational logic of participating stakeholder institutions.
  • Build into process architectures space for mutual learning about participating stakeholders institutional cultures.
  • Help stakeholders to acknowledge cultural differences.
  • Build into process architectures the exposure to world-views, living condition and constraints of different stakeholder groups.

Understanding the Collaboration
Catalyst: COLLECTIVE VALUE

Multi-stakeholder initiatives are built on people's growing sense of responsibility for the future and a common purpose that transcends vested interests. To keep people engaged, process designs must enable actors to converse about their interests and power differences.

Dialogic Communication

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Dialogic Communication belongs to the Compass dimension of COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE.. It means ensuring communication architectures that acknowledge diversity and create cohesion in the collaboration ecosystem. It is enhanced by structured dialogue, governance and collective learning.

STRUCTURED DIALOGUE

What can you do to enhance STRUCTURED DIALOGUE ?

  • Ensure events in process architectures are designed for consensus-building and joint purpose formation.
  • Cultivate listening and integrating different perspectives.
  • Establish transparent and regular communication mechanisms.
  • Make sure dialogue is the core approach to agreements, implementation reviews and conflict resolution.
  • Agree on rules for external communication among all relevant stakeholders.

GOVERNANCE

What can you do to enhance GOVERNANCE ?

  • Establish transparent decision-making structures.
  • Create collaborative and representative governance structures (phase 3).
  • Ensure the utilization of complementary knowledge, competencies and resources.
  • For complex collaboration initiatives establish multi-level governance mechanisms.
  • Transparently inform stakeholders about plans, decisions and progress.

COLLECTIVE LEARNING

What can you do to enhance COLLECTIVE LEARNING ?

  • Create process architectures that include joint review of progress, roles, purpose and procedures.
  • Regularly review strategies and theories of change with key stakeholders.
  • Regularly conduct process monitoring together with key stakeholders.
  • Ensure that process architectures include events for mutual learning and exchange.

Understanding the Collaboration
Catalyst: DIALOGIC COMMUNICATION

Multi-stakeholder initiatives build new human interaction systems across the boundaries of societal sectors and institutions. Trust develops through structured dialogue and progress is not built on persuading others to follow a predefined goal, but rather the willingness to negotiate pathways into the future.

CONTEXTUAL IMPACT

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Contextual Impact belongs to the Compass dimension of WHOLENESS.. It means ensuring the relevance for and the embeddedness of the collaboration ecosystem in larger transformations. It is enhanced by context relevance, capacity building and impact focus.

CONTEXT RELEVANCE

What can you do to enhance CONTEXT RELEVANCE ?

  • Regularly update the understanding of the context.
  • Look out for similar and relevant other initiatives.
  • Bring change initiatives at multiple levels into one coherent approach (top-down and bottom-up or local/national/international)
  • Build learning and communication between levels of interventions into process architectures.
  • Create meta-collaboration with other initiatives.

CAPACITY BUILDING

What can you do to enhance CAPACITY BUILDING ?

  • Understand the different capacities of stakeholders and their institutions.
  • Build content-specific as well as collaboration capacity building into process architectures.
  • Support stakeholders to anchor the collaboration initiative into their respective institutions.
  • Utilize the strength and expertise of stakeholder institutions for complementary implementation.

IMPACT FOCUS

What can you do to enhance IMPACT FOCUS ?

  • Regularly adjust and adapt the theory of change.
  • Focus on mutual benefits and take a long-term perspective.
  • Integrate the updated understanding of the context into regular joint strategy reviews.
  • Ensure results and impact monitoring (end of phase 3).
  • Keep the contribution to larger emotionally compelling goal high on the agenda.
  • Jointly agree on scaling-up strategies (phase 4).

Understanding the Collaboration
Catalyst: CONTEXTUAL IMPACT

Multi-stakeholder initiatives focus on tangible outcomes as well as the wider impact. Appropriate context management, continues capacity development, and regularly reviewed contextual contributions to a larger system of transformation are key to success.

Open Your Compass and navigate complex change by leading collectively

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