Good practice in action seminars  

OCVS hosts these interactive seminars to promote the sharing of information and good practice to strengthen relationships with the community and voluntary sector.

Good Practice in Action seminars help government agencies learn from one another. They are about information sharing, results-based learning, and acquiring knowledge and expertise built on the good practice of others.

Each full-day seminar includes a keynote presentation followed by a discussion with government agencies that have achieved success in some aspect of managing their relationship with community and voluntary organisations. Output from the seminars is provided below, and selected content is then incorporated into the 'good practice' websites.

Watch for details of future seminars for 2009/10 soon - including some in locations outside Wellington. 
Invitations will be extended for government agencies to attend with their community partners or key stakeholders.

Seminar 11 ~ 29 May 2009: Collaboration and Complex Adaptive Systems

This seminar featured a case study from Jim Olson, Director, Strategy and Capability Analysis, Ministry of Defence, which provided a very different and challenging way of looking at planning for complex relationships - dimensions such as non-adaptive vs. adaptive; simple vs. complex; and predictable vs. chaotic.

Interventions in complex and adaptive social systems represent some of the most common problems of social policy. Complex adaptive systems often manifest unexpected behaviours and it’s good to be able to study them before committing to a real-life intervention. Policy advisors always need to be clear about their intervention logic – that is, the reasons why they believe that certain interventions will result in certain (desired) outcomes and not other (undesired) outcomes. Developing intervention logic always involves applying some form of “thought model” of how the world behaves. This presentation challenged the way we traditionally think by discussing the kinds of models that are appropriate to different circumstances. It was followed by a discussion about the use of agent-based simulation as one tool for providing insights to complex and adaptive social systems.

Seminar 10 ~ 6 March 2009: The trusting relationship and accountability

The State Services Commission  presentation covered what is being done to strengthen trust and reinforce the spirit of service in the public sector.  NZAID presented on how they responded rapidly and decisively to implement organisation-wide change after their procurement and contracting processes were rated as “poor and needing significant improvement” in an audit. 

Seminar 9 - 28 November 2008: Innovation through relationship building

Encouraging innovation through relationship building was the focus of presentations on the Better Connected Services for Kiwis project and the Ministry of Social Development’s SKIP programme.

• Strategies with Kids, Information for Parents (SKIP),
  Gael Surgenor & Lorraine Tarrant
  This Narrative as Evidence presentation illustrated goverment working with delivery systems to learn from, and add value to, work already happening in the community. Participants heard how SKIP created space for collaboration and innovation by:
  • investing in the capabilities of community organisation partners
  • developing the delivery programmes in partnership supporting community organisations to try a variety of ways to get to the same goal
  • encouraging reflection and learning.
    » Learn about SKIP – Strategies with Kids, Information for Parents       
• Better connected services for Kiwis,
  Derek Gill & Elizabeth Eppel - Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University
  Participants heard about how ordinary New Zealanders in the public sector worked collaboratively and achieved some extraordinary results in seemingly commonsense, everyday ways. Joined-up government is not about throwing out everyting we currently know and do. Its about adding new ways of working to the repertoire so that better outcomes for Kiwis can be achieved more often and in a wider range of circumstances.
  » Read more about the Better Connected Services for Kiwis project

Discussion during the day focused on the continuum of working with others – from co-existence, to communication, co-operation, co-ordination and collaboration.  Emphasis was placed on the fact that collaboration is not always the best option – and that there are perfectly legitimate times when basic communication or co-ordination are what is needed.  This is usually the case where there is agreement about what needs to be done and there are clear boundaries of responsibility.   Seminar participants recognised the demands of collaboration, the need to create space for venting, thinking, scoping what to do and the challenges of sustaining any collaboration long term through successes and failures, and personnel changes.

» Read the Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship

Seminar 8: 19 September 2008

Featured case studies:

• The Ministry of Health Drinking-Water Assistance programme “bringing water to remote communities, an exercise in innovation”
• SPARC’s research on finding and keeping volunteers: “they all do it for different reasons”.

Seminar 7: 'Outcomes and the community-government relationship: building the public policy framework' - 16 March 2007

This seminar featured Mark Lyons, (Adjunct Professor of Social Economy in the School of Management at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia) and explored:

• an international perspective on relationships between the state and third sector
• the need for a whole-of-government approach to implementing the Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community Government Relationship
• the need to develop robust theoretical frameworks for the community relationship
• how to build a strong platform for government agency engagement in a June 2007 cross-sectoral forum with government
  (see www.ocvs.govt.nz/publications/community-government-forum.html )

Seminar 6: 'Strengthening the Government-Volunteering Interface' – 24 November 2006

Volunteers play a vital role in contributing to social development, the economy and the environment. The Government Policy on Volunteering acknowledges the importance of volunteers, and highlights government’s expectations of state sector agencies in relation to their policy development, service delivery and interactions with volunteering.

At this seminar, participants heard about and discussed why volunteers are important to government agencies and how they contribute to achieving government and community goals.

Seminar 5: 'Managing Risk and Accountability' – 25 August 2006

This seminar examined the principles involved in the good management of public resources. Case studies explored issues of accountability, transparency, risk management, equity and fairness, while acknowledging Government’s expectations of relationships with the sector such as collaboration and partnership. Presentations and case studies were made by the Office for the Auditor-General, Ministry of Social Development, Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority and the State Services Commission.

Seminar 4: 'Trusted State Servants' – 12 May 2006

In this GPIA seminar, three government agencies presented their take on how and why they build trust with the community and voluntary sector. 

Keynote presentations were:

Seminar 3: Funding for results – Part 1, 11 November 2005.

The Nga Puna Wai o Hokianga pilot project: a “hands-off” approach to collaboration – Dr Michael Taylor, Senior Advisor (Environment Team), Environmental Health, Communicable Disease and Environment Health Policy, Public Health Directorate, Ministry of Health; Jeff Foote, Senior Systems Scientist, ESR, Christchurch; Mike Anderson and Maryanne Marino, Whirinaki Water Board.

Seminar 2: Why are we engaging with NGOs? – 24 June 2005.

“At their best, the State is very good at standardising and the community and voluntary sector is very good at customising.” That was how OCVS Senior Analyst Hugh Lawrence described the complementary roles of government and the sector. He also described conceptual frameworks that could be used to better understand and manage community-government relations.

Don Clarke, Director of Global Programmes for NZAID, said the relationship between the sector and government is simple: “It’s about human relationships, it’s about treating others as you would like to be treated yourself.”

Don outlined how NZAID developed a rationale for building trusting relationships with its non-government organisation (NGO) partners. He was supported by Peter Zwart of Caritas Aotearoa and Mike Hartfield of the Council for International Development, who presented their perspectives as organisations that receive NZAID funding.

All three presenters talked about the Strategic Policy Framework as the basis for their working relationship. The Framework can be accessed via www.goodpracticefunding.govt.nz/funding-relationships/examples/nzaid.html

Seminar 1: Building strong relationships – partnerships that work – 22 April 2005.

Keynote presentations:

These online toolkits are aimed at public servants.

• Good practice participate.
  This toolkit assists public servants to engage successfully with community, voluntary, iwi and Maori organisations when decisions are being made.
• Good practice funding.
  This toolkit provides the funding principles and processes of government agencies in New Zealand and overseas.