How to work

Nordic kick-off seminar Hege Hofstad,

Research professor NIBR-HiOA, NMBU

How to work together across

sectors?

Focus

• Frame the current situation by looking into topic trends and challenges

• Delve into co-creation and interactive leadership as a solution to these challenges

Current trends and challenges

• Transformation towards a sustainable future

• Cities are taking the lead sustainable/climate transformation

• One of the biggest challenges: how to govern and manage the green shift

• Conventional modes of governance poorly rigged for the task

• Leadership is essential for successful co-creation

• Current research: the dynamic interplay between leadership and

arenas for co-creation

High ambitions

• Copenhagen: Aims to be the first climate neutral city by 2025

• Oslo: 50% cut in Co2-emissions by 2020, 95 % in 2030 (1991-numbers)

• Helsinki: 30 % cut in Co2-emissions by 2020 (1990 level), aims to be a carbon neutral city by 2050

• Stockholm: Aims to be fossil-free in 2050

• Vancouver: 80 % cut before 2050 (2007-numbers)

• Barcelona: kutte 40 % innen 2030 (2005-tall)

Attractive Towns. Green redevelopement and

competitiveness in Nordic urban regions. Towns that provide a good life for all

Prepare a joint Nordic strategy for how towns and their surrounding areas can become more attractive through the development of vibrant and

inclusive urban environments that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. Key elements here are environment- and climate-

friendly solutions, social balance and equal opportunities for all, good social and public health services, cultural activities, vibrant town centres,

historical-cultural objects and environments, good blue-green structures, urban spaces and architecture, coordinated land use and transport

solutions and attractive job opportunities.

The nature of the challenge

Problems of a wicked character:

• Hard to define

• Hard to localize

• Hard to implement

• They are continuous

• They have no objective right solution

Based on Rittel and Webber 1973

Current trends and challenges

• Transformation towards a sustainable, low carbon future

• Cities are taking the lead sustainable/climate transformation

• One of the biggest challenges: how to govern and manage transformation

• Conventional modes of governance poorly rigged for the task

• Leadership is essential for successful co-creation

• Current research: the dynamic interplay between leadership and

arenas for co-creation

To transcend silos

Jeg måtte nesten sette tunga i dørsprekken for å få være med (rådgiver fylkeskommune).

Alle nikker, men når du går ut av rommet gjør de som de alltid har gjort (Helomplan-deltaker).

Jeg bruker ofte det bildet ut mot ansatte at jeg vil at vi skal samarbeide på en sånn måte at det ser ut som et spindelvevnett. På kryss og tvers, bortover og oppover, og krysse vedtatte grenser (leder helse og omsorgstjenesten)

Barriers

 Organisational – «silo-organisation»

 Lack of long-term and strategic perspective – lack of priority and systematisation/structure

 Insufficient resources – lack of capacity in the organisation

 The complexity of the task– what does it mean in practice?

Leadership a significant factor

Co-creation – what is it?

• Co-creation involves two or more public, private and/or civil society actors that together solve a common problem – through knowledge exchange, resources, ideas contributing to create public value

• Co-creational/interactive leadership:

 Enables arenas of collaboration, network and partnership internally and externally

 Unleashes action and resources from a broad array of actors from different sectors and levels

Co-initiating, co-implementing, co-developing

Current research

• How to create and stimulate co-creational arenas that give

direction to the city administration, business and civil society’s activities enabling them to contribute to the green shift?

• Which governance measures can support co-creation?

Hypothesis 1: Public leadership signified by a co-creation mode, as well as an ability to deploy and develop governance

mechanisms, strengthen capacity and competence for

functioning as brokers capable of convening, facilitating and

catalyzing co-creational efforts

1. Creating a co-creational mode

a) develop and communicate substantive knowledge on relevant problems, policies and the political landscapes

b) Utilize established trust-based relationships, and work to create new ones by crossing boundaries frequently and with ease.

c) develop flexibility in organizational structure, budgeting,

performance measures and use of human resources in order expand the room of maneuver for co-creation

(Weber and Khademian 2008, Head and Alford 2015

2. Knowing, strategically use, and alter available governance mechanisms

i) municipal self-governance,

ii) provisioning (by the municipality itself of services and infrastructure), iii) municipal regulation (through hierarchical steering and control),

iv) enabling (through networks, partnerships and participatory approaches), v) public-private provisioning,

vi) non-state voluntary governing, vii) community.

i-iii inside-house, iv-vii outside-house

Bulkeley 2013

Hypothesis 2:

Public leaders that assume the role as brokers enable co-creational arenas

signified by learning and

innovation

A broker assumes the roles of:

• Convenor - creates a basis for learning and innovation by consciously selecting actors with innovation assets, clarify roles, encourage

interaction, and anchoring decisions politically

• Facilitator - lowers transaction costs and friction by consciously designing and framing the process creating a culture for trustful learning and

exchange and turning tensions into constructive learning

• Catalyzator - stimulates active search for new and innovative solutions by creating new perspectives on the situation and task by constructing a

sense of urgency, preventing tunnel views, create open and creative

search processes, coordinate the implementation process and assume the role of ambassador

(Sørensen and Torfing 2013:7)

Hypothesis 3: Co-creation strengthens the city’s

ability to push forward the

green shift

Co-creation stimulating transformation

• expert knowledge of different and/or complementary kind

• situational knowledge representing different institutional locations

• the nature of the problem can be better understood

• provisional solutions to the problem can be found and agreed upon

• shared contributions, coordinated actions, and mutual

adjustments are enabled as the agreed solutions are put into practice

(Head and Alford 2015:725-726)

How to work together to create change?

• Learn – understand the challenge

• Define – describe the challenge

• Formulate – set the level of ambition, describe the desired turn of events

Give strategic direction

• Develop – interactive leadership, enhance number and quality of ideas and solutions

• Institutionalize – arenas of co-creation as part of initiation, development and implementation of new policies

• Fascilitate – stimulate diverging interests and understanding, exploit the creative potential of them and support initiatives

Co-create

• Direct measures – regulation, tender regimes, budeting, etc

• Indirect measures – building of competence, strategies and

plans, communicate expectations, influence and negotiate terms (state)

Redirect public measures

Thank you!

Hege.hofstad@nibr.hioa.no