PRINCIPLES OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE AND HEALTH DEVELOPMENT (Alma ata 1978)
4.2 Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)
4.2.5 Soft System Methodology, Phase Five Compare systems models with problem situation
4.2.5 Soft System Methodology, Phase Five
• Commit men t - people dont buy in to the goals
• Translation - people don t know what they individually need to do to help the organisation or team achieve its goals
• Enabling - people don t have the proper structure, systems or freedom to do their job well, or they do not think they have; the barriers to greatness have not been identified
• Synergy - people don't get along or work together well, and
• Accountability - people don't regularly hold each other accountable
EXECUTION GAPS INDUSTRIAL AGE CAUSE KNOWLEDGE WORKER AGE SOLUTION
Clarity Announcing Identification
and/or involvement
Commitment Selling Whole person in a whole job
Translation Job description Aligning goals for results
Enabling Carrot A stick (people as an
expense)
Aligning structures and culture
Synergy "Cooperate" 3rd Alternative communication Accountability Sandwich technique
Performance appraisal
Frequent, Open, Mutual Accountability
Boundaries and environment:
At the outset of my research I assumed that The Valley Trust and its governance meant the same thing to all the role players. I t has since emerged that there are a variety of 'Valley Trusts', or, more precisely, a variety of perceptions of The Valley Trust, i.e., the perception held by the partners, the Board, the staff and also the consultants. The Practice Development process that is currently underway is a process which seeks clarity to enable integration in the organisation, the intention being that the workshop outcomes will be threefold, and I quote from the April 2005 workshop report:
• "You will be able to name your practice
• A team will be built - coherence as a group
• Some capacity building will take place"
( I t should be noted that the Board of Trustees are not part of this process but are invited to be part of the annual strategic planning exercise, which is facilitated
by the same external facilitator). Below are concerns listed by senior staff at the start of this process, facilitated by an external facilitator, in April 2005:
Our Culture
• Does TVT really want a common practice - enough to invest themselves in it?
• The overriding "habit" is always to get the job done efficiently and effectively.
How do we ensure that processes we learn here will become habits?
• How do we move away from jargon and move towards a real genuine practice?
• What ought to be the boundaries of TVT practice?
• When confronted in our practice with needs that lie outside these boundaries, how should we act?
• How do we manage our human resources effectively?
Coherence ... commonality with diversity
• How can we seek to understand the values, ethics and purpose of different disciplines in the organization?
• How can we achieve teamwork as an organization?
• Interests - How do we develop a common practice that will impact on the organisation s paradigm?
• How does my department's practice fit in the organisation's practice while we chase after money?
• How do we become one system and see ourselves as such without losing the richness of our diversity?
• How does one close the gap between individual creativity, initiative and common practice? Individual freedom of expression and organizational practice.
• To work as a team requires stepping out of our "boxes". How do we ensure and sustain this?
Reality tests
• Is our practice sustainable in current, rapidly changing times?
• bo we "walk our talk?" If not, how do we address this?
• How do we get individuals in the organization to understand their role in contributing towards the financial sustainability of the organization?
What kind of organisation is TVT?
Davine providedinput on the types of organizations that exist and the characteristics of each:
Type Examples Characteristics/Values
Service bank, hairdresser, plumber reliability, transparency
Product CocaCola, Ford quality, price, value
Professional legal firm, some
development organisations
"provides a unique response to a unique situation"
The question was posed to the group - What kind of organization is TVT? What drives the culture of TVT?
Responses:
• Professional, with some services and products
• We strive for the professional side but have to ask to what extent we are doing it?
• Professional - and TVT provides highly specialized services and products both internally and externally
• At one stage TVT was heavily service orientated but we are moving away from that towards being more a professional organization. This is part of our transformation.
The orientation of TVT is towards being a professional organization: "creating processes that enable people to realize their own potential".
bavine pointed out that the product of a professional organization is its practitioners. A professional organization produces professional people. Hence, professional people
(practitioners) develop a professional practice.
bavine further suggested that there are different kinds of approaches to professional practice
Directive
approach Developmental
approach
Facilitative approach
Which approach does TVT aim to express?
Participants were invited to gather in 3s to buzz on the discussions and input and respond to the following questions:
What do you think about this?
What kind of organization are you?
What kind of practice do you want to develop?
Some of the following comments/issues were made:
• We spoke a lot about being a pendulum. Management has moved positions quite a lot but there is a move towards being a professional organization.
• Like the idea of being developmental but what about sustainability. Are there examples out there that we can learn from?
• Observation - very few people in the organization are taking responsibility for improving their knowledge and skills and finding out what is happening in TVT.
We have to acknowledge that as development practitioners there is a need to upgrade skills. We as TVT have to constantly check where people are, what is the knowledge and skills base. People within TVT are more service oriented and this can shift.
• There needs to be a will and commitment to change.
• The value of having a really competent facilitator to work with people is extremely important - the importance of professionalising.
• We have a performance appraisal document that may have to be tweaked a little.
• We felt that this input has brought about a lot of clarity and we feel very inspired.
This process has highlighted a range of f a c t o r s , those d i r e c t l y associated with practice development, but also a number of items relating t o teamwork and t h e relationship of departments t o t h e organisation as a whole; these f a c t o r s indicate confusion and a messy variety of perspectives within The Valley Trust system (indicative of t h e 'swamp' described on page 2) t h a t hampers t h e 'shared vision', and impacts on t h e governance of t h e organisation.
Feedback: Communication and decision making
"Much is usually revealed about an organisation's effectiveness in communication and decision making by looking at its budgeting and financial reporting procedures"
Luckett (2001: 531). I find this an interesting observation. At The Valley Trust we report on these items in great detail at regular and agreed intervals. Comments that have been made indicate that at Trustee level, they would prefer less time spent on this and more time on what is actually happening in the programmes.
So in relating the above to the aspects of Governance in terms of Fairness, Accountability, Transparency and Responsibility, it can be seen that there are some significant gaps to be addressed.
4.2.6 Soft Systems Methodology, Phase Six