You won’t believe what we found jumping around in the deserts of Australia…
The Authorities field in the Institute has recently started a groundbreaking collaboration with the South- Australian government in the shared governance area
During the last two years, we have been busy developing a model of shared governance for the authorities. The idea is apparently simple, assisting the authority in conducting its relationship with the inhabitants in a way that would allow human variety and richness advance the authority together. And the performance? You probably realize yourselves how difficult it is…
During the staff’s development process, we recently ran into a surprising model employed by the South-Australian government.
Better together
The governmental program Better Together was started in 2013 as a product of the reform conducted by the government in order to encourage citizens to be involved in decisions affecting their lives. The program works together with them in order to identify problems, find solutions, share ideas, expertise and wisdom, and examine new opportunities. It has laid the foundations for an effective collaboration between the government and the citizens of South-Australia.
Converting the program
We were very much impressed with the program’s website, which presented principles for the creation of shared governance together with a variety of tools and reports that allowed keeping track over the model’s implementation. We made initial contact with the program’s director, and in a long telephone conversation explored the possibilities of collaboration.
We were very impressed with the fact that behind the depth and the extensive knowledge were only fourteen staff members, and that in spite of its young age, the program had managed to achieve impressive sharing levels among the public. The program’s management had undertaken to achieve the active participation of 60,000 people a year in the various programs it operated.
In a nutshell
The project defines six apparently simple main principles for the creation of quality shared governance:
Principal 1 – we know why we participate
Principal 2 – we know with whom to share
Principal 3 – we know the history
Principal 4 – we start together
Principal 5 – we are real
Principal 6 – we are relevant and involved
Hopping forward…
Strengthened by the Australian model and the connection we established, equipped with our own long-lived experience in implementing changes into education systems and local community systems, we are now working on a digital platform which would support similar moves in Israeli authorities.
We are now looking for authorities that are interested in experiencing and implementing a shared governance perception in the various areas and challenges they are facing. Authorities – you’re invited!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT-QoM1NQbI
Tomer Gekler – community coordinator in the municipal field
