The Danish Ministry of Education and other ministries are using a new method to achieve reforms in the public sector. They are using partnerships to achieve reforms.
There are some major challenges when the time comes to implement reforms. Ministries, regions and municipalities, if they actively make use of partnerships, are able to generate commitment and activate new stakeholders as partners, which can mean improved opportunities for the achievement of satisfactory end results.
1) Reforms present challenges when the time comes for them to be implemented
Once an Act of Parliament has been passed and a government has put a new project on the agenda, the really difficult job begins. How do you translate the good intentions underlying the reform into practice? At the Danish Ministry of Education, implementation of the reform of Danish state schools is in full swing. The Danish Ministry of Employment is focused on the new Employment Reform. Mindlab is helping out in both ministries. The Danish Agency for Digitisation is working on the next digitisation strategy for the joint public sector. In the Ministry of the Environment, the Minister has just published an ambitious strategy all about ”Denmark without waste II”. Reforms do not implement themselves. Nothing happens either if the minister just issues orders. Reforms require support, commitment and the building of new relationships if they are to succeed.
2) One method that is currently very widespread is to create and guide partnerships in order to achieve full implementation
Politicians and officials who are active in the reform have to generate enthusiasm and commitment if reforms are to be recognisable in everyday practice. And in many cases, they are. The Danish Ministry of Education has been working on the ”New Nordic school” initiative. They have also established a ”Partnership for the Danish State School System”. During the implementation of the reform of state schools, a number of new stakeholders have been established. It is not just a question of the Ministry, the Agency for Modernisation and Local Government Denmark facing off against the Danish teacher’s Association. The stakeholders who are being given new roles are pupils, parents and those in charge of schools. At the same time, new stakeholder groupings, such as sports clubs, NGOs and companies are being given important roles. Mærsk stands out among companies by having donated a billion Danish crowns towards implementation of the state school reform. It requires that both existing and new stakeholders alike will have shared responsibility for the progress of these reforms. At the Ministry of the Environment, the Minister wants to engage companies and NGOs in new waste strategies by using partnerships as an means to get things done. The Danish Agency for Digitisation is currently reaching out to businesses and citizens to get them actively on board with the digitisation reform and to already make a contribution to the shaping of the future of the strategy for digitisation.
3) The management of partnerships requires active and focused management
An active and focused effort on the part of management is frequently the key to well-functioning partnerships. We have already mentioned the new commitments by various ministries. Another example is the Wholemeal Partnership, which works towards better health by getting the people of Demark to eat more whole grains. Wholemeal partnerships unite groups such as the Danish Veterinary and Food Agency and NGOs like the Danish Heart Association and the Danish Cancer Society with companies which produce and sell bread in order to achieve a result. And the results speak for themselves. Quantity and consumption of wholegrain products have increased. Public health is improving. The management of Wholemeal partnerships are actively working and focusing on creating commitment and support for the work of the Wholemeal partnership. Seen in the broader perspective, research in the implementation of reforms also indicates that active and focused leadership in the form of partnerships is something that gets results. Patashnik, an American researcher, has shown in studies that if it is possible to create new stakeholders, who form new relationships among themselves, there a completely new situation will arise. A new constellation of stakeholders will appear. Alford & O’Flynn, two researchers from Melbourne in Australia, have examined the competencies that active partnership management requires of public leaders. Another American, Ed De Seve, was in charge of the implemention of the multi-billion dollar U.S. economic stimulus package during Obama’s first presidency, which he achieved with the use of controlled partnerships (or networks). Management has a role to play in the active, focused, leadership of the partnership. The efforts of DeSeves and others also generated visible results, which we can see today. The U.S. economy is creating jobs and in a state of growth.
There are bound to be people who say that politicians simply steamroller their reforms through. There will also be people who are unable to see the results of these attempts to guide and implement reforms through partnerships. To those people, I would say that this article mentions some of the most significant and complex areas for reforms, namely the state school system, employment and digitisation. If you are going to achieve sustainable results, co-operation is an absolute condition in cases like these.
The results of reforms are not achieved through conflict and barriers, but through new working relationships and constellations. Reform results require that leaders constantly thinking in terms of how they can establish, develop and maintain partnership relationships in such a way that partners are committed to reforms.
