Networks, national, local and digital
The system’s objectives are delivered by networks
Well managed bureaucracies are of vital importance in delivering services efficiently and at high quality but these services are for linear or non-complex challenges, for example the delivery of the home care service or the delivery of the a replacement service. Population ageing is a complex or non-linear challenge that requires a different organisational type – the network . This has been called the network century, in part facilitated by the internet but also as a result of an understanding that bureaucracies no matter how organised, regulated or inspected, are not the right type of organisation for complex challenges. The award of the Nobel Prize for Economics to Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom highlighted the need to move from the century of the bureaucracy to the century of the network and the system.
The principal aims of each network are to:
This means that there will be a core group of individuals, perhaps ten or fifteen who will each be spending a day or two a week working to develop the collaborative culture that is required and different patterns of service, coordination and delivery that result from variations in local history and geography.
It is helpful for one organisation to volunteer to take responsibility not for funding the network but for its organisation. This would mean that someone not necessarily a chief officer but, for example, a deputy director of public health or a Community Services manager would chair the meetings with the network core set of individuals and be responsible for managing the person called the reticulant.
It is useful to have a website, floating beside the bureaucratic websites and not seeking to give the appearance of being at a higher level.The website www.livelongerbetterinherts.co.uk is an example of a population using a website to ‘float alongside’ the organisations which are members as described in a key source on network thinking , The Knowledge Creating Company,
“A business organisation should have a nonhierarchical, self-organizing structure working in tandem with its hierarchical formal structure …the most appropriate name is the ‘hypertext’ organisation”
Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi
The knowledge creating company
OUP 1995
Well managed bureaucracies are of vital importance in delivering services efficiently and at high quality but these services are for linear or non-complex challenges, for example the delivery of the home care service or the delivery of the a replacement service. Population ageing is a complex or non-linear challenge that requires a different organisational type – the network . This has been called the network century, in part facilitated by the internet but also as a result of an understanding that bureaucracies no matter how organised, regulated or inspected, are not the right type of organisation for complex challenges. The award of the Nobel Prize for Economics to Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom highlighted the need to move from the century of the bureaucracy to the century of the network and the system.
The principal aims of each network are to:
- deliver the objectives of the system and to
- provide the leadership required to change the culture
This means that there will be a core group of individuals, perhaps ten or fifteen who will each be spending a day or two a week working to develop the collaborative culture that is required and different patterns of service, coordination and delivery that result from variations in local history and geography.
It is helpful for one organisation to volunteer to take responsibility not for funding the network but for its organisation. This would mean that someone not necessarily a chief officer but, for example, a deputy director of public health or a Community Services manager would chair the meetings with the network core set of individuals and be responsible for managing the person called the reticulant.
It is useful to have a website, floating beside the bureaucratic websites and not seeking to give the appearance of being at a higher level.The website www.livelongerbetterinherts.co.uk is an example of a population using a website to ‘float alongside’ the organisations which are members as described in a key source on network thinking , The Knowledge Creating Company,
“A business organisation should have a nonhierarchical, self-organizing structure working in tandem with its hierarchical formal structure …the most appropriate name is the ‘hypertext’ organisation”
Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi
The knowledge creating company
OUP 1995