Max Hardy Consulting

Results through collaboration

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It takes courage to build trust

06/12/2015 By Max Hardy Leave a Comment

You may recall from the British series ‘Yes, Minister’, Sir Humphrey would use the term ‘courageous’ as code for ‘politically stupid’ – usually having the effect of dissuading the Minister to follow his stated intentions. It provided great comedy as well as demonstrating a powerful technique of influencing someone who is risk averse. However, I think it’s time to reclaim the term couragous. We need it in bucket-loads. Without it, it might be impossible to build trust when we need it most.

One example of couragous leadership has been Sharon Starick. Sharon is the chair of the Board for Natural Resources, South Australia Murray Darling Basin. Faced with some unprecedented financial pressures, the Board decided to invite the community into their dilemma. They wanted to work out a solution with the community, not for the community. To explore how to best generate the revenue needed for the services the community most values. Sharon’s role during the deliberative process was outstanding.

Sharon and her Board could have chosen a much less couragous path. Faced with a major financial challenge, imposed upon the Board, she could have been forgiven for taking an easier path. She could have resigned in protest. Or she could have easily mobilised their community to protest and complain. Although being easier to resort to these typical responses, Sharon, along with her Board, decided on a more couragous and ultimately wiser path. She was able to articulate what the Board did have control over. At times Sharon even challenged some rather angry community members to think through the likely consequences of taking any other approach.

2015-11-08 11.49.21
Participants using small wooden cubes for participatory budgeting exercise

 

For me the most memorable moment arrived when one participant issued quite an accusation toward the end of Day 1. He stated, ‘If I presented this kind of business case to my bank manager I would be shown the door, and very quickly!’ It was met with an enthusiastic round of applause, along with some laughter. It was evident, in that very moment, many participants had not quite understood the challenge they had signed up for. I reminded participants the Board had not brought them together to sell them anything. (Communities have been accustomed to consultation being just that – an attempt to sell a solution. Not this time!)

By contrast this Board was inviting a diverse range of citizens to deliberate over a serious dilemma. They were inviting people to explore possible solutions only after spending time appreciating the challenges they collectively faced. The Board chose to work out this out with the community, not for the community.

It was heartening for the Board to receive an email after day 2 of the deliberative process. It came from the same participant who issued his challenge the previous day. It read,

‘Thanks for the opportunity on the weekend to participate in such a well run event. Your staff and the board are to be commended for the way you became more receptive and open on the Sunday. Obviously a lot of people put in a pile of work between days to have answers produced of that standard.’

Trust was built. The challenge was better understood. More was being asked of participants this time around. The Board was letting go and inviting their community in. The participants had to step up, and make the most of this opportunity. And they did!

The results of the process were impressive and I was thrilled to design and facilitate it, along with Danielle Annells. Although consensus wasn’t reached on all matters there were clear directions and insights for the Board. Importantly the members of the community appreciated this new approach taken by the Board, and also appreciated the complexity of the situation.

I reflected on other processes I have facilitated over the past 25 years or so. How easy it is for leaders to resort to their default position when a new or novel approach is taken. How many times have I heard from them, ‘Well if they are going to behave like this we won’t bother evening talking to them in future!’ Sadly, many leaders have never witnessed what it is like for the community to step up. Usually this is a result of lazy process and a poor remit or question. Regardless, it was what many leaders witness, and what they dread.

Sharon Starick demonstrated great courage, but also great wisdom in this situation. I believe it’s time we distinguish wise or genuine courage, from couragous stupidity. I reckon there would be a terrific business case for genuine courage. Especially if building trust is important!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Community Engagement, Deliberative democracy, Leadership, Trust

Beyond Slogans – How politicians can restore trust with the public.

07/10/2015 By Max Hardy 2 Comments

trust-building-big-sizeMalcolm Turnbull, in announcing his challenge to then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, said Australians ‘deserve more than slogans’. Music to my ears – but then I thought, hang on, isn’t that just another slogan?

It seems politicians are well trained to deliver repetitive, short ‘slogan-like’ messages, in the belief this will help their messages to stick. (They worked very well for Tony Abbott whilst in Opposition, not too well afterwards). Politicians are trained and coached by media and communications experts to use simple, repetitive messages. Whilst effective for landing messages; in my view they have done nothing but damage confidence in government, and our political leaders.

Of course there is more to this lack of confidence in politicians than the use of slogans. However if trust is to be restored there is a set beliefs, attitudes and patterns to be interrupted.

Here are my 8 tips then. Tips for building trust and getting beyond ‘short-term’ political behaviour.

1. Stop pretending there is unity on every issue within your party. We know you don’t. A consistent party line might sound like a great thing to do for your party, but it actually erodes trust. It makes you unbelievable. Share some of your differences openly – demonstrate some respect for each other’s opinions, and outline how you might work through those differences. You will be surprised to know how refreshing this would be for the public.

2. Stop pretending everything another party says is rubbish, and totally different to your self-professed superior position. That is also unbelievable. It just reinforces to the rest of us you are much more interested in point scoring than the issue or the policy. Therefore it does not help us to trust you. It suggests you don’t really have a well thought out position of your own. It is fundamentally lazy.

3. Be prepared to say you have changed your mind if you have a good reason to do so. It doesn’t mean you are weak. It might mean you now have better information. It will show you are also big enough to say you can be wrong; and you are open to learning. This builds trust rather than eroding it.

4. To avoid having to change your mind too often, don’t rush to a solution and put yourself in a bind. Rather, demonstrate a different kind of leadership; one where you can clearly frame what the question is you’re determined to find an answer to with the help of others.

5. Remember the wise words of Bertrand Russell, who said ‘the greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution’. Well, we need more thinkers, and we need more attention to understanding what it is we need to address before being offered simplistic solutions.

Invite us to have dialogue over questions that are worth having a conversation about. Being a great leader is more about posing a great question, then pretending you already have an answer. ‘Stop the boats’ was put forward as a strong commitment, and a solution. But what question was it actually answering?

6. Don’t be spooked by articulate and well-organised lobby groups, or shock jocks for that matter, of any persuasion. Everybody has a right to a point of view – but one of the problems is that too few participate in matters of public importance. Rather than react to what the few are saying, invite broader and more diverse participation in the conversation. The reality is that most people can figure things out in a mature, and intelligent way, given enough information and time to deliberate.

7. Don’t confuse being a strong leader, with being stubborn and rigid. It takes lots of strength, guts even, to commit to a process where collective wisdom can rise to the surface. The opposite of being strong is just doing ‘as you are told’ by those who are very opinionated, and who believe the answers are obvious. Sticking to a party line could be at the expense of learning something new.

8. Don’t just listen to your mates. It may be comforting, reassuring and safe, but it can lead to only listening to convenient points of view; views that do not challenge; views that accord with your view of the world. There have been plenty of examples where confirmation bias has led to poor statements and decisions. One example would be then Treasurer Joe Hockey’s statement that ‘it’s not that hard to buy a property in Sydney, you just need to get a well paying job!’ One can only imagine Joe was sharing cigar with other relatively affluent mates to come up with this one!

Those who are committed to the art and discipline of innovation know diversity is a critical component. If you do not want to innovate or learn anything new, just keep talking to the people you find convenient to your own point of view (ie, doing what you mostly do).

 

Thankfully some leaders are already moving in this direction. For instance South Australia’s Premier Jay Weatherill’s leading the Together SA initiative, and using Citizens’ Juries to respond to complex issues such as alcohol fuelled violence. Several years ago the then Premier of Queensland Campbell Newman initiated The Queensland Plan, inviting all Queenslanders into a dialogue about their long term priorities and directions. An unprecedented 80,000 people participated in the process.

Recently, at local government level, a councillor at the City of Yarra, Amanda Stone, suggested that their council should engage a broad cross section of their municipality to figure out how they should accommodate inevitable population growth, whilst respecting high value heritage, character of villages and growing competition for public space. It was a bold process given the complexity. Some were very skeptical, but once again, genuine intent combined with a carefully designed process, led to very wise recommendations, and greater appreciation for the complexity of planning.

I no longer feel surprised by such outcomes. It is so easy to underestimate the ability of citizens to get their heads around complex issues. We have enough evidence to know how it can be done; processes of greater sophistication, and greater respect. Smart leaders are deciding to tap into this. They know we have outgrown the politics of slogans, simplistic solutions and of polarizing, fruitless debates.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Collaboration, Democracy, Leadership

Collaboration and what we can learn from slime mould

01/01/2015 By Max Hardy 2 Comments

Collaboration and what we can learn from slime mould.

I’ve been reading a terrific book titled ‘Collaborative Leadership: Building relationships, handling conflict and sharing control’ by David Archer and Alex Cameron.

Drawing on the earlier work of Steven Johnson in his book ‘Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software’ they refer to the behaviour of an organism known as slime mould. Slime mould isn’t actually a mould at all; it’s a single celled amoeba-like organism which usually spends most of its time minding its own business, doing its own thing. However, when resources are scarce it has an amazing ability to join forces with others to become a more complex organism to move toward other sources of food. Then, when life becomes a bit easier, it reverts to being a separate single celled organism, happily doing its own thing.

Pretzel slime mould

It’s a brilliant metaphor! 

For a start, it shows how important the environment is in compelling organisations to behave differently. The operating environment demands innovation, and collaboration is the vehicle to enable this innovation.

It also reminds us that we do not need to collaborate all of the time, and on everything. We do it because it makes sense and we only need to collaborate when circumstances require it. We have much to learn about reading the signals and appreciating when the environment is complex.

Another lesson from the slime mould metaphor is that we don’t have to lose our identity when we collaborate. While slime mould has to share control to reap the benefits of collaboration it has its own identity, and can easily revert to being as it was before once conditions allow.

In the last few weeks we have been working in a range of industries looking at challenges that demand new, innovative responses. The challenge of addressing alarming health statistics in remote Australian communities is one. The challenge for emergency agencies to respond more quickly and be more agile during catastrophic bushfires is another. The challenge of creating an environment for start-up businesses to flourish in areas not known for having an entrepreneurial spirit is a third. And the challenge of redesigning the delivery of services to be more appropriate, more efficient and more effective is a fourth.

Leaders in health, emergency, business and service delivery could do worse than consider the metaphor of the slime mould. If their survival requires them to share control with others without losing their identity, then joining up in a collaboration to access the intelligence and resources of all their stakeholders would be a good start to any journey to co-create solutions to these complex problems.

We have been inspired by the way people join together in a collective response to challenges when given the opportunity, in a way that reflects the metaphor of the survival of the slime mould. As Archer and Cameron say,“Collaboration isn’t a moral choice – it’s a business necessity!”

Originally posted on Twyfords website 16th December 2013.

www.twyfords.com.au

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Collaborative Governance, Health, Leadership

What I do

26/12/2014 By Max Hardy Leave a Comment

What do I offer?

Essentially I help to build the capacity of organisations and leaders to collaborate effectively with others, especially to address their most complex challenges. This includes:

  • Different parts of an organisation working in a more ‘joined-up’ way
  • Organisations collaborating with other organisations/stakeholders
  • Organisations engaging their communities
  • Leaders helping directors of different parts of an organisation working more as a team.
  • A whole system to align its efforts to address a highly complex social or environmental issue.

 

How do I offer this support?

By:

  • Listening very carefully to what organisations and leaders are facing.
  • Providing early advice around projects, and during periods of the most challenging moments of the like of a project.
  • Providing briefing sessions to leadership teams, elected representatives and boards.
  • Delivering sessions at conferences and symposiums
  • Facilitating training
  • Coaching collaboration champions in organisations.
  • Coaching/mentoring leaders who are learning to do it differently.
  • Co-designing processes to achieve enduring solutions with a diverse range of players around a particular issue.
  • Facilitating sessions where it makes sense to utilise an independent person.

 

What are some different terms used that explain what I do?

  • Collaborative governance
  • Systems change
  • Community engagement
  • Stakeholder engagement/relations/management
  • Risk communication
  • Public participation
  • Deliberative democratic processes
  • Collective Impact
  • Alternative dispute resolution.

 

Influences to my practice

  • Appreciative inquiry
  • Asset-based community development
  • Systems transformation
  • Dialogue
  • Complexity theory
  • Deliberative democracy
  • Collective Impact

 

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Advice, Appreciative inquiry, Coaching, Collaboration, Collaborative Governance, Collective Impact, Community Engagement, Complexity, Consumer Engagement, Leadership, Systems

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Recent Posts

  • It’s time to do stakeholder mapping differently! 28/10/2020
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  • Facilitating Public Deliberations 28/08/2020
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  • Debunking myths about ‘deliberation’ 14/07/2020
  • What is your approach to consulting? And… which one best works for co-designing solutions with the community? 06/07/2020
  • Getting the ball rolling on co-design 19/06/2020

Contact Details

Max Hardy Consulting
Email: max@maxhardy.com.au
Phone: 0418 217 261
Twitter: @maxchardy
Skype: maxhardy
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/max-hardy/11/339/a4b

Testimonials

Courtney Brown, Director, BDR Projects

'I have known and worked with Max for about two years, however I have been very aware of his career and engagement experience applied to major projects across industry sectors for a much longer period. Max has been at the forefront of pioneering new mechanisms and methodologies for genuine engagement and this resonates for his

Anna Kelderman

'Max's extensive experience with deliberative engagement, as well as his uniquely calming facilitation style, has helped bring about a step-change in the type of public engagement expected in Western Australia. It has been an absolute pleasure to partner with and learn from the best in the business, and I continue to look for opportunities to

Amber James

'I have known Max for more than ten years. I was a student of his doing the IAP2 Certificate, engaged him as a consultant for in-house work in local government, and then worked alongside him on a consumer engagement capacity building project at the Royal Brisbane Womens Hospital. He is great to be around and

Vivien Twyford

'I worked with Max for 17 years and appreciate his honesty, integrity and ability to connect with people at all levels. I learned much from him, particularly around Appreciative Inquiry, the appreciative approach and the value of deliberation. While I miss him, I have confidence that he will continue to be a wise advisor and

Liz Mackevicius

'Max worked with us to design and execute a series of workshops based on the citizen jury principles, to enable a conversation between community members about the growth and change expected to occur in a challenging inner city municipality. Max understood the key issues at hand, gave expert advice and worked with us to tailor

Becky Hirst

'Max is one of the leading superstars of community engagement and collaborative governance in Australia. Since I first met him as my trainer in Adelaide back in 2007, I've admired his approach. He's passionate, dedicated, admired in the field and I look forward to seeing the next steps of his career unfold. Watch out world!'

Amy Hubbard, Capire

“Max is a trusted and respected colleague and friend of Capire. He is always able to provide us with a sound, strategic and independent perspective – even on the toughest projects in very complex communities” Amy Hubbard CEO, Capire.

Kellie King

'I have had the pleasure of both being a participant in a fantastic training session run by Max, and also as a client. Max was of tremendous assistance navigating through a challenging engagement process with great support, advice and good humour. Thank you Max.' Kellie King General Manager – Community & Corporate Services, Wannon Water

Moira Deslandes

'Max is a democracy enthusiast. He finds ways to enable, empower and encourage every voice to be heard and designs processes that foster the principle: every voice is worth hearing.' Moira Deslandes Director, Moira Deslandes  Consulting  

Carol M Anderson

'If one were to ask me who was the best facilitator and facilitation trainer in the world, I would unequivocally answer “Max Hardy.” As the public involvement manager at one of the largest U.S.-based environmental engineering firms, I often took along my notes from Max’s facilitation class to meet with clients and, on their behalf, with the public.

Lara Damiani

'I had the wonderful opportunity to watch Max in action facilitating the Citizen's Jury for People With Disability Australia in Sydney last month which I was filming. Max's tagline "results through collaboration" is spot on. It was pure magic watching Max create collaboration and results from a randomly selected jury - 12 very unique personalities

Craig Wallace

I have worked with Max Hardy on two complex projects which took deliberative democracy and applied it to new problems. In 2007 at a ceremony in Arizona, USA Max along with the ACT Disability Advisory Council was awarded the IAP2 (International) Award for "Project of the Year" for our Citizens Jury project which provided scorecard

Eugene McGarrell, FACS

'Max Hardy has worked with my senior executive team and local stakeholders to facilitate the co-creation of social wellbeing strategies. Max’s style is both collaborative and supportive and he gets the best from people involved. I highly recommend Max to anyone who is embarking on a process of co-creation.' Eugene McGarrell District Director, Northern Sydney

Amanda Newbery, Articulous

'Max Hardy has a unique ability to build the confidence and capacity of teams working in engagement. He brings a wealth of experience and insight. We have worked together on a number of deliberative projects and he is a delight to work with!' Amanda Newbery Articulous

Crispin Butteriss, Bang the Table

'Max is a long time colleague, mentor and friend. He has a deft touch as a facilitator and collaboration strategist due his deeply developed empathetic listening skills, along with the experience and wisdom of many years of working on thorny problems with people from all walks of life'. Crispin Butteriss, PhD Co-founder and Chief Practice

Ian Dixon, Dixon Partnering Solutions

'I have worked with Max on many occasions and have great respect for his skills and knowledge around community engagement and collaboration. He is an expert trainer and a strong advocate for Appreciative Inquiry approaches.' Ian Dixon, Principal, Dixon Partnering Solutions

Beatrice Briggs

'Max Hardy brings to his work a delightful combination of common sense, integrity, experience, laced with a sly sense of humour.'   Beatrice Briggs Director International Institute for Facilitation and Change (IIFAC) Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico

The Honourable Andrew Powell MP

'I have always been impressed with Max’s ability to navigate and resolve the thorny issues through collaboration.  He involves all participants right from the beginning: asking “what’s the question that needs answering here”? His efforts alongside John Dengate in the journey that was The Queensland Plan were stellar and he was a significant contributor to

Barbara Dart

Max recently facilitated a two day course for us at Council about tackling the internal and external challenges of community engagement. Max is an exceptional facilitator and his ability to draw on experiences across such a broad and diverse background in CE is invaluable to those before him. I would highly recommend Max to anyone

Lisa Rae

I first encountered Max in Auckland when he delivered IAP2 training I was attending. Many years later, I’ve had the opportunity to work with him on two significant local government projects in Melbourne using co-design and deliberative engagement approaches. Max’s great strength was helping council decision makers understand their role in the engagement process and

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