In this short article, you will find a number of concrete examples of how new synthesis has been brought into play and creates value in different organizations. The article is a short version of a longer article published in FOA. Read along and get inspiration on how you can incorporate new synthesis into your work to create public value and results.
New solutions to new challenges
The 21st century doesn't just present difficult or complicated problems. We face complex challenges and a pace of change so fast that we don't have time or money to continue operating with the solutions we used in the 19th and 20th centuries.
It's time to reframe both purpose and solutions by exploring new paths that call for new understandings of leadership. We must also empower our organizations to adapt, change and collaborate with the world around us in new ways.
Today's societal problems call for a new mindset, a much broader perspective and, not least, new, sustainable and holistic solutions, which speaks directly to the core of New Synthesis.
Learn more about New Synthesis in this video where Jan presents the model
The problems cannot be solved independently
The overall message of New Synthesis is that modern society and public organizations must be able to master four focus areas simultaneously: Compliance, Performance, Emergence and Resilience.
It is necessary to master these four areas simultaneously to be able to deliver welfare and address complex societal challenges to citizens in the future. We can't solve the growth in chronic diseases, obesity, refugee flows or climate change by focusing on compliance and performance alone. Those days are over.
The complexity of the problems means that we need to think in a much broader perspective that includes the involvement of society's and citizens' resources and contributes to creating sustainable and robust solutions for individuals, organizations and society. The hospital must therefore be able to collaborate across the board to improve public health, prevent lifestyle diseases, etc. just as the work with vulnerable children must be done through collaboration with health nurses, schools, police, etc. in order to be able to take preventive and early action.
Many of the problems we face cannot be understood and solved in isolation and independently of each other. That's why we need to think differently. And many are already doing so. Here are some examples.
Case: Hvidovre Road:
Based on the New Synthesis, Hvidovre Municipality has formulated a new basis for its managers and employees. To bring the ideas in Hvidovrevejen to life in the individual workplaces, the municipality has created six sets of dialog cards with dilemmas and questions for managers, employees and both parties. The purpose is for them to talk to each other about how they, together and individually, can help develop daily tasks and workflows.
Dialogue cards can be used to introduce the Hvidovre Road to employees in, for example, a daycare center or school. The cards are good because they keep the discussion on a practical level and because questions and dilemmas provide an understanding of what the new foundation is all about.
The LUS, GRUS and MUS interviews are also linked to Hvidovrevejen. This is done with questions such as: "How do you contribute to creating good results that have the right effect for the citizens?" and "How do you contribute to creating quality and innovation in the solution of tasks?".
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The courage to fail
With New Synthesis thinking, managers and employees alike must not only think about 'their own shop', but also about how they are part of a larger purpose with a responsibility to find common solutions and put the citizen at the center. But how do you explain this to your organization when, for example, the finance department wants you to manage to budget at all costs? The legal department focuses on every legal detail and sees these as the most important thing in the world, while the professionals struggle to save lives or make preventive interventions.
With a focus on Emergence and Resilience, we are moving into a trajectory where the usual governance logics do not work in the same way as before. For example, we cannot manage civil society in the same way as we manage internal employees, and therefore public institutions will experience a loss of governance to a greater extent. As a director of Parks and Roads in a municipality told me, it was a bit difficult to navigate between her permanent employees and the volunteers when the latter claimed the right to smoke and drink a beer at 'work' or bring their dog. If she had forbidden it, the volunteers would have gone home without her being able to do anything. We therefore need to put some of the old virtues on the shelf to make sense of the situation and make room for the fact that not everything can be managed according to a manual or an employment contract.
The emergence field calls for more innovation, new thinking and co-creation with the market and civil society. This can be seen, for example, in cancer treatment, where there is more experimentation with drugs that are still being tested. Obviously, this increases the risk of error, but in terms of what is gained (in time and cure), it makes sense. And who would have thought that ordinary citizens would one day be the ones to assist in cardiac arrests, as is the case with defibrillators, which are volunteers who step in to help in the event of an emergency cardiac arrest. These are all examples of new ways of prioritizing resources in an effort to save money and time, but perhaps also increase the quality of service in more cases.
Future competence requirements
The thinking in New Synthesis makes sense in relation to the everyday life that employees experience - that they have to be able to do many things at once, and it provides both a manageable understanding of our conditions as a public institution and a different perspective on leadership and management. For many years, there has been a strict financial management agenda, and it is here to stay. But leadership comes before management, because leadership determines what we need to manage. Therefore, New Synthesis provides a good framework for the work that can be communicated to the organization, because the model articulates a great respect for the operating organization and for creating the necessary renewal. It is not an either-or with the four perspectives in the New Synthesis, and they should not always appear equally, but you have to be aware of balancing them.
The New Synthesis approach places different demands on employees' future skills, as it is necessary to be able to keep several balls in the air at once and constantly deal with dilemmas. You can't expect to work only within a strategic position or within one administration in isolation. Employees must be able to jump in and out of silos and have a cross-functional holistic orientation.
As a manager in Aarhus Municipality says:
"It's no longer enough to have your professional skills in place - to know everything about proper nursing, thorough job placement or effective medical detoxification. Being good with people - being able to collaborate, engage and listen - is becoming more and more important as we work together to create welfare rather than 'deliver' welfare."
