This is how we develop organizational cohesion
Our work starts with understanding you – your situation and your goals. We set a structured process in motion, where we collect relational data and combine it with dialogic methods, so that you develop your organizational cohesion - step by step.
We ensure that you become better and more efficient managers, partners and organisations. In practice, we do this by providing analytical and dialogic tools for analysis, development and management of your ability to collaborate around complex and interdisciplinary tasks.
Joint Actions services
Joint Action Analytics: Software for analyses, development and management of organizational cohesion. Joint Action trains employees and managers in your organization.
Joint Action Learning: Support and advice module, where we continuously spar with and advise directors, managers, management groups and employees.
Joint Action Community: Community for exchange of experience. We hold an annual conference, webinars and local events as well as exchange of experience across organisations.
Structures work through relationships
Structural coordination is structures that support interdisciplinary collaboration - roughly speaking, anything that can be written down on paper. Strategy, vision, organisation, meeting forums, guidelines, methods, procedure descriptions etc. This is important to ensure interdisciplinary cooperation - but not sufficient.
Relational capacity is the ability to ensure productive collaboration around shared tasks. This applies to bosses, managers, employees and other persons who have an impact on the collaboration. Relational capacity is therefore an expression of the actual quality of cooperation.
Balance between the structural and the relational: We need both structural coordination and relational capacity. Structural coordination is of great importance in less complex tasks, but only works if there is also relational capacity. When complexity increases - and unpredictability increases, structural coordination loses its importance, and here relational capacity plays a greater role.
Source: Professor Christian Bøtcher Jacobsen, Kronprins Frederiks Center for Public Leadership, Aarhus Universitet, ”Ledelse af organisatorisk sammenhæng (LAOS)”, 2021
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Relational key figures are a prerequisite for ensuring effects
With Joint Action as a business partner, you get unique relational key figures that complement your other data and shed light on your organizational cohesion and - over time - its development. This data can be used by the strategic management to get an overview of the organization - and for reporting in relation to the interdisciplinary work that exists in the organization. Data will support a culture where you build a common language for productive collaboration and an easier and more seamless onboarding of new managers and employees.
Relational key figures are a prioritization tool so that your organizational development work becomes more effective. The analyzes of organizational cohesion can be used in many different contexts. For example in management meetings, for employee meetings, as support for LUS and MUS conversations and for reporting on organizational cohesion to politicians or the board.
How we develop organizational cohesion in your organization
We work according to well-defined and tested principles that ensure effects in your organization. We work both instructing, problem-solving and guiding – we are leading experts, and therefore also function as important strategic sparring partners. We always work according to the same principles, as it produces the greatest effect.
We train a resource group consisting of employees at your place. In this way, you build up the capacity to develop yourself - even when we are not present.
We start by thoroughly familiarizing ourselves with your strategy and visions, the methods you have chosen to work with, and any other structural conditions that have either been implemented or are being prepared.
Typically we do one or more semi-structured interviews in order to learn about your organisation's challenges, strengths and focus areas for development.
We make a progress plan together with our customers when we get started. The progress plan is a joint dynamic document that describes a common understanding of the current situation, which strategic objectives you have for the work and where we should prioritize the efforts. We jointly set concrete goals so that we can document the effect in the long term.
We analyze your organizational cohesion. We examine how managers and employees experience the actual collaboration (relational capacity), psychological safety, and their managers' behavior to ensure coherent efforts (relational leadership). We also analyze the citizens' or customers' experience of coherence and integrity.
We make a plan for how often and how the analyzes must be carried out, so that you can follow the trend in the development of your organizational coherence over time.
The development work itself starts when we have data. We look at what the analyzes actually tell us, and based on this, we prepare a development course.
We discuss this with the strategic management and the analysis participants, so that we can initiate concrete actions.
At the start of the development work, we harvest low-hanging fruit. Then there is a focus on the development of management behavior and a general work to raise competence and understanding of the interdisciplinary.
We show how to ensure progress. It is important that strategic management has the courage to stand together and insist if you are to create change.
The combination of these elements will in the long run ensure that your organizational cohesion improves for the benefit of your citizens and customers.
8 steps in a development process
We always work with a well-defined process to ensure the development of organizational cohesion in your organization. Each phase contributes to ensuring that we, together with you, create the fertile ground for you to succeed better with the things that are not working optimally today.
1
What is our joint task?
There is often doubt as to what the joint task actually is - and that is the first step. In public organizations it is often about a citizen or a group of citizens. But the common task can in principle be all tasks and work processes that require interdisciplinary cooperation.
2
Which stakeholders are involved/should be involved?
Now it's about defining which stakeholder are involved. We must involve the stakeholders who have an important role in that joint task. Where the complexity is great, we often see that the familiarity between stakeholders is so low that we do not know about the other stakeholders - then we like to start the work in a limited area.
3
Who must collaborate/who needs collaboration?
Here, the stakeholders must decide who they each consider to be important partners. There is always disagreement here. If one party perceives the relations as important for the joint task solution, we regard it as important. We call this asynchronous relations.
4
How are the relations scored?
Now the stakeholders get the opportunity to score how they actually experience the organizational cohesion from their perspective. Here it is important to have good information, as for many it will be the first time that they answer this type of relational questionnaire.
5
Start where the potential is greatest
Once the analysis has been carried out, we are careful in how the development work is approached. Also remember that change management take time. We therefore always recommend starting with developing the concrete relations that have the greatest potential for improvement.
6
Start by solving the specific challenges
We use dialogic methods and processes to get the stakeholders to discover what the challenges and strengths in their relations actually are. Our processes ensure that the stakeholders solve local challenges in a way that improves relational capacity.
7
Exchange of experience - the solutions and improvements are often found nearby
Exchange of experience is important. When we develop organizational cohesion, you must look in the immediate environment to find good examples. Understand what they have done, learn from it and spread it. These are often easier to disseminate compared to experiences from other organisations.
8
Keep focus on the common - it increases the quality
It is motivating when you succeed together with others - and it is deeply frustrating when you experience being alone with difficult tasks - or that you see that we fail because we do not cooperate. Maintain focus on what is common. This increases the quality for your citizens and customers.
Contact Joint Action
- To hear more about our research and practical experience.
- For a dialogue about the challenges you face and our opportunities to contribute.
- For a workshop with you and your colleagues.