How to showcase the value of collaborating

This article was written by Gary Cox JD, commissioner at Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Scanning the auditorium, the room I surveyed included local and state politicians and leaders of our faith communities, as well as senior leaders and C-suite figures from across our state. All gathered to talk about how we could change the trajectory of our community’s health through private business engagement.

Each person in the room had accepted the invitation for different reasons: maybe they were looking for funding, perhaps a strategic priority aligned, or maybe they were scouting the competition, determining if we were partners or foes. But, at the end of the day, we had a diverse set of stakeholders focused on a common goal, a testament to the importance of understanding agendas and motivation.

How did we bring such a diverse group of people to work on a shared problem? At its core, collaboration depends on mutual benefit and motivating individuals with different agendas to achieve a common good.

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The meeting described above focused on engaging with businesses, but the lessons we have learned are cumulative and far wider, reflecting several years of starts and stops at organising and collaborating in Oklahoma State Department of Health.

“At its core, collaboration depends on mutual benefit and motivating individuals with different agendas to achieve a common good”

Whether the target audience is public health-friendly, business-focused, government or private healthcare representatives, what we’ve learned applies no matter who you are partnering with:

1. Get your house in order. If your organisation isn’t focused on the importance of collaboration and engagement, and if your staff doesn’t understand that going it alone is not an option, you need to focus on shifting the culture of your team. Getting your own team to buy in to the importance of collaboration is critical to making sure everyone is always looking to reach out, instead of putting up walls. This will allow your team to be responsive to emerging needs and action-oriented, focused on evidence-based results. Credit needs to be irrelevant to achieving whatever objective you set. A culture change in your organisation is paramount.
2. Words matter. You can’t engage a private oil and gas CEO on the merits of social determinants of health. He’s not likely to be able to sell that to his shareholders. But you can talk to him about the impact poor health outcomes and limited infrastructure has on his ability to attract and retain top talent. A local hospital provider who is worried about readmission rates wants to know how you can help her keep chronically sick patients healthy and engaged, not how you’re going to reduce disparity.
3. Do your homework. To motivate collaborative partnerships you must understand the objectives of the partners you wish to engage and demonstrate that collaboration with you will help them to achieve those objectives more efficiently and effectively. Start by understanding what others are currently engaged in and work with those in your community who are willing and excited to partner. You don’t need everyone, just a few passionate and committed folks around the table to get started and generate excitement that will attract others.
4. Share your successes. Tell the stories of successful collaborations you have been engaged in – whether as a leader or a participant. Sharing successes demonstrates to others that you are a credible partner and willing to take on multiple roles to support and advance a collaborative effort.
5. Embrace conflict. Conflict is inevitable in any partnership. At some point, agendas may diverge or perceptions may replace realities. It’s important to recognise that at the beginning of a partnership and set some ground rules and expectations for when those natural tensions arise. Conflict is really just an opportunity to revisit what brought the partnership together in the first place and refocus on the core commonalities.
6. Get buy-in at all levels. Top-down edicts to partner up and work towards common goals may provide an initial urgency around partnership, but to achieve sustained results, buy-in from all levels of the organisation (your own and those you are partnering with) is necessary. Generating excitement and identifying key champions or thought partners throughout your organisation will ensure that, no matter the changes in leadership, the partnerships among those doing the work remains. This can be the difference between lasting inter- and intra-agency relationships and those that rise and fall with the most current leadership team.
7. Provide supporting evidence. Successful partnerships must be built on a foundation of truth. This includes culling and sharing data to support the mutually beneficial reasons for the partnership. If, for example, you want to reduce the recidivism rate for the local jail, and your partner wants to reduce the impact of mental health and substance abuse, you should use the data to demonstrate how you can leverage resources to achieve both shared objectives. Or perhaps a private business wants to improve the health of employees and their families, and the local health department wants to provide safe outdoor recreational spaces. In this case, you should use the data to illustrate where the places you want to increase access overlap with where the majority of your employees live. Partnerships built on evidenced-based practices will generate solid results.

At the end of the day, successful collaboration is really about demonstrating how working together is more effective than going solo.

“Successful collaboration is really about demonstrating how working together is more effective than going solo”

The success we have realised in Oklahoma has manifested itself in opportunities to compete for philanthropic and federal dollars for various projects across multiple sectors.

Some examples include regional health and wellness campuses built using private and public dollars, innovative public health approaches to reduce populations in overcrowded jails, enhanced healthcare navigation for an at-risk population and business investment to reduce food insecurity. All these examples illustrate the power of collaboration to achieve a common goal.

— Gary Cox

Picture credit: Cytonn Photography on Unsplash

Collaborating is hard work, but when it’s done well, the pay-off is immense. In a recent webinar, Jackie Shawnee, chief of staff at Oklahoma State Department of Health, gave an in-depth introduction of how the health department breaks down government silos. You can listen to that here.

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