The partners draw on a variety of professional backgrounds and their work in organisational, policy and service development; as well as in public participation in relation to cross-boundary working.

Our interest and expertise is in the sorts of 'wicked' problems that return to haunt organisations over and over again, and prove remarkably difficult to influence despite the best efforts of policy-makers and highly motivated people on the ground - such as supporting independent living, providing care that is tailored to the individual, the fear of crime, under-achievement in schools.

These sorts of issues are constantly changing and are perceived differently by the different stakeholders.  The tendency is to break them up into actionable parts, which tend to become projects divorced from the mainstream.

There is no unified power structure or 'system boss' who can fix these problems, so the challenge is to mobilise the distributed intelligence of the system.  This always means engaging a wide range of stakeholders from across the breadth of the system as well as people from different hierarchical levels – including national or regional policy, local strategy and planning, front-line workers responsible for delivery, citizens and people who use public services. 

Partnership behaviours - For organisations and networks of organisations wanting to explore the way they work in partnership.(1 day)

Acting purposefully in complex systems - For senior managers wanting to explore how to apply systemic ideas and practices in their own situations. (3 * 2 days, modular)