53 Suffolk and North East Essex ICS | ‘Our Journey Together’ 7. External perspectives This report contains the reflections of a broad range of local stakeholders who chose to participate in our learning and legacy project. Although this was never intended to be a rigorous, systematic external evaluation of the ICS, we were keen to include in this work external perspectives from a range of experts. We asked five external experts to share with us their different perspectives on ‘Our Journey Together’ in Suffolk and North East Essex as follows: • Professor Stefan Cousquer, Professor of strategy and leadership, OD Consultant, Executive Coach Hult International Business School and Hult Ashridge Executive Education • Professor Ioan Fazey and Dr Sam Buckton, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York • Anna Charles, Senior Fellow in Health Policy at The King’s Fund • Andy Wilkins, Founder, Future of Health and Programme Designer, Leading Systemic Innovation in Healthcare, Imperial College Business School • Ian Perrin, Assistant Director for Policy, ICS Network - NHS Confederation 7.1 A leadership perspective For NHS senior leaders and those shaping leadership development This report on Suffolk and North East Essex ICS’s learning is powerful in the way it illustrates a sustained shift from coordination by hierarchy to collaborative coordination through shared purpose, relationships, distributed leadership and a whole‑system approach. It is also important because it demonstrates how it is possible to support shifts in the conditions holding problems in place - especially relationships, power dynamics and mental models – which is highlighted by Kania et al’ (2016)xlv in their framework of leadership and systems change. Through this lens there are numerous practical lessons for senior leaders going forward, not just program history. This includes 6 key mental‑model shifts that were enabled successfully and 5 governance and leadership practices that Suffolk and North East Essex ICS enacted. Both of which we urgently need to build upon. Six leadership mental‑model shifts that enabled collaborative change a) From “NHS initiative” to “shared system stewardship”. Partners increasingly behaved as co‑owners of direction and delivery rather than contributors at the edge. b) From heroic leadership to systems leadership. More emphasis on dialogue, plurality, and working in uncertainty—convening multiple perspectives and learning in public. c) From “start with structures” to “Start with Why”. Starting with what good health means to people, listening and learning first, then shaping structures around purpose. d) From “hard‑wiring integration” to “soft‑wiring collaboration”. Investing in relationship‑building, shared values and enabling infrastructure (e.g., cross‑sector learning and development), not only protocols. e) From organisational outputs to population outcomes and shared accountability. Greater focus on outcomes for people, and accountability to partners, communities and the public. f) From acute‑flow default to prevention/community orientation. Aligning around populations and prevention— not solely acute flows—bringing the voice of the neighbourhood into the center of governance conversations. For senior NHS leadership, the implication is straightforward: transformative change is about creating the conditions for system change, not only driving it from the centre. How leaders convene, share power, hold transformative intent, enable learning and scale what works—not simply a governance diagram or a set of projects.
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