54 Suffolk and North East Essex ICS | ‘Our Journey Together’ Governance and leadership priorities going forward In this report, Suffolk and North East Essex ICS have surfaced governance and leadership risks and made considerable progress in addressing them. This is highly relevant going forward. These translate into practical priorities for senior teams and for leadership development: 1. Represent the whole system, not just your role in governance processes • Even where statutory structures are split, create routine, decision‑relevant forums that restore cross‑sector mutual challenge and agreement on system‑wide action. • Make these forums consequential: keep building transformation intent, develop clear decision rights, clear owners on transformational initiatives, and visible follow‑through. • Develop board behaviours that support shared sense‑making and prioritisation across boundaries – ICB/ICP/ place/other. 2. Make power visible, discussable and measurably redistributed • Treat power as a systems‑change constraint (not only an inclusion issue): build “power literacy” into executive and commissioning capability. • Move from participation to ‘and authority’: parity of esteem in senior roles, decision rights and agenda‑setting (including VCFSE and community voice). • Build mechanisms that surface dissent early and safely—avoiding “false harmony” that looks collaborative but blocks progress. 3. Protect collaboration infrastructure as core operating AND transformation capacity • Ringfence transformation in governance processes: routinely review learning, prevention and community power alongside finance and delivery, even with short-term pressures. • Make “transformation conditions” a standing board focus: relationships, trust, participation, and workforce/ community experience—not just milestones and metrics. • Protect collaboration infrastructure as core capacity: convening, cross-sector learning architecture and relationship-building should be treated as essential operating assets. 4. Build a scaling discipline so transformation moves beyond pockets • For each proven local innovation, assign a senior sponsor, clarify permissions, define measures that matter (population outcomes) and resource a pathway to spread. • Strengthen the pathway from “learning” to “decision” so successes become repeatable system norms, not one‑off projects. I think Suffolk and North East Essex ICS have raised the bar in leadership practice and development. It calls us to take the baton of sharing our leadership learning in public. Inspirational work to stand on. Stefan Cousquer Professor of strategy and leadership, OD Consultant, Executive Coach Hult International Business School and Hult Ashridge Executive Education
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