Big happenings “down under” – Part 2

Continuing from lab director Ed Morrison’s notes from his recent trip to Australia (if you missed Part 1, click here):

In one of the most bold social transformations in the country’s history, Australia is changing dramatically how it addresses the needs of the disabled. Up to now, funding to support disabled citizens flowed through a network of providers. In the future, funds will flow directly to individuals. In essence, Australia is creating a new marketplace. (Read more here.)

Understanding how this marketplace will evolve on the Sunshine Coast represents a complex “wicked” problem to solve. Full rollout of the transformation on the Sunshine Coast will take place in 2019, but partners are coming together now to make preparations.

We conducted a Strategic Doing workshop with representatives from the University of the Sunshine Coast and two large providers. While they aspire to have a dynamic marketplace serving disabled citizens at the rollout, the partners focused on doing the doable. They outlined five pilot initiatives that they could start now to build the relationships needed in the years ahead. In a further follow-up 30/30 meeting they agreed to clarify outcomes for each pilot and Pathfinder Projects that can move them forward over the next 120 days.

There are important lessons in this work. When we confront major, complex problems, we need to focus on “doing the doable”. In this way, we can build the habits of working together. As network strengthens and trust builds, we can do increasingly complex work together.