System Synergy

Collaboration at the Core of Systems Leadership

We believe in bringing the right people together—those with subject matter expertise, clinical leadership, and the authority to co-create solutions. This approach not only fosters energy and engagement but also sparks diverse and innovative ideas.

Join our Systems Leadership Community of Practice — your gateway to all things systems leadership and the perfect starting point for collaborative transformation.

Our Purpose:

• To build relationships beyond organisational boundaries. 
• Help us all understand where we are as a system – celebrating success and sharing our challenges
• Utilise colleague expertise and skills to help each other and address these challenges, with the intent to improve citizens and colleague experience
• To aid professional development of participants

Why?

The Power of Dialogues in Systems Leadership

Our experience shows that dialogues create opportunities to address specific issues in focused settings, co-creating meaningful narratives with shared direction. This dialogic approach fosters the development of transformation pathways, supports ongoing processes, and maintains effective interfaces between diverse, and sometimes competing, institutions, sectors, and disciplines. These dialogues enable collective responses to challenges, threats, and opportunities and often become the exciting space where real change happens—whether online or in person.

We actively encourage diversity of participation, widening circles of engagement to ensure everyone has a voice, regardless of power dynamics, roles, or expertise. In our Community of Practice for Systems Leadership, participants arrive representing their host organisation but adopt a system-first perspective.

Our aim is to foster dialogue where participants:

• Actively listen
• Explore synergies
• Identify options for collective, value-adding action with collaborators they may not typically engage with

This group is integral to our efforts to support system leaders as they transition to new ways of leading during transformation.

Learn more about our Community of Practice for Systems Leadership and join the conversation today.

The sessions are straight forward with a simple structure and roles.

Convenor, Curator, Facilitator: Building a Collaborative Team from the System

Each Community of Practice (CoP) is led by a small team of willing members from the system, who serve as convenors, curators, and facilitators. The curation and facilitation of each CoP focus on specific themes and provide assistance during sessions to ensure productive dialogue and meaningful outcomes.

Outcome and Measuring Impact

Dialogic methods are inherently challenging to track with specific metrics, but we anticipate that the CoP will naturally highlight strategic inputs and activities that are working well within the system and have the potential to benefit the wider system. Over time, these dialogues will surface the most promising initiatives and create leadership space and governance to develop new initiatives. This process will enable the system to identify shifts and innovations, supported through our Exemplar Hub for our most promising initiatives.

Annual syntheses from these dialogue processes will provide solid data and overall tracking of connections, including feedback from task-and-finish groups that emerge alongside or as a result of the CoP. This continuous feedback loop will help refine strategies and measure the evolving impact of the system transformation.

When:

Meet regularly throughout the year.

10 meetings including two face to face/In-person meeting .

Meeting on the same day and time monthly with a break in Summer and Winter (August and December)

What will happen

We will host a meeting for 1.5 hours online and 2.5 hours in person. The session will begin with introductions and an ICS senior leader briefing for 20 minutes on our ICS within context of national and global health issues. The floor will be opened for questions and comments in the meeting chat function or in person on small tables. The moderator, ideally from OD and/or communications specialist will support the sessions. Once we have developed what works we write the blueprint so you can continue the work and similar long after we have gone.

How do I Join?

We set this up for you.

One or our core objectives: 

As system leaders, we are committed to working together to achieve our core objective of a healthier life for all. Effective collaboration requires that we work from a shared purpose. By continuing to learn how to work as one ICS team, we can reduce duplication, benefit from shared assets, and align our approaches.

We aim to maintain our open culture, spring boarding from our long history of collaboration. We know this prevents siloed working and prevents closed cultures from forming.

Our Community of Practice members will join other dialogic events such as our ICS Partners Assembly and design groups and may benefit from talent and leadership initiatives directly or for their organisations/team. They will also influence our innovation challenges selection.