Strength in diversity
This edition of ‘CEO Corner’ reports two exciting developments at Baptcare. The first is Baptcare’s success in two of the four ‘Gateway’ and ‘Integrated Family Support Services’ tenders in Tasmania. Baptcare is now the agency leading the implementation of these important reforms in the northern and south-western regions of that state. The second development is Baptcare’s receipt of Aged and Community Care Victoria’s (‘ACCV’) 2009 State Award for Excellence in the ‘Organisation’ category.
In these days of specialisation, it is increasingly rare for one agency to viably sustain operations in such diverse endeavours as Commonwealth-regulated aged care and state-regulated child, family and disability services. To receive two affirmations of its leadership status in those domains in a short period of time is a great achievement. The Tasmanian Gateway and IFSS success came in a state in which Baptcare had no existing child or family services operations or track record.
At the presentation of the ACCV Organisation Award, the question was asked: what are the key drivers to achieving such outcomes?
A recent edition of the Harvard Business Review outlined the four tasks of the senior leaders of any organisation. These are: Defining the Meaningful Outside; Balancing the Present and the Future; Deciding What Business You Are In and Shaping Values and Standards. In answering the question above, I will concentrate on the last two of that list.
As to ‘Deciding What Business You Are In’, we took the decision not to specialise at either end of the age spectrum, that is, not to focus on our care for the aged at the expense of our ministry to children and their families, or vice versa. Many of our peer organisations had separated these parts of their operations into separate, specialised agencies.
Rather, we fostered a vision of Baptcare as a diverse organisation providing a mix of services to the community and sought to engage our staff in a sense they supported a range of services, even though they may have been specifically employed in one. In short, we have endeavoured to make our diversity a source of organisational strength and cohesion, rather than of weakness and fragmentation.
As to ‘Shaping Values and Standards’, Baptcare is like many other providers of caring services; it seeks to be a values-driven organisation. As well as our core values however, we seek to inculcate in our senior leadership ‘whole-of-organisation’ perspectives and behaviours. In other words, we value the willingness to and capacity of our divisional leaders to look beyond their own operations and agendas and suggest and support initiatives that serve the needs of others, sometimes at the ‘expense’ of their own operations.
The ever-increasing quality and compliance demands of regulators, inadequate funding and the ‘get big or get out’ imperative can drive a narrowing of perspectives and organisational specialisation; diversity of operations is not de rigueur. We are motivated by the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25: 14-30) and this inspires our strong sense of mission to those we have traditionally served – like the aged and children and families – and to new groups in need – like asylum seekers. There is less risk in specialisation, but we are not called to a safe mission. This deep sense of mission, underpinned by strong leadership values and standards, sustains our diverse operations.
Kind regards,
Jeff Davey
Chief Executive
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