Managing expectations

Clarity of purpose Understanding the evidence Engaging purposefully Building relationships Gaining commitment Early scoping Working with existing resources Defining scale Defining intended outcomes Coordinate roles and capabilities Partnering across sectors Being partnership ready Setting up governance structures Managing expectations Building capability for community involvement Understanding resources required Defining and measuring success Building the team Co-creating with partners Documenting shared agreements Structures to support partnership Maintaining commitment Incorporating community voice Smart allocation of budgets Design and build

Key points

Balancing collaboration with raising expectations too early.
Be clear about wanting to work differently to get different results.
Clarity about using existing resources differently.
Help partners understand this is about more than co location.

Considerations

Do your key messages convey the core aspects of the Schools as Community Platforms?
Is the timing of different stakeholders’ involvement planned to build momentum where needed and managing expectations?

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Managing expectations involves articulating the transformative nature of the project, emphasizing that meaningful change may take time, and encouraging a patient and realistic outlook from stakeholders.

Striking a balance between inclusion and avoiding premature elevation of expectations in the early phase of scoping, planning and co design requires consideration to build strong foundation for the partnership while avoiding frustration arising from time delays or untested assumptions about what Schools as Community Platforms implementation will be. Taking a staged approach to growing the partnership circle in the pre-establishment phase is a key consideration.

Clearly conveying the intention to work differently to achieve different results is essential. Managing expectations involves articulating the transformative nature of the project, emphasizing that meaningful change may take time, and encouraging a patient and realistic outlook from stakeholders.

Providing clarity on the intention to utilize existing resources differently rather than create a new parallel structure is important and needs to be handled well so that the work can have a foundation of curiosity and innovation rather than feeling like change is being imposed or that additional resources have not been provided.

Clearly communicating the desire to work differently to achieve different results is a foundational step. This involves expressing the need for innovative approaches and a departure from traditional methods, setting the expectation for a transformative and adaptive project.

Helping partners understand that the initiative goes beyond co-location emphasizes the comprehensive nature of the Schools as Community Platforms model. It involves conveying that the collaboration aims to reshape how services are delivered and experienced, emphasizing a holistic and community-centred approach. Inviting key stakeholders to consider what that might mean for their organisation is informs the scoping work and is part of laying good foundation for the partnership.

Our Experience/ Learning

In the pre-establishment phase while the concept was still being tested, the partnership circle was small. This had the benefit of avoiding wide frustration or disaffection if the concept did not proceed but risked having key stakeholders feel that the plan had been imposed on them.

It is important to be clear about the central aspects of the proposal in early conversations with potential implementation partners. Some players assumed from early conversations that the Schools as Community Platforms would equate to additional funding for their work and were less prepared for the expectations around collaboration at the longer-term strategic level.

In some cases, there was years between early concept testing and actual commencement of implementation, which was frustrating for some stakeholders that were more inclined to "just do it".