HCT Stepping Stones
Collaborative Architecture
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Collaborative architecture: support structures for a healthier civil society
5 Min Read
HCT Gloucestershire did not set out to do collaborative governance. Being an un-constituted organisation and agreeing what our shared accountability and governance should look like gave rise to some of our deepest struggles. But, as the work progressed, it became evident that working in a radically different way requires more than the trust and relationships we build in our collective spaces. We also need collaborative infrastructure, or architecture. We need connected ways of working that enable ideas emerging from those space to flourish - aligned systems that create a framework for civil society to thrive.
In understanding and exploring this next step we need exactly the right mix of what we call radical piracy (experimental thinking, fast acting, pushing back against the status quo) and robust, transparent and proportional guardrails (grounded stewardship and governance that holds fast to equity and builds trust across different parts of the system).
These are some of the ingredients we believe will be essential for building Stepping Stone 5:
Gathering, skills and spaces
Multiple spaces to connect, skills and bravery to be together differently, people who hold different roles in the system that enable people to gather, learn and put ideas into action. All of the things we have learned from Stepping Stones 3 and 4 need to be created intentionally, collaboratively and equitably.
Independent capacity and resource in the system
It costs money and time to pay for Convenors, Catalysts, Learning Partners, skills development, and regular and ad-hoc collective spaces or ‘bumping points’ where better conversations happen. This resourcing needs governance, access and transparency - things that HCT Gloucestershire didn’t have the structure or capability to provide. It needs to be both independent - not beholden to an individual organisation’s agenda or priorities - and community centred.
So where that money comes from matters…
Aligned and flexible funding
While HCT Gloucestershire benefitted from relatively flexible funding, there is still a big stretch between the majority of funding streams and the truly open, trust-based funding that enables long-term thinking and innovation.
As Elinor Ostrom described in her book Governing the Commons, people manage resource and shared assets most effectively when they are in control of them. Inability to do onward-granting, hard deadlines for activity, monthly spend monitoring - restrictions like these prevent people from feeling a sense of empowerment and ownership, and mean people’s most ambitious and potentially impactful ideas can’t be realised.
Trust-based and relational funding approaches, promoted by IVAR and put into action by Gloucestershire funders including HCT partner Barnwood Trust, challenge the assumption that trust and impact are incompatible.
Fiscal hosting
So how can that funding flow in a way that is equitable and accessible?
It’s a challenge for communities: if you’re doing good work, but aren’t or don’t want to be a constituted organisation, it’s hard to get funded. Accessing pockets of money is often about who you know, and the relative privilege you have in being confident or connected enough to ask.
It’s a challenge for funders: it is hard to get money directly to communities in a way that is efficient, inclusive and safe.
What is needed for a high-trust, minimum-bureaucracy infrastructure that gets money where it needs to go? Fiscal hosting is one answer. It exists in many places, helping the flow of funding but often in a way that is reactive and small-scale. It includes the type of role Barnwood Trust has played for HCT Gloucestershire: holding money, cash-flowing, contracting - providing all the legal safeguarding necessary to give a funder confidence in resourcing an un-constituted group.
It needs organisations large and resilient enough to manage the financial risk, and strong enough to hold funds safely without controlling the work, with relationships grounded in mutual trust and accountability. HCT partners including Create Gloucestershire have been exploring what this looks like at a community level with a Community Chest model based on the principles of Elinor Ostrom.
Shared functions
It has long been recognised that, particularly within the VCSE sector, there is a lot of duplication of necessary ‘back office’ functions - things every organisation needs, but that are inefficient to run for smaller companies, like HR and IT. Support solutions that work at a county-wide level, that are sensitive to the specificities of place, would not only save critical time and money, but also foster more collaborative working and shared learning.
Right now we are laying the foundations of this stepping stone. Some ideas are being tested out, or already happening in different places across the county. Others are still at a head-scratching design stage. We know that part of the engine for driving this forwards is an ongoing commitment from people across the system to keep thinking differently together, and holding spaces for questions until the answers emerge.
Our final thoughts are those questions we are currently holding.
