Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 1) | Page 147
Letter to Social Service Leaders #2
scaling. So we should allocate time for organizations’ leaders to step back,
review and rejuvenate.
But a more important skill to teach is whether or not to scale. And it begins
with gathering evidence of impact and how the impact happens. This is to
ensure that what is to be scaled has evidential impact on end clients and is
not used for promotional reasons. The evidence or data will then instruct on
the readiness to scale.
Social service leaders looking to scale any program or service should take a
very critical look at their work, their program model, and their impact before
tackling the question of scale. It is useful to answer these questions squarely:
Is the program or service something that people really need? Can we prove
that it works and will have a broader application? And, always, always, always
check if anyone is already doing something similar and determine whether
partnering might help them do it better. It is through partnerships that the
social service sector can succeed at innovating and scaling social service
delivery solutions. This is so because sustained interventions and solutions
for the social needs in today’s complex world will require skills from across
organisations.
How to support social service sector leadership
What actions then can we take to better support leadership development in
the social service sector. There are possibly three things that we can do and
they will likely happen as there are now dedicated resources for leadership
development. Firstly, there needs to be an increase in the number o f leaders
from both external and internal sources into the sector. This will widen the
leadership band. Secondly, there needs to be stronger leadership capability
development both through more opportunities and more systematic and
structural support. Thirdly, there needs to be support (and may include
funding) for the leadership resources that leaders say they need. More
mentorship and coaching as a priority for a range of leaders beyond the top
leadership will go a long way to nurture emerging leaders in the sector.
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