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reggio emilia: an effort to answer the request for an administration closer to its territory
municiplaity of reggio emilia
Italy

The Problem

Reggio Emilia is in the process of redefining the local public authorities' role, reorganizing its internal structure according to a new vision of the municipal intervention in local communities. The Innovation in the municipality [Innovazione in commune] experience has to be considered a reorganization process aimed at improving the public services offered by local authorities.
The innovative experience originates from the analysis of Italian local governments and specifically it analyses the complexity of the environment surrounding public authorities at the local level. The environmental complexity is given by three distinctive factors: i) the lack of representativeness of political parties; ii) the increase of small and individualistic civil society associations expression of specific interests willing to lobby at the municipal level in order to participate to the local community development iii) the increasing influence of global and international processes in the generation of local conflicts and local social development. The new approach assumes that the role of local authorities nowadays is becoming that of governing “complex” realities: the municipality acts as a facilitator / mediator between different counterparts focusing on the community as a whole. Citizens call upon municipal government in order to have support in structuring a stronger and better organized local community and affirming their own vision. The existence of different visions often generates complex conflict / tension situations at the local level, calling upon the municipal structures to interpret the different approaches and positions, facilitating the negotiation, trying to develop ownership and consensus.
Municipalities are called not simply to manage or offer services to the benefit of local community; they have to act as facilitators, negotiating and mediating between different (eventually contrasting) interests. In such a complex, loosely linked yet highly interdependent society municipalitie Public local authorities assume a new role and have tnilo44o adapt their structure in order to bridg different positions, guaranteeing local development and social cohesion.
The innovation is developed around this new and original definition which totally modifies the role and action of local public authorities in Italy. A new strategic role for local governments is highlighted: governing structures and building cohesion through the development of shared and locally owned strategies. In order to respond to this new role, Reggio Emilia has experienced the need to implement a more adaptive and flexible organizational mechanism. The aim of a public body (especially at the local level) is not only to develop local services but most importantly to generate and manage policies, governing and orchestrating the different roles and potential contributions of all potential actors/entities. Specific service provisions (welfare/social services/territorial planning etc.) is no longer considered the main task of the local authority. The organization has to evolve and develop strategic axis or visions governed by local public authorities which orchestrate the participation of other relevant actors for the identification of action plans and implementation of activities building a path for local community development.

This new governance facilitation reorganization process, stemming from a new concept of local needs and community policies, has been presented as a good practice at the International Public Sector Group (of the EIPA) meeting in Berlin.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The innovative approach lies in the definition of a new strategic role of local public administrations: a mandate to act as policy facilitators within the community system.
Networking, communication, knowledge management, integration, value communication, involvement, ownership and social capital are new buzzwords which have been considered in developing the innovative experience of Reggio Emilia. The experience of this municipal re-organization is unique since it evolves from the identification of the buzzwords / definition of political participatory approaches and starts internal reorganization aiming at adapting the municipal organizational structure and working method to better respond to a new community “integrating” function.
The organizational mechanism (structure of the public authority) has to be reorganized. Reggio Emilia has thus implemented an innovation process which includes: Internal reorganization process, the definition of a new organizational structure with a strategic department; reorganization of assignments for strategic policy managers (governing the development of the strategic branches) in a dialogue process with service managers (internal) level with civil society organizations, private sectors and other local relevant actors; definition of new inter relational protocols for internal and external counterparts; creation of a specific division for decentralization and participation trying to systematize all the participatory approaches implemented by the local authority in order to standardize its use, control its development and report on the well functioning of this system.
The ongoing reorganization process has brought to the new definition of the internal organizational structure (organigram). The competences and the different public body responsibilities have been redefined, identifying the existence of both functions of policy definition, coordination and management alongside the usual public services' management and provision functions. Aside from the normal service provisions and functional areas, a new strategic planning department has been created. The strategic area’s mission is to support the definition of specific public policies stemming from a new vision of the city. Managers which are responsible for single vision approaches are called to transversally integrate different municipal functions and service providers (internal or external), bringing to the definition of shared and locally owned inter functional processes and projects. More and more managers are not called to govern the single sector approach (education / urban planning/ environment…). They are called to work, following an integrated and trans functional approach.
The strategic planning department, following a consultation mechanism both at the political and managerial level has identified three different crosscutting strategic strands which support the development of the local community. The future positive development of the city is based on three transversal strategic areas: cohesion and social capital; sustainability; culture, education and economic development. These three strategic branches or strategic programs, encompass the "old style" functional policy approach process. Each manager appointed ad head of one strtegic program is called to reach concrete outputs and projects involving different public offices.

Within the strategic planning area one important unit has been defined: the decentralization and participation unit.
The aim of this unit is to closely support the managers in trying to mediate and create collaborative practices at the community level.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
January 2005 – Introductory phase: presentation of the project to all actors involved (all components within the Municipality but also civil society’s representatives that maintain linkages with it); a forum for public discussion was activated on the Municipal intranet.
June 2005 – a desk was open where people (public employees, citizens) could ask for explanations and details about the innovating process being implemented;
February-March 2005 – internal surveying and systematic information gathering aimed at defining the entity, scope and effects of the main glitches and obstacles to an adaptive organization oriented to policymaking;
May 2005 – problems sharing with all components of civil society;
June 2005 – conceiving of possible solutions and interventions to tackle the problems, principally on two levels: requalifying the organizational structure and rethinking the participatory mechanisms;
January 2006 - implementation of the new organization
March 2006 - launch of the reorganization process of participation processes
November December 2006 – definition of the new participation policy and set of criteria for participation
December 2007 (forecasted) – creation of the community observatory.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Italian Public administrations are facing increasingly complex environments that profoundly challenge the organizational models through which they traditionally addressed civil society’s needs and instances. Among the emerging phenomena that more repeatedly destabilize the role played by local governments one of the most influential is (1) the multiplication and diversification of the various components of civil society. Associations, foundations, no profit entities, NGOs, private companies and a plethora of other actors have been assuming an increasingly relevant role in expressing and organizing community needs and in the provision of services. At the same time, increasing interdependencies favour the emergence of (2) ever more mutually dependent policy threads (a good example is offered by sustainable development, an issue where social, economic and ecological matters are deeply intertwined together). The growing presence of policy threads makes sectorial approaches no longer adequate and asks for a much broader perspective, one in which urban planning, economic, social and ecological competences and abilities have to be mixed and composed to devise effective strategies.
In such a context, the tools conventionally adopted by public administrations to govern complexity (rules, procedures and institutional hierarchies) are no longer adequate and sufficient to restore equilibrium in an instable system. Moreover, by yielding citizens the option of a more direct linkage with their representatives, the introduction of the direct election of the mayor (L.81/93) has unleashed brand new profiles of instances in search for representation, inescapably leading to a crisis of the traditional model of political representation based on stability and homogeneity.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
A public administration willing to redefine its strategic configuration in the perspective of governing the local community must develop a totally new style, one that is funded on governing interdependencies through encouraging connections, smoothing communications, sharing knowledge, favouring integration, explicating values to alleviate clashes, linking and relating opinions, in a sentence assisting and facilitating the building of social capital.
The top priority for the public administration is therefore linked to the direct involvement of the various actors in the definition of policies, mediating among their interests and assigning to them direct responsibilities for the concrete carrying out of actions. In this view the public actor is assigned the prior responsibility to create a junction space where connections among players are made possible and where both local development and social cohesion are planned, attained and verified.
In this perspective, the public administration has to rethink its organization and functioning mechanisms in order to become inclusive in its mediating activity and adaptive in adjusting its strategy to deal each time with different policies.
The implementation of this new strategy requires first and foremost the introduction of new tools for coordinating the interactions among actors (a good example is provided by the successful experience of strategic plans in Italian municipalities). Secondly, a necessary step is that of exploring territories where Public Administrations did not use to provide their services in the past (for example, governing the linkages between universities and private companies and enterprises in order to get a hold of where knowledge is going and how it can positively affect economic development).

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The strategies implemented in the Reggio Emilia Municipality belong to two areas: 1.requalifying the organizational structure to make it more oriented to policymaking and 2.introducing participatory methods.
An administration that wants to restate its unique goal as the government of civil society’s interactions must cease to be structured according to its role ad service provider (along the traditional partition based on functions).
On the contrary, its structure has to be redesigned around two different poles: on one hand around those organs in charge of defining, coordinating and evaluating public policies (Strutture di Presidio delle Politiche Pubbliche), conceived as spaces for cross-sectoral integration along interfunctional projects which are priorities for the citizens. On the other hand, the organization includes offices providing administrative and operational support to service provision to citizenry.
This strategy introduces a revolutionary view of organizational configuration, being the internal profile of units and structures redesigned following a policy-oriented approach: the organization replicates in its same shape the priority values and needs that emerge as essential and strategic for the community over a certain time. Such a model cannot be but fluid and adaptive over time.
In the model the attention is shifted from the public administration internal organization to the overall and comprehensive vision of all the actors through which civil society signifies its instances; the public administration organization per se mirrors this overall changing structure.
As a consequence of such a model, significant changes are introduced also in managers’ role and competences. In particular, the strategic content of the managerial function is reinforced and the prerogative to provide support to policies’ definition is highly emphasized.
Simultaneously, a substantial amount of administrative tasks and processes related to services’ supply are gradually (but only partially) dismantled. The administrations turns to outsourcing to guarantee the provision of selected services where its direct involvement is no longer needed (but where coordination and control can anyhow be exercised).

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The most evident change relates to the organizational chart. The municipality has aggregated the service /sector policies in three different departments and has identified one centrally relevant department of strategic planning. The department has identified the main strategic programs or vision axis, directed by local managers integrating different policies and public services along side with civil society organization and private sector. Managers have now new competences and new missions which are linked to the definition of the city vision. The organizational chart is thus not rigid and inflexible it can be structured and adapted according to the local priorities.
The defined structure assumes a matrix format considering that local public services will be provided but the single provision of services is not a development policy itself.
The provision of services is implemented according to the local strategy and supports a process of common engagement of the local community in the city development. The managerial culture has changes dramatically, assuming a outward oriented approach. The municipal managers are thus becoming facilitators at the community level building alliances and sense of local trust.
One important change achieved through the systematization of the participatory experiences will be the creation of local guidelines, criteria and procedures which will add support to the methodology adopted for the implementation of governance processes.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The main innovative aspect of this process lies in the effort to understand the environmental complexity within which the local public authority is located. Reggio Emilia has deeply analysed its territory and has understood that the local municipal government needed change to better answer the requests of its local population. The need for change generated a set of consequential changes: the definition of a new vision, a new mission, a new systematization and new administrative instruments.
The experience sets an example and defines a way of dealing with complexity adapting the organization to its environment.
Overall Reggio Emilia is experimenting the definition of a new path for implementing change in a local authority, defining the most important steps and obstacles to be faced. The consolidated steps , such as the organizational restructuring, are highly replicable: the matrix format adopted to design the new organization can be implemented in any municipality bringing the existing organizational chart to a more adaptive format.
Far from being a new defined solution this is an ongoing process; other administrations can follow this “ precursor” and be guided in the process of bringing the organization and the local government closer to its citizens, mediating the conflicts and building partnerships for the development of the territory as a whole.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
One main difficulty encountered has been represented by the organisational inertia: to combat this obstacle the communication during the innovation process has been of high importance. Communication has been implemented at all level of the organization. Furthermore in order to deal with internal obstacles a process of internal participation to the reorganization process has been identified, amplifying the sense of ownership of the initiative. Focus groups, meetings, surveys and communication desks (virtual on the intranet system and physical through the creation of a desk) have been set up in order to support a shared approach.
Three buzzwords clearly state the main difficulties encountered highlighting the lessons learnt: Competences/ Change Management /New routines.
Competences. Civil servants too have to understand the new structure’s vision. Diverting from the old concept of simply “effective” service provision the new effective project implementation implying the adoption of a “network approach”. Civil servants need to be able to work on different transversal city projects. This implies the acquisition /development of team work abilities / flexibility / mediation skills. Working for the local municipal government means becoming able to interpret the local territory and mediate between important actors for the development of new local projects. New skills need to be highlighted and training is needed.
Change Management. Change is never easy especially within large structures/communities. In order to stimulate continuously the organization, the top management must communicate over and over the new image and the new functions. The process needs to be guided: a special effort has to be dedicated to the development of new – flexible- working routines. Combating embedded routines has proven to be one hard task for the administration. The process needs to be guided by the restricted group of managers, which share the common vision: a special support from external neutral consultants has proven to be of high importance.
Redefining the administration tools and approaches. The fact that the municipality has interpreted its role and position following a new approach diverting from the concept of representative democracy to a concept of governance of citizens protagonism implies that new instruments new protocols are needed. New methods and working tools to allow the development of more flexible approaches in the implementation of local projects.
The managers have to be aware that rethinking the organization’s role implies automativcally the management of a change of operational tools adopted by the administration, if the mission changes the automatically all the usual administrative “tools” are seen under a different perspective. The adoption of different tools is necessary also in order to communicate externally the change. Only through a change in the praxis and instruments the citizen will notice and become aware of the new position of the local city administrative system. The Communication plans have been changed in Reggio moving towards a policy / project oriented communication stepping away from the service offer communication. A great focus on the more complex outcomes is the term of reference for the internal evaluation ( top mamangement evaluation and rewarding system) and reporting systems.
One important effort of reggio emilia has been that to link the budget to the policies outcomes and these directly to the claims of the citizenship.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   municiplaity of reggio emilia
Institution Type:   Other  
Contact Person:   Serena Foracchia
Title:   director for international relations  
Telephone/ Fax:   +39 0522 541739
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   serena.foracchia@municipio.re.it  
Address:   Via S. Pietro Martire, 6
Postal Code:   42100
City:   Reggio Emilia
State/Province:   Reggio Emilia
Country:   Italy

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