Transcript Ethics in engineering and product design

D A V I D W O L F F,
DIRECTOR
Healthy Partnerships
Cupp Aims
“to become recognised as a leading UK university
for the quality and range of its work in economic and social
engagement and productive partnerships”. Aim 3. Corporate Plan
– Ensure that the University's resources (intellectual and
physical) are available to, informed by and used by its local
and sub-regional communities
– Enhance the community's and University's capacity for
engagement for mutual benefit
– Ensure that Cupp’s resources are prioritised towards
addressing inequalities within our local communities
Snapshot November 2010
• Helpdesk - 1000 plus enquiries from community
organisations
• 400 plus students annually involved in community projects
as part of study
• 150 plus knowledge exchange partnership projects
initiated
• Over 120 academics actively involved with Cupp, including
a strong cross-institution community researchers group
• A dozen active communities of practice (for example: older
people, children and families, lesbian and gay community)
• Structured links with community organisations through coownership of governance, co-delivery of projects, coproduction of research
• Extensive dissemination: Book, papers, films, conferences
Principles and values of Healthy Partnerships
 Aspire to equitable partnerships .
 Develop joint goals and arrangements with partners in project
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governance, delivery, evaluation and dissemination.
Establish a shared language – a process not an event requiring
considerable ongoing attention.
Consider the needs of marginalised and excluded partners as well as
the mainstream and well resourced.
For partnerships to be effective a long term approach is likely to be
required, even if only short term resource can be identified.
Complex partners (eg a university, the ‘community’) should not be
treated as if they are homogenous.
Process to support healthy partnerships
 Assess the specific strengths and requirements of partners. Be honest
about your skills and capacity to respond to what is expected of you. It
may be that another organisation is better suited to respond.
 Develop appropriate internal infrastructures to support the partnership.
This should include project development, support and communications.
 Develop networks or communities of practice that can sustain
partnerships, if appropriate, beyond an initial phase.
 Develop an evaluation framework as early as you can. Decide what
you are going to measure and how. Consider leaning on any
benchmarks and approaches developed by others rather than inventing
your own
Practical tips
 The closer partnerships fit with core interests and mission the better.
 Prioritise working with people who want to work with you and put
energy into addressing barriers to their participation.
 Concentrate on beneficiaries of the work and develop communities of
practice to link those involved.
 Emphasise getting on and doing things, rather than organisational form
or structure.
 Partners may need to be persuaded of the value and potential of
partnership working. High quality ongoing communications will be
needed to keep the value of the work to the fore, and to share how
much progress is being made
Practical tips
 Find creative ways around bureaucratic processes – partnership
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working probably won’t fit standard procedures. This can be stressful
and difficult – culture change requires a bold heart! When we’ve found
ourselves needing to be brave and do things outside certain
bureaucratic structures the adage ‘Don’t ask for permission, ask for
forgiveness’, has been useful.
Develop the ability of staff to communicate and build relationships with
diverse partners - explore integration into staff development
programmes.
Secure funds to resource partnership development. This helps to bust
through the ‘interested but too busy’ syndrome.
Don’t let definitional problems stop you in your tracks - think about
defining it in the doing
Use brokers who can work across different cultures. So called
‘boundary spanners’ can be very useful.
Cupp network on the web
www.cuppcop.ning.com
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