Establishing LAAs and managing individual needs Overview report

Professionals responsible for managing water and flooding systems have always worked in partnership with others. The form and functioning of such partnerships has traditionally focused on delivering structural ‘solutions’. Now that the challenges faced by urban society are complex and changing relatively rapidly, it is timely to review how best to establish, maintain and sustain such partnerships. Here recent experiences from the EU INTERREG IVb MARE project utilising Learning and Action Alliances (LAA) is presented. The concept of a Learning Alliance (LA) is relatively new, although working in partnerships to deliver innovation is a long-standing practice especially in enterprises. Application of the LA approach to improve water system management has become popular in a number of EU funded studies helping to innovate. MARE considers the use of LAs in adapting to changing flood risks. This report sets out the formation, structure, management and conclusions from WP1 of the MARE project. In MARE, the standard ‘Learning Alliance’ concept has been modified to include ‘Action’ in recognition of the need to actually make changes happen. Hence from here on the term Learning and Action Alliance (LAA) is use. Recommendations from activities, outcomes and data analysed support the initiation and continuation of the MARE LAAs from the findings in examining the LAAs in the project. This report details the process and support given to each LAA, defined through interviews and questionnaires and briefly discusses the necessary shift of focus from individual Leaders and Champions to individualised support to the LAAs as entities in themselves. MARE had 4 core LAAs plus an overarching project management LAA. Validation of the processes of LAA establishment and functioning is outlined using results from interviews, questionnaires, training and direct observation. Activities and outcomes in supporting the vision and needs of the constituent Learning and Action Alliances (LAA) of the MARE project are reviewed and an overview of the LAAs’ individual visions and recommendations for support are introduced. The interviews and questionnaire were developed to gain knowledge in depth for each LAA and to inform how innovation and continuation of the LAAs could be supported. Recommendations are made based on the outcomes of this process, drawing conclusions about general commonalities across the LAAs and the support required to help share knowledge and best working practices transnationally, together with the development of a programme of tailored support for each LAA. Much can be learnt from approaches to innovation in practice from other domains such as private enterprise, where innovation is the life-blood of survival. Bringing a behavioural psychology spotlight on to the formation, dynamics and personality of partnerships such as the LAAs in MARE, is believed to be unique to MARE, helping to understand how best to create and sustain effective functioning of such alliances not only in MARE but more widely. Review of the relative functioning and success of the 6 LAAs in MARE has shown that they can help to provide the capacity building, via active learning, the trust and legitimacy and openness required to deliver the innovation needed to face the complex and wicked problems in managing flood risk. The diverse nature and functionality of the various LAAs, illustrates that there is not one single format for a LAA, each needs to be locally and contextually grounded and to develop its’ own vision and modus operandi.