A reset for cross-sector collaboration | Insights

We live in a time of world transition, creating an ongoing volatile operating environment driven by geopolitical tensions, climate change, rapid technology shifts and increasing polarisation.

In the UK, we have a new government intent on creating opportunities for driving economic and productivity growth in the context of ongoing fiscal constraint through investment from cross-sector partnerships in key missions.

Sustaining momentum and moving into delivery for the long term will require a significant reset for an unparalleled level of cross-sector collaboration. Given the complex challenges we face, no one sector has a monopoly on wisdom on how to address them. The most forward-looking leaders in Whitehall, business and civil society understand this.

Whether it is encouraging more public sector innovation through “possibility leadership” or private sector “activist” leaders or new thinking for civil society leaders, calls for cross-sector leadership and collaboration are hitting the right mark. With the lines between sectors blurring, leaders simply can’t afford to stay in their lane. The challenges and opportunities of our time demand leadership that transcends traditional boundaries, with the ability to inspire action across sectors for the common good.

For all these reasons, WIG is building on its 40 years of experience as a trusted cross-sector platform to focus with clearer intent on convening and developing leaders in cross-sector collaboration for the common good.

We will continue to focus on creating a safe space for strategic dialogue between the sectors to build trust and confidence in addressing socio-economic and environmental challenges. Building on our Collaboration Playbook, published last year in partnership with the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University, we will work more intentionally on cross-sector leadership capability to develop the mindset and skill set needed to work confidently in partnership across the sectors.

This is also about sustaining long-term change. So, we will focus not just on today’s leaders, convening our alumni more as role models for change, but also on the next generation of leaders who will have inspiring, disruptive and innovative ways of addressing challenges and seizing opportunities. We will also build an evidence base of cross-sector collaboration at work, including through international benchmarking.

Making the most of these changing times and building confidence and hope for the future requires a major reset in cross-sector leadership to turn ambition into prosperity that delivers benefits across the country.

Written by

Neil joined WIG as CEO in May 2023 at a time when the charity’s purpose of encouraging better leadership, dialogue and collaboration across sectors for social, economic and environmental benefit is more vital than ever.

 

Neil spent over seven years as CEO at the charity WorldSkills UK, a network for raising training standards in apprenticeships, technical and professional education to world-class levels. Neil was previously Deputy Director-General and Chief Operating Officer at the business organisation the CBI, working for 12 years at the highest level of the business and government interface nationally and internationally.

 

Neil was also the former CEO of OUTstanding, a business network for LGBT leaders and their allies, and former deputy chair of Stonewall, the LGBT equality charity. He holds a PhD in race equality in the workplace and was awarded an OBE for services to diversity and inclusion in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List. In 2019, Neil was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Middlesex University for services to STEM education.

 

 

Neil enjoys reading and travelling and supporting his husband in the garden.

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