LAN – legitimacy, authority and neutrality

Health reforms. The one sure thing about the reforms is that the work which I lead will need to relocate since the organisation which hosts us at the moment will be abolished next spring. There are many possible options for the future. Some months ago I spent an afternoon thinking through how to decide between the different hosts.
As I thought through what the key issues are three broad principles became clear:

Legitimacy – to do the strategic work that we do across the region we need to be hosted in an environment that gives the work legitimacy. We have credibility to carry out the work because we have experience and reputation built on the work done to date. But this is overlaid strongly by the legitimacy of the organisation that hosts us.

Authority – it’s no accident that NHS organisations often have the word “Authority” in their name. The authority to function makes them totally different from independent organisations working in the same space.

Neutrality – a lot of the work I lead requires brokerage and negotiation across a complex health economy. It is only possible to do this if the context in which we work is seen as neutral. This means not having a vested interest in the outcome that would affect the neutrality of judgement.

Having these three principles in mind has really helped to clarify decisions at each stage of the reforms.

Also published on Medium.