Second post in our series "Inclusive governance: what's the point? Example of user inclusion in the healthcare sector", produced following the eponymous conference organized by YourVoice, on the occasion of the Convergences World Forum.

Mireille Faugère's career has been marked by experience in both public and private companies. Appointed Director of the Montparnasse station in 1991, Mireille Faugère went on to become Managing Director of SNCF's high-speed branch, and then President of voyages-sncf.com in 2003, working with user and disabled associations on train and station accessibility, before taking over as Head of Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris.

"From this very rich experience at SNCF, I retain my discovery of disability and the difficulty for associations to reach agreement on common accessibility specifications."

"Depending on the disability, the use of the site is not the same, and what may be good for one will not be for another. In terms of governance, it was very interesting because it was up to the SNCF to synthesize the demands of the associations. It made me realize that what we were doing for people with disabilities was also useful for people without disabilities or disabling illnesses. This experience really enlightened me as to what it meant to put the user and the customer at the heart of our service offering.

Drawing on this experience, Mireille Faugère set up a Service University at SNCF, to help professionalize relations with customers and user associations. In 2010, she became Managing Director of Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, where she created the first Patient Services Department.

"My aim was to put the patient at the heart of decision-making by really taking their voice into account."

"At the AP-HP, I was confronted with the encounter between the medical world, led by doctors, and the voice of patients, which can give rise to real tensions. While the former resented having their legitimacy questioned, the latter struggled to make it clear that, as patients - especially chronic patients - they too were familiar with the hospital environment, but from a different point of view. So I set up a Patient Service Department to carry out in-depth work on the entire patient journey, at a time when there was still no training on and by patients in medical courses. In fifteen years, a lot of progress has been made, but we're not there yet.

Since leaving the AP-HP, Mireille Faugère has held a number of positions of responsibility on the boards of associations and private companies. She is a member of the Emeis Board of Directors, Chairwoman of its Ethics and CSR Committee, and a director of the Fondation l'Oréal and the Institut Français des Administrateurs. At the same time, Mireille Faugère is President of AMREF France, an African public health NGO.

"The first trap of the SSE and the medical-social sector is to believe that, because its corporate purpose is natively patient-oriented, their proper care is guaranteed.

"By 2022, the non-profit sector will account for over 3% of France's GDP, with 22 million volunteers and less than 2 million salaried employees. I've also noticed that when many people join the board of directors of an association or foundation, they do it for the mission, from the heart, but they can lose their reflexes for good management and governance, even when they're recognized bosses!
At the Cour des Comptes, which I joined after the AP-HP, a chamber specializes in auditing associations and foundations, and in particular the proper use of public subsidies and public generosity (individual donations). The stakes are high, as losing the confidence of funders is tantamount to dragging associations down.
To help ensure good governance, we have joined forces with the French Institute of Directors (IFA) to create a best practice guide for directors.

Drawing on her wealth of experience, Mireille Faugère has a strong and unique vision for improving the way associations are governed and making them more inclusive.

"We make progress in governance when we break down the barriers between ourselves. We're fishing for performance when we're all alike."

Breaking down the "entre-soi" (between oneself and the others) leads to a genuine plurality of viewpoints on boards of directors, preventing them from being pre-empted by a minority. The Chairman and his office must not, for example, hold up the associative project, and they must encourage other Board members to take on responsibilities. This will encourage attendance and commitment from all.
And it's useful to ask everyone about their motivations for volunteering, to ensure that commitment is not driven by the wrong reasons, the consequences of which would be deleterious for the organization. Last but not least, we need to enshrine in our bylaws the principle of short terms of office, with decidedly flexible renewal periods.