The challenge in the discussions around a local GDS and other such things.

The debate and discussion around a Local GDS is now over a decade old and still going strong (Phil Rumens has curated a list here) and yet we appear not to be any closer to an agreed way forward… I know I certainly disengaged with this subject for some time as It didn’t feel like anything would change and it felt like wasted energy when I could focus on the local council I was working in, after all change and transformation is hard work in one organisation let alone the whole sector and wider system.  

I’ve accepted though, that essentially I am and have been complicit in maintaining the status quo and yet at the same time, working really hard to change the very system I work in.  I suspect others may have been doing the same, maybe not, I’m not here to judge, just making a personal observation and making an assumption that others may have been in similar spaces…

I don’t believe we’ve not been able to resolve this due to a lack of ideas or options or recognition of the deeper, more fundamental problems facing the sector.  So why then are we pretty much where we were when we started this all those years ago?

My observation and I’m going to be intentionally provocative here, would be that as individuals and groups coming together we aren’t yet capable of holding the space for the inevitable tensions and discomfort that need to emerge by having such deep fundamental discussions.  In my experience and through observation we get caught up either agreeing too easily with each other (after all it is energising feeling connected with people), or defending a position we believe to be right (we might be motivated to get our idea to the top),  or unintentionally talking down other people’s ideas who may have traction (we may feel challenged by others ideas), or we might suggest to each other that the bold visions are too blue sky, unrealistic, say it will never happen (we may struggle to wrestle with the tensions that sit inside us), or even brushing aside and sweeping under the carpet and ignoring the deep truth in the sector that it’s just broken and we might be watching and residing over the steady and managed decline of local government (we might find comfort in painting a picture of the reality that is easier to accept). 

For me all of this is about how we have the conversation and how we understand what might be playing out for individuals in those discussions.  

There are three models I’m going to provide a very brief overview of that have helped me lean into having honest, productive and accountable conversations and I believe these will help those who are having conversations as well as those who need to have the conversations.

The first is advocacy and inquiry, the second is understanding creative tension and the third is working with polarities.

I’ve included very basic pictures and models for each one below to hopefully help people access / understand the tools a bit more, it is essentially about practising this and developing the skills to use them in actual conversations and discussions.

Advocacy and Inquiry:

Why this model: Through observation I think there is a tendency to only choose one of these approaches and I believe the debate would be enriched by helping create a balance.

Summary: Chris Argyris and Donald Schön pioneered the conversation tools of advocacy and inquiry. These tools allow for the right balance of meaningful dialogue and exchange among people in conversations/discussion. Advocacy is about how one influences another’s thinking and behaviour by stating one’s beliefs and thought patterns and inquiry is a process for understanding a person’s perspectives and assumptions by exploring his/her reasoning and conclusions.

Creating conditions for productive discussion: Balancing Advocacy and Inquiry
STATE and ASK

When working with groups or individuals with these tools, I’ve often been asked how does one start to develop their practice, as a result I created the following which is drawn from a variety of sources online and I simply summarised it into a simple table.

Opportunities for increasing productive discussion

Understanding Creative Tension

Why this model: Through observation I hear and see the tension collapsing as either people believe bold visions are unrealistic or too far fetched or that we are not acknowledging the current reality and situation and knowing where we are starting from.

Summary: Built on the concept of “creative tension” proposed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his famous “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,”  Creative tension is the gap between our creative vision and our current reality, this ‘structural tension,’ exists in all parts of our lives.

During any creative process, one has an eye on the future, where you want to go and you also need to understand and be clear on where you currently are.  There will always be structural tension in the beginning of a creative process, this is due to the inevitable gap and discrepancy between what you want and what you have. Peter Senge, The author of The Fifth Discipline explains that for many of us, Creative Tension is our source of energy and motivation.

However it can also be a burden and can lead us to collapse this tension as we perceive the distance between the future and now is too much…

All tensions seek a resolution and the creative tension is no different, we either learn to build the muscles that help us hold this creative tension (the distance between future and now) or we will choose to be drawn to one of the other…the risk here is one will either misrepresent the future or current reality to make it more palatable and manageable as a tension.

Working with Polarities

Why this model: I think what I am hearing in discussions, articles and posts is a number of polarities to manage, and we maybe in danger of simply seeing this as a problem to solve, this may help uncover aspects of the discussion that have been missing before.

Summary: Polarity Thinking, founded by Dr. Barry Johnson, over 45 years ago, provides an easy way to make visible and actionable what may have been hidden in the past. It is about tapping into the power of the “and.” and harnessing the ability to see and act from two very different strengths simultaneously.

Key points to note

• Inclusion and recognition of “and” thinking
• Polarities are not problems to solve
• 2 parts of the same whole – e.g. centralisation and decentralisation
• Important to map the context to understand where and how you can get best of both worlds to avoid having the downsides of just one side or worst case downsides to both

Example

Here is a very useful 4 min Introduction on Polarities by Jennifer Garvey Berger

As mentioned above these tools require and take practise and are proven to help increase the effectiveness of conversations and discussions. If there was a space in which we needed to do this, this is one of them…

8 relationships for unlocking change and transformation

Photo by Akil Mazumder on Pexels.com

Earlier this week, my good friend Scott Gould posted a few times on Linked In about relationships, in one he spoke about “no difficult people, just difficult relationships” and in the other a great example to illustrate and frame the perspective.  

These posts resonated with me a lot as I’ve been doing a lot of reflection on what I’ve learned over the last 15 years and more as I prepare to recalibrate for future transitions as well as more recent learning which has really grounded me in connecting to the work I love to do. I’ve pretty much the last 15 years understanding and supporting change and transformation through improving/changing/transforming the quality of relationships.

My learning and reading of the Arbinger Institute with its Outward Mindset, this very much shares a perspective that it is the quality of relationships between people that is an organisations greatest asset not its people. I’d like to expand on this and suggest that there are eight relationships that need attention to unlock change and transformation.

When I look back over the last 15 years I can break down the types of relationships that I have worked on and supported to change and transform. I’m not sure yet, if this is a complete list, but these are certainly the 8 most common areas I’ve worked on. 

One: The quality of the relationship one has with oneself

This is the development space, as space of self awareness and personal mastery and in my view the relationship which unlocks all of the rest, especially when it comes to shifting one’s mindset. I will admit this is one of my favourite areas to work and always goes alongside every other area if you want to create and sustain change and transformation.

Two: The quality of the relationships between individuals.

This is an area I really like to work, although this isn’t about counselling or therapy, It is about helping create and develop skills to have honest and productive conversations, sometimes working through extreme tension and conflict. This is also is such as transformational space to work and incredibly rewarding.

Three: The quality of the relationship between individuals and their roles.

This space has been a more recent area to work and comes from two areas, one where one helps an individual connect to the purpose of their role and sometimes working to redesign the way the work is done to ensure they are only focusing on work that adds value, as well as a space of helping to create clarity of scope and boundaries to foster autonomy and empowerment.

Four: The quality of the relationship between individuals and the technology they require to effectively perform their roles.

I did a lot of this work and learning when I worked in the IT (Enterprise Architecture) and Digital spaces and it still remains a major fascination for me. My learning is that when this is done successfully, the quality of the interactions and relationship with the technology and data creates a positive outcome and this has unlocked behaviour change as well as improved the effectiveness of the work and delivery of services.

Five: The quality of the relationship between individuals and the data they require to effectively perform their roles.

Very similar learning space to above and I felt it was important to separate out data and technology as they very much require different skills and capabilities and therefore the relationship is built specifically with data.

Six: The quality of the relationships between individuals and the physical spaces in which they need to effectively perform their roles.

This area is very interesting to me, as it is a very dynamic relationship, for example for me the relationship I have with particular spaces when needing to do elements of my role changes with the context of the work and my individual needs and preferences, I can need a creative space, a quiet space, a collaborative space, an open space and many more all in a single day…This has not always been possible when one is restricted to potentially traditional office environments but it’s a relationship that can create transformative outcomes when done right.

Seven: The quality of the relationships between teams and service areas.

Probably an area I’ve spent the most time in over the last 15 or so years and so far from the experiences I’ve had which are perhaps not universal, but this works in tandem with the relationship between individuals. The focus on developing collaboration and cross team and cross service working seems to be an ever present challenge in most large organisations.

Eight: The quality of the relationships between Organisations.

This is where the space opens up and brings together the individuals, teams, service areas etc but then adds a multi-agency layer into this space. Most of the work I’ve done here is systemic and system wide change. This is really powerful when you can feel and see movement in this space, but it can often be fragile and is often subject to the individual relationships being maintained and continually developed. It is a fascinating space to work though.

What relationships do you enjoy working on and what might be missing here?

The benefits of making time for connections

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

My last post acknowledged my gratitude for reconnecting with people who I had for various reasons lost touch with, This week I spoke with Nick Hill and much like the conversations I’ve had with others the conversation left me energised and connected to a deeper purpose.

I’ve known Nick for a long time and very much value his commitment and energy to make stuff happen and mobilise people and help people gather and network. It is a powerful and much needed contribution to the transformation of the public sector, maybe an unrated and undervalued aspect…This prompted me to think about why relationships matter and why connecting outward is important. It also sparked memories of the UnMentoring offer from LocalGovDigital which was essentially a hack of Nesta’s randomised coffee trials – the connections people made during the time it ran were incredibly powerful and long lasting.

One of my reflections and a key learning I’ve discovered over the years is that not only do relationships matter but more fundamentally it’s the quality of the relationships that matter most. This learning came to me through two specific but very much connected domains, the first through my experience in systems change and service redesign and the importance of relationships in particular in complex people based services and how the absence of a relational approach predictably causes duplication, wasted effort and frustration. The other domain being leadership learning and development where relationships between leaders and critically the relationship leaders have with themselves is the foundation for change and transformation at individual, team, organisational and system levels.

So as I look forward to this year and think about the important transitions that I will be experiencing personally and professionally, I am incredibly grateful for the quality of relationships I have, much like Sarah Lay has committed to making new connections, I also want to make a commitment to seek out and make new connections and investing in the very thing that unlocks deep transformation and change – relationships.

Rediscovering connections

People gathering on a beach – Photo from https://unsplash.com/@kimsondoan

Last week, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a wonderful person, and that person is Sarah Lay. Sarah was one of the first people I connected to outside of Devon many many years ago when I was involved in the corporate web and digital space.

The great thing about talking with Sarah was that it sparked a reconnection to those times when we first met, speaking about similar challenges, similar hopes, and similar frustrations — imagining, dreaming, wondering what could be…. those kind of conversations, reflecting back to probably 2011/2012, are what led to the wider connections and strong network of people that eventually became LocalGovDigital, a network of professional people who all shared a similar purpose and felt under-represented and misunderstood, but all wanted and needed to see public services improve and get better for people and communities.

We reflected on what occurred for each of us in the last 8 years as both of us took a step away from the LocalGovDigital space in 2016, each choosing different paths and each growing, learning, and developing who we are as people. We both found it fascinating that we are both in a similar position of wanting to seek out and find the people with the energy to disrupt, innovate, and be radical in thought and imagine a new public service landscape. 

I can see that some of the people I used to connect with have moved on, some have moved out of the sector and have taken the steps into consultancy or have joined organisations who really do understand the challenges of the sector and are not the big consultancies who are not seen as really focusing on purpose and value.

With so many platforms for connecting now, it is hard to know, where and how to find people in the same way it was 10-15 years ago. When I joined twitter in 2008, it was very easy to find people who were talking about reimaging public services, not just in the UK but globally, it wasn’t populated with millions of bots. I remember attending UKGovCamp in 2009 in London and the first LocalGovCamp in 2009 in Birmingham and those events changed the way I connected with people…The people I connected with back then were and still are some of the most influential people in my professional life and there may even be a few who I’ve never met in person but whose perspectives and views stimulate and challenge my own. 

I remember last week in the conversation with Sarah, we laughed a few times, one of the things that made me laugh was when Sarah shared the memory of being at a GovCamp event and we simply pitched for a room with the title “reflective practice”, the idea being that anyone who may have needed a quiet space or some recovery space after the pre -event food and drink could use the room to simply sit and reflect. It was well attended and I remember we invented the idea of penetration testing hashtags and were just tweeting random things…but it also sparked connections and friendships.

So coming back to now, I shared with Sarah that when I started to think about reconnecting with wider networks, my first thought was LocalGovDigitial because of the history I have with it, but somehow it didn’t feel like a space I belonged anymore, I wasn’t directly in the Digital space, more in a space of organisational change and transformation, but for me it felt like I was an imposter…I suspect that says more about me than the network, but it didn’t feel right, so I have tried over the last few years to make new connections and find spaces to find new people, but they aren’t easy to find. Or am I just missing the obvious?

I must acknowledge and thank Dave Briggs here who has helped me get some perspective on joining back into things and I respect and admire Dave a lot, he has been incredibly influential for me since back in the day, almost holding a place of “he’s famous” frame. I suspect Dave will love and hate this comment in equal measure 🙂

As I finish up this post, I caught sight of a couple of posts by Catherine Howe. Catherine is another person who has been such an influence on me, someone whose views and perspectives really challenge my thinking and I love the way Catherine leads herself and others, it is hugely inspirational. Catherine’s posts are sort of linked to my reflections, but written far more succinctly and intentional. Her post on “so long twitter” resonates so much with the reflections Sarah and I shared that it is worth a read. and her other post, “Fantasy System“, is an invitation to bring together people for something different, new and radical…

So my final reflection on where to find people is linked to Catherine’s invitation, if the spaces don’t exist, then the only response is that one has to create them with others. This is really the key learning from all those years ago – if it doesn’t exist yet, then create it and see what emerges, after all it may just be the thing that generates the spark.

A bit of a personal retrospective – exploring the power of reflection

Photo by Carl Haggerty – Upside down reflections of trees, Exeter Canal

Earlier this year, I broke my ankle quite badly, the surgeon said it was mangled and I needed immediate surgery to help create the best chance for recovery and subsequently had 2 months off work and then a phased return which took me to October…and as I write this now, I still face at least another 9 months of physio and recovery to essentially get back to probably 80%…but It will be worth it.

Why did I share that, well that time off, forced a major reflection, accidentally of course and it created space for a review point, it brought into sharp focus what was important to me and what I wanted to achieve, even if some of that was to simply be able to walk and ride a bike again.
In the latter stages on my recovery before actually returning to work, when I started to develop some space to think about something other than the pain and need to mobilise and move etc. I started to look back on the last 10 years or so and reconnect to what I was thinking, doing, seeing and sharing on my blog…

In doing this reflection I started to ponder the question: What has really changed in the last 10 years? – So to start let me share and high level view of what was happening 10 years ago to get a sense of perspective:

In 2013, I was sort of leading “Digital” from the edges in the council, mainly driven out of the web and social media angle as opposed to IT and Data…I was very active online and connected to a wide range of networks one of which would soon to be formalised into the LocalGov Digital Practitioner Network – something I am incredibly proud of and helping to initiate it alongside fellow collaborator Sarah Lay as well as all the others who put energy and time into what is still a hugely valuable asset in the sector.

I had also just won the Guardian Public Services Award for Leadership Excellence, and this was followed by acknowledgement in the LGC Top 100, it really does feel like a different world to where am I now…but a part of my journey I’m very proud of and it generated so much learning and growth.

So what has changed in the those 10 years, there is the obvious stuff, like I’m 10 years older, I have more grey hair, my bones creak, I’m slightly bigger and rounder or look like I might be bulking 😉 but when I dig deeper, what has really changed?

Over the last 10 years, I’ve been involved in significant service changes and transformation under the banner of “doing what matters” where we worked alongside our colleagues in Highways, Adult Social Care, Children in Care, Children’s Social Care, SEND Transport to learn and prototype systemic change and transformation, not all of it scaled, but the learning and impact of the work we did was significant and important to build on including developing leadership capability. These areas of work changed the way I understood what it really meant to support and enable change in services and across organisations. I connected to the reality of working at an organisational wide level and across the whole system, something I thought I had known, but was so off the mark. I guess one of the ways I can describe the change is to think of it of balancing the need to disrupt from and at the edges and at the same time embed yourself in the core of the organisation to change the system and its underlying assumptions. This is a polarity or paradox to manage and something 10 years ago I knew nothing of and would see this as a choice of either being at the edge or being in the centre or core. A different perspective and some learning opened the choice of doing both and balancing this constantly.

Another key area of impact for me was the collaborative work with colleague Samantha Mullins on the development and implementation of core principles and behaviours, and embedding that into the employee lifecycle with recruitment and leadership development being the first places to start and it’s now across nearly all areas – some of this story has been shared on my mutual learning blog with more learning on the way.  All of the above was very rewarding, hard and challenging work, connecting and supporting great people who I admire and respect a lot. Obviously Covid happened…

But the single biggest change for me though in the last 10 years wasn’t changes and impact in the work, in my job role or the connections I had, but in the understanding and relationship I had with myself.

I’ve been very fortunate and privileged to benefit from access to learning and development opportunities and profound relationships with people who have supported and challenged me, asking deep searching questions that have opened the door on learning about myself.

I’ve blogged about aspects of this journey before in the following posts, they aren’t the whole story but are snippets…I’m not advocating reading them again, but merely organising my own reflections into a coherent whole

• Development and growth a perspective on vulnerability
• Seeds to trees vulnerability as the birthplace
• Reflections on 5 key practices
• Depression and shame the simple yet unconscious patterns that feed and develop an unhealthy mind
• In my words looking back and accepting
• A personal blindspot working against what i actually need

Things I’ve discovered about myself along the way

I’ve discovered that unresolved trauma from my childhood/teenage years, has been embedded into how I show up and react in my adult life and in never understanding it or processing it, it left me vulnerable to that trauma being triggered by events and situations in and outside of work. My reactions to those events and situations being unconscious and unproductive but driven by a deep internally desire to be safe.

This learning was one of the most profound and painful things I experienced and in doing so it removed a weight or even a burden I’d been carrying for so long, and I continue to work hard each and every day to understand, work through and resolve trauma.  The outcome for me in doing this is so I can be in a position where I’m not subject to it, where the trauma doesn’t control me, it’s certainly something I can see and experience now…I’m more self-aware now to pull for and ask for help when I need it, something I wasn’t very good at doing before – a pride issue.

I’ve also discovered that when confronted with difficult and challenging relationships with teams or colleagues, the first question I ask myself now is  – how did I create or how might I be the problem here?  This framing, shifts me away from a judgemental point of view and opens up an advocacy and inquiry dialogue which can be a productive and generative space.  I’ve shared a perspective of this over on the mutual learning blog where leaning into having honest and productive conversations created a much better outcome.

I’ve learned that the quality of the support and love I give to others is determined by the quality of support and love I am capable of giving myself. This has helped me really prioritise my own personal wellbeing and the need to balance that with the desire to add value to others (work, life etc). But I can not do this at the cost of my own health…

This brings me back to my broken ankle, and a more recent reflection and learning is that I’ve learned a bit about Kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. In one of my trauma based coaching sessions I explored the idea that if I can see my scars (visible and invisible) as the gold in the pottery I can also accept the truth that in order for scars to occur you have to first accept that you are alive, that simple statement, blew me away…accepting and acknowledging I am alive…simple and yet profound for where I was at the time…Scars don’t form when something isn’t alive, so my scars are a reminder of my aliveness.  Above all else, this reminded me I am full of flaws that I’m embracing and I’m imperfect and will make mistakes and get things wrong and that is where the beauty of my humanity emerges.

So what has really changed in the last 10 years – well I know for certain my perspective has changed, and that has been driven out of the fundamental change in the relationship I have with myself.