Ignite Lab

For many years, schools, hospitals and local authorities have been irritated by what they perceive as government micro-management, manifested in target setting, inspection regimes and a plethora of national initiatives. As the coalition’s drive towards local freedom and accountability changes all this, the key question is: to what extent will this new freedom and accountability genuinely find itself reaching down to those operating right at the grass roots of children’s services? 

There is a huge risk in pushing accountability far out from the centre in that this increased pressure results in everybody losing sight of one of the most compelling reasons for local freedom and accountability – to enable front-line staff to have great ideas and do something with them.

We know that many of the best ideas and solutions do genuinely emerge from staff at all levels – recently the Bank of New Zealand empowered all branches to select their own opening hours on the back of an employee suggestion.  This has not only significantly improved levels of customer service but also sent a strong signal that staff at all levels have the ability and permission to genuinely impact the way the organisation works. The key challenge is to establish a way where every single employee feels that part of their job is to engage themselves in developing and shaping ways in which services can be improved or costs reduced. Councils like Lewisham have gone further in extending such schemes out to customers, seeking their feedback on opportunities for improvement and potential areas to focus cuts.

Ruth Stone, the American poet, talks about the moment when she can feel and hear a poem in the distance. She describes it as a thunderous train of air, barrelling down towards her.  When she feels it coming she has an urgent need to dash home and to sit with a pen and paper and capture the poem as it travels through her.  If she is not able to capture it then she feels as if the poem will move on and seek another poet better prepared to take advantage of it.

Ruth is successful because she knows she is a poet, she recognises the symptoms of when a poem is coming and she is well practiced at capturing the essence of the verse in a way that brings to life its very heart and soul.  We are witnessing a situation now where public sector organisations recognise that the kind of imaginative thinking required to transform their services is indeed barrelling around their organisations and that it is vital that this force for good is captured and applied.

Clearly these concepts are not new, however unfortunately many organisations have been led to believe that the answer lays in idea generation and suggestion schemes, which almost universally prove to be disappointing. The answer might emerge from the following key questions:

• If you ask half a dozen random members of staff operating at different levels across your children’s service, would they know the target future you are seeking to achieve and, importantly, what you see as the key priority challenges they need to focus on to achieve this?
• Are you confident that they know how and when they can contribute their own unique experience, skills and imagination in getting there? 
• A recent survey suggested that not only do staff generate the very best ideas, they also generate the very worst! Have you established effective mechanisms for focusing, capturing and evaluating creative thoughts and then building and shaping them into solutions that will really make a difference? 

The challenge is to create an environment in which everyone’s ideas will be heard and considered, where the right ideas are being cultivated and the right attitudes fostered.   This is a slippery challenge that is genuinely hard and many people get it wrong, or don’t even try.  However those that do make a success of this take a multi-faceted approach that really pay dividends.  Examples of successful tactics we have encountered and supported include:

• Providing a highly visual and accessible physical manifestation of the target future that staff can “step into” and experience what it will look and feel like as well as the challenges of getting there.  Something that itself will excite and stimulate staff in what is ahead of the organisation rather than what is being left behind.
•  Rolling out a comprehensive, pan-children’s service campaign of idea generation and problem solving based on some simple but highly engaging creative thinking techniques. We have seen such tactics used as a real galvanizing force in getting everyone’s involvement in tackling the really meaty challenges
• Running a series of high profile events where there is the opportunity to communicate progress, celebrate success, establish a sense of “oneness” to the challenge whilst making real heroes of those individuals and teams contributing to progress

The critical thread throughout this is senior leaders demonstrating a determination to explore new and fresh ways of tapping into the expertise across the organisation.  Through this they ensure that when that moment comes and the thunderous roar of creativity approaches they are fully prepared to capture and apply it as a key element in the transformation of their services.