How we go about the business of change makes a huge difference to the results you get. Similarly understating why you are changing can either drive purpose or set up resistance. This post is a bit about unpacking that.
Change is a really layered thing and when I talk about it I’m looking both at the symbolic and visible changes that we make in order to deliver projects and priorities but also the stuff in the real guts of a system or an organisation – the stuff which is you can think of as an actual paradigm shift. The first is changing what we do, the second is changing how we do it. The two are really a Venn diagram as the how and the what are very closely linked and if you get the right combination accelerate each other. That’s what I want to do.
I’m not a fan of the burning platform trope (this previous piece says why). It speaks of heroic leadership and the idea that there is a simple solution rather a more sophisticated view of the world. It’s also a bit hectic and most public service organisations are desperately in need of calm sustainability rather than another Big Idea that will fix things.
But it is true that to animate change you need a few different things:
- A purpose: no one wants to run round like headless chickens and that purpose needs give people space to dream about the future
- A push factor: getting started is the hardest part so you need a reason
- A pull factor: a reason why you think the future will be better
For Local Government (and for wider public services) the push is our finances. We are all running out of options to make ‘efficiencies’ without significant risk and so we have to redesign to make things work more sustainably. It’s the pull factor that drives me however, how we become more relevant to our communities, face into complex issues with confidence and be brave about getting ahead of problems not just reacting to them.
That deals with the push and the pull, the purpose is something we haven’t spoken enough about in public service reform for a while now and something I think we need to reflect on. For me, the purpose of Local Government is the long term stewardship of place, providing a context in which our communities can thrive at the same time as being ready to respond to the democratic mandate which we serve. That means, again speaking personally, that the purpose of organisational change is to become an organisation that can do this in the current context in a way which is connected and relevant to our communities.
I don’t think anyone working within public services would disagree that we are currently dealing with a profoundly broken system, I think the challenge is how you shift the focus of change to bring about renewal of our purpose rather than trying to hang onto things that are no longer fit relevant.
But remember not everything is broken, we have many of the elements that we need in the future, the challenge is how you change a whole system rather than simply providing a window onto what could be. I think this is part of the myth of ‘change fatigue’ I don’t think public servants are tired of change, they are tired of pointless change which is just keeping the broken system afloat. They don’t want more pilots and then to experience cuts masquerading as transformation programmes, they want real change. We can’t avoid the fact that that level of change will be challenging, but far better to be changing with purpose rather than running to stay still. Resilient, stable, adaptive. These are not exciting words but they do reflect how we would like our organisations to feel in the future. I think this is a realistic dream.
We have lots of signs and signals of something new, the problem is that they are often disconnected, the thing that is missing is doing ALL the future things together. William Gibson said ‘the future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed’ and this is true for Local Government as much as for anyone else. We have tried everything once, we just haven’t tried it all at the same time.
It’s the difference between getting dressed in the dark and actually taking the time to curate an outfit. It’s the same stuff but a very different result (at least from my wardrobe). Pushing that metaphor a bit further, it’s also about making sure that you have got the basics right and made sure they are relevant and not dated.
There is an alchemy to taking stuff you have already and turning it into something different but I think that’s the essence of organisational change. You are always working with the fabric and nature of the organisation as it is in order to help it become something renewed.
For Local Government, at least for those of us who have emerged from two tier areas, this is about taking the best bits of our previous organisations and becoming something which in this case is actually new; A truly unitary council which is designed to navigate the world as it is now, not as it was back when our predecessors were formed. This is what I think that could look like:
- Properly able to work in place with internal coherence that means that we show up and connect with organisations and partners that are embedded in communities
- Able to leverage the whole organisation to work in the preventive space as a team, addressing system opportunities as well as specific issues
- Rooted in modern methods, technology and design which means person person centred and data informed
- The capacity and capability to be responsive to the democratic mandate
Get this right in an organisation and then step back and see what the ripple effect is in the wider system. Get two organisations working in this way in a single system and see if we get magic happening.
A while ago I posted a piece about building a fantasy system which really struck a cord with people, something to bring all these glimmers of the future together for a moment so we can see and feel it. Perhaps this post is a more incremental approach to doing just that. Change is hard work, but if you are not dreaming big about the future you are probably not doing it right.
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