Went to a fabulous session this morning which launched a new report from NESTA about 'radical efficiency' and how to make it work. The point was well made that delivering public services in a radically different way is no longer just very important or even critical - it is an imperative! Here is a link to their excellent report:
http://www.nesta.org.uk/home/assets/features/radical_efficiency
The launch had some excellent presentations and questions - which prompted lots of ideas in my head about how to make effective and efficient innovation happen. I will write more later - but here is quick summary which I have already tweeted (of course!):
- Use the common wealth to create more common wealth...
- Look for ways to connect consumers together to create new expertise resources
- Stop blaming central govt and just get on with taking radical action locally
- Break accountability 'rules' and give authority to the point of service delivery
- Lead so that you enable risk taking, not to close it down
- Get everyone in one room so that professionals can 'hear' the voices of consumers directly!
- Think of doing more with more (not less) - but redefine what you count as your resources
- Create a culture where structure & passion coexist sublimely to achieve real results
My huge thanks to everyone involved with the report and indeed present at this morning's event. (I wish we'd had the whole day to debate the issues emerging... perhaps NESTA would like to organise such a day....?)
Original blog post: http://tinyurl.com/radefficiency
the report sounds good Jon - thanks for alerting. we are looking at supporting a local arts network - the tendency is for officers to want to 'control' and act is if they know best...have to keep being reminded to hear all the voices in the room - good point.Â
ReplyDeleteYes - very interesting - one of the speakers described yesterday how they ran something like a 'Dragons Den' type process where local providers / voluntary schemes bid for money to support their goals. At the end of the process, some of them were given cheques there and then - with no 48 page application forms to complete... The groups were surprised and delighted.Some years ago - I designed and facilitated a couple of whole system events for the Home Office on gun / gang / knife crime which turned into http://connected.homeoffice.gov.uk/about/ (reports of the events are on there). I suggested that make their fund application process as simple as possible so that small groups could apply for just small amounts of money and carry on their positive work in tackling these areas of crime. I believe that is what happened.If the public services are to foster a 'big society' - I would agree with you that there has to be a high degree of 'letting go' - indeed one speaker yesterday suggested that one of the main barriers to public sector innovation was ossified professionalism... that all too narrowly defines its role and freezes out citizens working alongside...I could write much more about this...!
ReplyDeleteYes - very interesting - one of the speakers described yesterday how they ran something like a 'Dragons Den' type process where local providers / voluntary schemes bid for money to support their goals. At the end of the process, some of them were given cheques there and then - with no 48 page application forms to complete... The groups were surprised and delighted.Some years ago - I designed and facilitated a couple of whole system events for the Home Office on gun / gang / knife crime which turned into http://connected.homeoffice.gov.uk/about/ (reports of the events are on there). I suggested that make their fund application process as simple as possible so that small groups could apply for just small amounts of money and carry on their positive work in tackling these areas of crime. I believe that is what happened.If the public services are to foster a 'big society' - I would agree with you that there has to be a high degree of 'letting go' - indeed one speaker yesterday suggested that one of the main barriers to public sector innovation was ossified professionalism... that all too narrowly defines its role and freezes out citizens working alongside...I could write much more about this...!
ReplyDeleteThe title of the report is deceptive. It is not actually about radical efficiency.The report itself joins up the three public sector E's of efficiency, economy and effectiveness with the two voluntary & community sector E's of equity and engagement.All in all, a good report on the hallmarks of a vibrant relationship between two different sectors that share a number of unchanging characteristics.
ReplyDeleteCarl - if this report is not about Radical Efficiency for you - please would you explain what you mean by Radical Efficiency? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI was at the event also and found it very exciting; I was also staggered by how few people were there from the public sector - fewer than 25% of those attending. What is key is the need to work with the community and allow things to develop to some extent organically; a very strong message of fewere targets and a longer timescale. There is so much evidence around from longitudinal studies that social networks are vital for health and well-being and also for finding work that it is crazy that we invest so little in developing these networks in areas and for communities where they are weak (or dysfunctional, such as those that can help keep people in unemployment, drug use, etc.) Hence my question.
ReplyDeleteLeah - I agree - I was struck by the comment made by David Halpern about the research into the common cold. He stated (if I heard him correctly) that the biggest discriminator between people who caught a cold and who did not (under experimental conditions) was whether they answered yes or no to the question "do you have someone who loves you?"That left me thinking lots!As for longitudinal studies - have you caught my previous blog post where I talk about my experience of being part of the 1958 longitudinal study? It is still continuing!
ReplyDeleteHello Jon ... I was not attempting to say what might be Radical Efficiency.The contents of the report lead to an approach to redefine the boundaries of the relationship between two different parties, using the case studies.Thus Radical Efficiency is just one possible impact from a Radical Relationship.The title does not do justice to the contents and reasoning.
ReplyDeleteFor those who are interested - Iqbal has continued his thoughts about this report on his own blog:http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/1071722/blog/blog-display.do?id=4888069
ReplyDeleteBWG ... Black Workers Group ... it is a self organised network across England.There is no such thing as radical efficiency but if there were, it would be indicated by hallmarks such as ... a near zero waste from input processing thus requiring no rework; new processes which could effectively or efficiently or economically use materials previously regarded as either commercially unusable or not being input material at all; new processes which have the existing efficiency of current processes but use vastly reduced power for instance;Now we are not talking manufacturing but efficiency e.g. personalisation, at its best, when compared with current processes, can require the user to either adapt to the service or adapt the service instead of only asking the user to become his/her own commissioner.Requiring and facilitating adaptation from users radically alters or spreads the efficiency concept.Note radical efficiency may have no effect however on effectiveness and economy.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Carl.
ReplyDeleteI don't totally agree with the point that we should "Stop blaming central govt" as many of the constraints that are part of our working environment are imposed by c. govt. My belief is that these constraints often happen as central govt is not close enough to our customers to really understand their needs locally and the values that they place on the services and products we deliver. So I think that central govt has a role to play in reducing the turbulence in our systems and this has an impact on efficiency as well as effectiveness.Now here's my thought for today - I have been arguing that within local authorities (BTW I really don't like the term authority!!) that when we review our structures this should also mean changing the authority that staff have. What that means is that instead of continuing as bureaucracies, mangers delegate far more the decisions to their staff but with clear and agreed guidelines. So why doesn't central govt develop more trust and enable local authorities to make more of the decisions (fewer fuzzy laws and policies and clearer guidelines). That way we would stop blaming central govt but first we need Trust.
ReplyDeleteNick - thanks for your comments. The idea of stop blaming Central Govt came from Jon Rouse (CEO LB Croydon) - he said this in the context of talking about the changes that had been made in his 'Total Place' and how the vast majority of these were not dependent on CG having to change anything. If my recollection is correct, I understand that his view was it is too easy to default to blaming CG rather than actually investigating what needed to be done...I do very much agree with you that there needs to be far more trust and true empowerment between and at all levels of government.Â
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd mention that NESTA funded this report, but that it was written by Innovation Unit. Innovation Unit are a not-for-profit social enterprise committed to using the power of innovation to help meet the major social challenges we face today. We have a strong track record of supporting leaders and organisations tasked with delivering innovation in public services.We do hope that this report will excite people into thinking, seeing and doing things differently. But I'd like to add that we are also applying the thinking at the moment. We are currently using the framework introduced in this report to work with local authorities to actually deliver different, better, lower cost services. It doesn't end with this report. We are also releasing an 'Innovator's Handbook' version of the report in September, which will have a more practical focus. I'll post a link up once it's been released.Kathryn Tyler, Head of Communications, Innovation Unit
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