PRESENTATION BY:

Conversation not consultation

Building collaborative communities

JULY 2015

Rob Francis, OPM

Change ‘in here’ can’t succeed in a vacuum

If we want to transform public services, change ‘in here’ won’t be enough – we need change ‘out there’. This means that we need:

• Citizens with the skills, confidence and local networks to participate in that transformation

• New forms of collaboration between agencies and communities

• Starting with conversations – with rich, open, ongoing engagement – not always relying on structured consultations

Engagement or consultation?

WHEN? EXAMPLE

CONSULTATION You’ve identified a need & there’s a technical solution;Options are limited;Requires a transparent, formal process

Infrastructure projects e.g. new road, new school etc.

ENGAGEMENT The challenge is unclear;The response is unclear;Local people can be part of the solutionYou want to harness local energy and ideas

Finding different ways to support specific groups of people;Shaping a plan or set of actions that local people support;Grow the pool of people actively involved in their community

Good engagement should…

• Open up conversations rather than closing them down, starting with people not services

• Be active not passive

Invite people to share and shape their own ideas rather than just responding to options that have been pre-formed

Enable and support people to get involved and stay involved, not just to give an opinion and leave

• Be allowed to gather momentum – and only slow down for a good reason

• Make connections and grow local networks

• Be interesting and enjoyable

Getting stuck There’s a risk that we keep relying on the same approaches to engagement that we’ve always taken, and that can mean:

• The same people turning up

• The same points being raised

• The same council-led response to addressing those points

• Everything getting sucked into the same agenda items in the same cycle of meetings

…And if we’re not careful, we tell ourselves we’ve tried to engage people, we slip back into our comfort zone and nothing much really changes.

ENGAGEMENT APPROACHES

Asset mapping (2)

• An asset-mapping workshops start with what’s already there, rather than dwelling on what’s missing

• They can help surface ‘intangible’ assets – i.e. skills, interests, support networks – as well as buildings and spaces

• They can be a vehicle for forging new connections

The Ideas Farm

• The Ideas Farm is about the collective power of people in a room and ‘growing your own’

• It starts with a blank canvas and ‘follows the energy’

• It doesn’t work if it’s led by someone in authority

When engagement works, are we ready for it?

These can be useful formats for generating good engagement – but that’s the easy part.

• Even if you run a good event, organisational cultures and norms of working that can get in the way.

So what we do with the ideas that emerge and the contacts we forge – that matters too.

• Important role for elected members and senior managers here – help your staff break out of the usual processes if they need to

THE COLLABORATIVE

SPHERE

(where action is based on informal

discussion and relationships)

THE COLLABORATIVE

SPHERE

(where action is based on informal

discussion and relationships)

THE COLLABORATIVE

SPHERE

THE ENDRob Francis, OPM

www.opm.co.uk

@ThinkingRob