My happy place is working in complexity, where uncertainty is part of the process, and building relationships is a key operating principle.
What do I mean by “complexity”?
Drawing on complexity theory (more by Liz Keogh about Cynefin and about Ralph Stacey’s work, should you want to dive in), I reckon that if you’re working in public services your activities can be identified as either complicated or complex.
In complicated challenges, you know the questions to ask and how to design the solutions – you may well research your users’ needs and do some testing (in fact I very much hope you do!) but broadly speaking, with your specialist technical expertise and sector experience, you’ve got this.
In complex challenges however, your professional expertise alone isn’t enough. You might be working on long standing issues that are not responding effectively to the usual tools, and need to try a different approach. You might need to pull apart a problem and discover what the contributing factors are, so you can address them – not instead of, but in addition to, the business as usual of responding to the symptoms of the problem. Depending on your sector, you might hear this referred to as innovation, transformation, new ways of working, culture change, systems change, participation, involvement, co-design, or co-production, for example. The key is that you need to bring your professional expertise and experience together with those of a diversity of stakeholders, and service users who have different lived experience and expertise. By raising up different kinds of knowledge and wisdom, and connecting with a range of people who are invested in solving these problems, you can co-create, test and implement solutions effectively. For this work to stick, you need to build connections, trust, and long-term relationships.
I think a whole lot about complexity, pretty much all the time.
In fact, I made this list of complicated vs complex approaches in public services.
What do I do in practice?
I help operational, strategic, research and policy teams learn to operate well in complexity. This means getting comfortable (or at least learning to cope!) with the inherent uncertainty; adopting approaches that return answers and clarity through iterative development; picking up tools and methodologies that lead to meaningful engagement and relationship building. This could be working with a whole range of different people, who might be any or a combination of:
- citizens and community members (engagement or participation)
- service users (co-production and involvement)
- stakeholders across sectors (co-design and co-creation)
- colleagues, teams and/or partner organisations (collaboration)
(If you’re bamboozled by these jargon terms that all sound the same, you’re not alone. I was too, so I made a glossary to have a clear understanding of what’s what.)
I will work with you on a project for an agreed length of time, and bring various elements into play: I will design and facilitate workshops for your team (to think, plan and learn together), and for your stakeholders and/or service users (to create connection, and move towards collective decisions and action). I will advise on communications channels and content, and can edit and adapt documents for different audiences. I will ensure we consider and build in monitoring and evaluation from the start (both about what we achieve, and also how we achieved it). I can deliver bespoke training sessions to your teams, partners and stakeholders together, and I can offer group mentoring and one-to-one coaching to support your learning. I will cheerlead your efforts, validate your thinking, and constructively challenge where useful.
While my work with you is on a task-and-finish basis, my aim is to build skills and confidence through hands-on experience, so that you can keep applying what you learnt long after we’ve finished. And of course the relationships you develop through this process will contribute to your continuing work in complexity.
Want to see some examples of projects I have worked on? Click to reveal!
- with policy teams
e.g. how can we update our policy process so that it puts the rights of children and young people at its heart? (Welsh Government)
e.g. how can we engage with people in our region to understand their priorities and what should be included in a Regional Economic Framework? (Welsh Government) - with research teams
e.g. how can we engage with people outside of the political or policy spheres, about what constitutional futures mean to them? (Aberystwyth University)
e.g. how can we create supportive spaces to engage with people about their attitudes to contact tracing? (Swansea University) - with strategic teams
e.g. how can we, as leaders in the sector, agree a strategic direction and shape an action plan? (cross-sector, environment)
e.g. how can we adopt these ways of working and be a co-productive organisation through and through? (GISDA, Credu Connecting Carers)
e.g. how can we co-produce a strategy that will enable us to meet our statutory obligations and put our values-based ways of working at the heart of everything we do? (Torfaen Council)
e.g. how can we build strategic partmerships and collaborative relationships to respond to the climate and nature emergencies? (Natural Resources Wales) - with operational teams
e.g. how can we work with our community and beneficiaries to design our new space? (Citizens Advice)
e.g. how can we ensure the community is engaged with and understands the infrastructure works we will be implementing to mitigate the risk of flooding in their town? (Natural Resources Wales)
e.g. how can we co-design a provision to support the families and carers of our patients? (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, PAVS and Hafal Crossroads)
Want to see some nice things people have said about my work? Click to reveal!
- “The whole process of working with you was incredibly supportive – helping us structure our work in a genuinely co-productive way from start to finish.”– Aberystwyth University
- “Having you here is really helpful to think about all the elements we need.” – Natural Resources Wales
- “I’ve worked with you on a few different projects. It’s always been a successful relationship, delivering the outputs we needed to a high standard. But what you really excel in has been your support of our team to help us articulate what matters clearly, to focus our work and design our engagement and communication in a more inclusive and effective way than we could have done ourselves. Your probing questions, honest and constructive feedback and clear presentations that captured our discussions and your observations, are what has really made the difference in our work. The impact of this will be felt for some time to come.” – Natural Resources Wales