The changing role of public servants

I spoke at the IMECE summit, a renowned platform for discussing and shaping the future of public service. The summit was focused on the changing role of public servants and how we make the unusual more usual. Here is what I said!

Why is innovation needed?

I always come back to the example of Muhammad Yunus, who was inspired during the Bangladesh famine of 1974 to make a small loan to a group of families as start-up money so that they could sell things they’d made without predatory lending.

We’re experiencing waves of change and ‘new inequalities ‘, referring to the emerging disparities in access to resources, opportunities, and services. These inequalities manifest in people living near each other, living very different lives, and organisations and sectors must adapt to these new dynamics.

The pandemic has shown numerous examples of innovation, such as neighbours creating mutual aid groups to support each other. These groups have been instrumental in providing essential services and support to vulnerable community members. Other examples include beer manufacturers repurposing to create an anti-bacterial gel, and the public sector repurposing their spaces to enable communities to deliver food.

So innovation is best triggered by:

• A crisis or a need
• The curiosity of people to learn from others
• Collaboration to bring new tools & resources to create the tools

How can we stimulate and encourage more innovation in a local government context?

1. Mobilise people around causes that have a visible impact on people’s lives and that can be tackled at an individual, community and institutional level. Your actions can make a significant difference in the lives of those around you.

When I was at Camden, we developed a Renewal Commission around four missions where local & national policymakers develop propositions rooted in the lived experience of residents, which are tested out on the ground to create feedback. Think & Do, where we made a physical space where people could find out how to live more sustainably in practical ways, like through retrofitting to taking part in activities that tackled the issue, like a library of things, to running activities themselves like a food coop on a housing estate, to developing a whole liveable neighbourhood experiment combining changes to physical infrastructure. People will think hosting a pop-up space is, at best, playful and, at worst, superficial in the face of the climate crisis. However, you can’t develop future policies or practices if you don’t create the space for imagination. But you can’t just imagine those futures; you need to start acting them so people can see what they might look like and then adjust & challenge them.

2. Root innovation in the distinctive identities & strengths of the place’s neighbourhoods to develop a movement that celebrates the creativity of its local communities and economies

The way people feel and make decisions is also influenced by people’s environment — like their education, their workplace and their communities. What is the culture of your communities — how can you root innovation in your communities or neighbourhoods?

When I was at Camden, we did this with We Make Camden, where we celebrate the stories and activities of residents who “make” Camden what it is. We linked that into commemorating staff stories, whether the poet in residence we’ve got in our social care team or young people helping people from gangs fix smartphones.

We must come out of our comfort zones and unconscious biases to think differently.

Creating communities where you have people from different practices — designers, strategists, playwrights, and community organisers — naturally gets people curious about each perspective because they don’t know enough about the other’s practices to make assumptions. It also creates a form of collective accountability.

3. Empower staff, partners & residents to experience, experiment & embed innovative ways to tackle issues together. This process is not just about innovation, but about valuing the unique perspectives and contributions of each individual.

• Enables people to immerse themselves in experiences that give them the confidence & context to take part in more structured activities
• Provides stepping stones for people to work differently so that they can take the skills developed and take them back into their teams

When I was at Camden, we fostered innovation in Camden through the ‘ Public Collaboration Lab ‘, a partnership we’ve developed with Central Saint Martins University. This lab brings together researchers, students, frontline staff, and community organisations to tackle issues creatively. It is a platform for innovative ideas and projects and a space for collaboration and learning.

• Use skills that councils wouldn’t usually call upon to tackle an issue, in this case, getting industrial designers to prototype furniture in overcrowded housing, storytellers to develop narratives with young people to create new youth hubs or product designers to help separate waste better.

4. Focus on inviting people to participate at points in time that will have the most significant impact on them

• For staff: New teams forming as a result of a redesign of a new programme or new staff
• For partners: New partnerships or collaborations as a result of a change in commissioning or practice
• For residents: People leaving school/work or joining college/university or the workplace or going through a crisis

5. Help the innovation scale at a human level

Public Collaboration Lab is a partnership that provides design support to public services and community organisations. We then scaled by rooting it in a specific neighbourhood and making it a physical space co-designed with residents who wanted to focus on “making” stuff. We turned it into a maker space by partnering with a property developer, a library and a community organisation. Having a physical space helped make the change in that community visible. This has become a platform for different projects in that neighbourhood and part of a more comprehensive European program to influence master planning. Public services have different levers which go beyond funding or delivering services, but also as landowners, employers, regulators or place makers.

Finally, creating time for people is the most excellent way to help people.

Strangely, more affluent people have had more time to observe the inequalities faced by people who are poorer and have less time on their hands. They’ve also had time to see which employers were paying their staff and supporting their well-being through this challenging time and which were laying them off. Some of us at work who may have saved money by not commuting or going out to bars and restaurants may use that cash to donate to good causes or businesses on our doorsteps.

To summarise:

1. Mobilise people around causes that have a visible impact on people’s lives and that can be tackled at an individual, community and institutional level. Your actions can make a significant difference in the lives of those around you.
2. Root innovation in the distinctive identities & strengths of the place’s neighbourhoods to develop a movement that celebrates the creativity of its local communities and economies
3. Enable staff, partners & residents to experience, experiment & embed innovative ways to tackle issues together. Public Collaboration Lab
4. Focus on inviting people to participate at times that will have the most significant impact on them.
5. Your role is crucial in helping the innovation scale at a human level. Your influence can extend the reach and impact of these innovative solutions.