I found LocalGovCamp a really refreshing and cheering event this year. Iām going to spend a few quick posts writing up my thoughts.
There’s a kitbag of tools and approaches that can be used to tackle the problems facing us. Not everyone knows about them and this needs fixing.
I’m not necessarily talking about digital tools either – although there are some of those of course.
It’s more than that – it’s some of the emerging practices and processes, and mindset too. They don’t even cost money, most of these things.
Take the example from Carl Haggerty. At Devon they have a meeting room, decked out with fairly random, non-officey furniture, that can’t be booked out. It’s a room for the curious and the collaborative. You can have meetings in there, but be warned that anyone might turn up and join in. Or you could take your laptop in and get on with your day to day work, only sitting next to people who you don’t normally get to meet.
Like organisations acting responsively to their users. Being agile in the way services and products are delivered. Iterating in response to feedback. Co-designing to improve the way things work.
It’s also about a plurality of tools and systems to be used to help fix problems. I know this is a recurring theme of mine at the moment, but one size fits all solutions are dead.
People and organisations have to be flexible enough to be able to deliver different services in different ways to different groups depending on their needs.
This mindset, these tools and practices need to be rolled out to people in ways that will really help them bring about change. I don’t think training courses or online tooklits will cut it, somehow. We need something new.
I love the idea of a room for the curious and the collaborative š
Every building should have one!