Strathfillan - This Place Matters presentation

this place matters

re-thinking local leadership

Leading change together

Professor David Adams

Professor Trevor Davies

Diarmaid Lawlor

this place matters


This Place: profile, plans and pilots

Gillian Gillian TaylorStirling Council

Stirling Council

Community Pilot Projects

• This is a Stirling Council and Community Planning Partners

project

• We want to support our communities to be thriving, well

connected and proud places to live and work

• We want to work in new ways so that local needs and

priorities are met

• We want to test community led solutions to local issues

Why are we doing this?• Nobody knows a community better than the people living and

working there – need community focussed solutions

• To move away from ‘one size fits all’ method of providing

services and recognise the difference between our rural

communities and the city

• Challenging economic times - need to be more collaborative

and innovative

• This is a way of testing unique and forward thinking solutions

to local issues

Stirling Council

Where and Why?

Stirling Council

Community Profile 1

• Strathfillan and Killin are situated in an area of dramatic

natural beauty and are a gateway to the Highlands and

Western Isles

• Much of the area falls within the Loch Lomond and

Trossachs National Park

• Combined population of over 1,300

• Large geographical area and availability/cost of

transportation can cause issues when accessing existing

public services

Stirling Council

Community Profile 2

• Self employment is high in both areas (20.5% in Strathfillan

and 19.5% in Killin)

• Local economy closely linked to tourism, agriculture, local

trades and retail

• Seasonal work is a feature of the local economy and

number of low income households is high

• Many local houses have been sold for holiday homes,

pushing up prices and excluding local people from

purchasing

Stirling Council

Community Action Plans

• Local Economy, Jobs and Tourism

• Local Housing

• Roads, Safe Routes and Transport

• Local Environment

• Facilities and Services

Stirling Council

Diarmaid Lawlor

this place matters


This Place : public actions - your views

Public actions Your views

Us, here, now

• Distinct places

• Connected issues

• Shared landscape

Public actions Success

collaborative

planning


Community

learning spaces

collaborative

planning


Environmental action

Community

learning spaces

collaborative

planning


collaborative

planning

Community

learning spaces

Connecting

communities


Environmental action

Public actions Failure


Budget

decisionmaking

Service

localisation


Budget

decisionmaking

Service

localisation

Sustaining

networks


Budget

decisionmaking

Service

localisation

Sustaining

networks


Infrastructure

&

environmental

management

Budget

decisionmaking

Service

localisation

Sustaining

networks

Public actions Your views

Success

• Capacity

• Learning

• Environmental action

• Connectivity

Failure

• Budgeting

• Localisation

• Networks

• Infrastructure

Diarmaid Lawlor

this place matters


This Place : Priorities

What’s the BIG idea?

What are the big PRIORITIES in this place?

What’s the BIG idea?

What are the big PRIORITIES in this place?

What BENEFITS come from working on them together?


this place matters


Understanding PLACE

• Place is the ‘container’ for all the

people, institutions and activities

that occupy it

• Places condition our lives

They matter to human

experience

• Place-making involves economy,

society and environment

• Places can help or hinder our

democracy

• Good places attract - Failing

places repel

Why is place so important?

What comprises a quality place?

What makes a quality place?

• Good supply and mix of affordable, low energy homes

• Well-designed and maintained public buildings

• Good mix of local shops and pubs etc

• Good transport infrastructure

• Range of accessible cultural facilities

• Easily available public services

• Ample high quality green space

• Built heritage treated as an asset

• Well-designed and maintained streets & public spaces

• Homes and neighbourhoods for everyone - young & old

What supports a quality place?

• Good health and care services

• Good schools and child care

• Good public transport services

• Low pollution, noise and congestion

• Activities for young people

• Job opportunities

• Low cost of living

• Community cohesion

• Good relations between neighbours

• Strong community and voluntary groups

• Civic engagement and trust

• Local governance is about more

than delivering services

• It is about making places

successful, now and for the future

• It has to involve everyone

• Learning what makes places

succeed or fail should be at its heart

• It’s often no more expensive to

create successful places than failing

ones. It just needs care and

advance thought

Shaping places is about governance

• Leadership drives forward action,

breeds confidence, reduces risk

& widens participation

• Leadership is about

vision, culture, motivation,

resources.

• This cannot be privatised – it

needs local action within a local

democratic mandate

Shaping places needs leadership


this place matters


Leading Change Together: Values

Leading change together: values

Shalom Schwartz: (2006)

“values are the desirable goals we set for ourselves, which

transcend specific situations and motivate our actions”

action

• Values inspire action

through emotion

• Emotions inform us of

what we value

• Decisions to act follow

emotional judgements

about values

Values into Action

Professor Marshall Ganz


George Lakoff: (2009)

Our first social experience is the family. Family metaphors

frame our social values.

Based in the brain’s neural maps “metaphors are mental

structures independent of language”. “Metaphorical thought is

ordinary, mostly unconscious and automatic.”

36

S Schwartz 2006 adapted by L Higgins

N Pecorelli 2013 for IPPR

Schwartz’s Values Wheel

Prospector

Settler

Pioneer


What personal values led you to public action? SELF: What personal values led you to public action? What personal values led you to public action?


What personal values led you to public action?

Can you find common ground in your values?

SELF: What personal values led you to public action? What personal values led you to public action?



this place matters


Leading change together : new ways

Leading change together : new ways

TABLE 1 (community participants)

If you were PUBLIC sector what would your focus for action be?

And what would you expect private sector to do?

TABLE 2 (public sector participants)

If you were PRIVATE sector what would your focus for action be?

And what would you expect the community to do?

TABLE 3 (private sector participants)

If you were the COMMUNITY what would your focus for action be?

And what would you expect the public sector to do?

What new ways can we develop together?

Leading change together: new ways

Have our priorities changed?

What does collaboration revolve around?

this place matters


BREAK!

this place matters


The tools to lead: strategic thinking


The tools to lead - strategic thinking

Chris Carter: (2014)

“The setting and accomplishment of long-term objectives

recognising the emergent, paradoxical and unintended

nature of organisational life.

“Positioning the organisation and bringing together a

compelling narrative with the people, resources and

techniques to realise the objectives.”

➢ long term objectives


• ambitious and achievable

• relevant and credible

• eloquent and compelling

• unifying and identity-building

➢ identity

• Who are we - this place, this team?

• Who we are is shaped by our values.

Our values shape our common purpose

• What makes us different from what was done before or by

others?

• And what is it about us that will endure over time?


➢ techniques

Small things can make a big difference:


• - by changing how people see things

• - by showing how it’s done

• - by making an easy set of steps to follow

• - by tapping into positive beliefs and values

Building your future Strategic choices

What are your big shared priorities and objectives?

What are the first small 'tipping point” steps?

What is your team and how will it work?

this place matters


The tools to lead: teamwork


The tools to lead - teamworkGroups

Try to combine individual goals,

which may conflict

People work together to help each

other succeed in own area of

responsibility

Conflict accommodated

Product: sum of parts

Teams Share common purpose and

priorities

People trust, support & are

mutually committed to each

other

Conflict resolved

Product: more than sum of

parts

The tools to lead - successful teamwork

COMMON PURPOSE that is:

• relevant

• credible

• realistic

• understandable

• challenging

“An excellent team has clear shared

goals and objectives. Ask anyone in

the team what its purpose is and he or

she can tell you”


TEAM LEADERS who

• motivate

• enable

• simplify

• delegate

• evaluate

Team leadership is : “the skill of

influencing people towards the

achievement of goals and objectives”


SHARED CULTURE that is

• open

• honest

• respectful

• tolerant

• responsible & accountable

A hallmark of an excellent team is its

members’ ability to say what they

think and feel, without putting other

people down or being put down

themselves


BALANCE OF SKILLS including

• technical

• professional

• problem-solving

• decision-making

• interpersonal

“An excellent team has all the skills it

needs to achieve its purpose and this

means having people with different

styles, different approaches and

different strengths”


REFLECTION

• what happened

• why it happened

• repeat the good

• avoid the bad

• improve

Regularly ask yourself “How are we

doing?

this place matters


The tools to lead: narrative


➢ narrative


• confirms your identity and your values

• conveys and illustrates your strategy

• describes the journey towards your goal

• is emotionally compelling

• and invites participation


You need skills to

motivate others

to join you in action

The tools to lead - narrative

inertia

apathy

fear

isolation

self-doubt

INHIBITORS



MOTIVATORS

urgency inertia

anger apathy

hope fear

solidarity isolation

empowerment self-doubtOVERCOMES INHIBITORS



action

• Values inspire action

through emotion

• Emotions inform us of

what we value

• Decisions to act follow

emotional judgements

about values

Values into Action


Head Heart

Action

Two ways of understanding:



story of

selfcall to leadership

story of

nowstrategy & action

story of

usshared values &

experiences

PURPOSE



Building your future Narrative

How will you tell your story of who you are and why?

How will you move others to act now for the long term?

What values will you share to motivate others to join you?

Building your future First steps

Tell the story of getting from now till then …….

So what happens now?

this place matters


REFLECTIONS Feedback and Learning

‘we have been doing teamwork.

for a long time.

What’s the next step?

Concrete collaborative projects

Multiple benefits

1 page brief

Knock heads

‘bridges, not walls’

An attitude to collaboration:

To want to work together

Bespoke to needs

Equitable access and sustainable

efficiency

The order of things matters:Impacts first and efficiencies flow from this

empowerment here is about

Access, equity and inclusion:Physical, digital, conversational

Affordable

Ownership:Whose job is it, actual local decisions,

where are the overlaps?

Localising investment priorities:Cross cutting services, revenue, devolved budgets and subsidies

Collaboration=project focus:The health, wellbeing and tourism

benefits of the cycle route

Keeping people in the area:Overcoming bureaucratic obstacles,

keep services, deliver priorities together

Local [and department] knowledge feeding in:

Sharing problems, alternatives

Social Local agency

system values…

Networks:How they work, how they connect,

how people can enter

Projects for practical action:Concrete outputs, clustering and

multiple benefits

Localising priorities:Meaningful empowerment and

overcoming obstacles

Equity:Recognising that this means

differences matter

‘but what would it look like

Positive action

Working together, equality

Encouraging participation

Sense of respnsibility

Care and self reliancePaying back

‘our values’

Equity in anything

SO, is it about:

CASH• More money?• How money is spent?• How budgets join up?

PRIORITIES• What impacts?• For who?• What behaviours?

‘But……

The offer of here: people returning

and business?

‘the extreme of everywhere’

The constraints on public sector

action

Low numbers, low votes; no voice?

Digital connectivity and

workforce

Communication between sectors

AND

‘but what would it look like

Places [and responsibilities]

Digital connectivity [and skills]

Policy priorities [and local]

Why come back here; Quality of life

‘in the shoes of others……

‘shared spaces’

‘shared spaces’

Access

Alternatives

Places [and responsibilities]

Digital connectivity [and skills]

Policy priorities [and local]

Why come back here; Quality of life

‘in the shoes of others……

projects

Mount St Vincents, Seattle

Library Lab

Civic crowd

Priorities: place

Access to healthcare

Place based. Not administrative boundaries

Diversify economy

More choices, less dependency

Digital infrastructure

Quality, choice, provision

Priorities: process

Enabler

• Right officers, right levels

• Talking honestly

• Agencies coming together

• Empowering officers

Small, achievable, defined projects

Priorities: resources

A hub for new ideas

• Taking initiative• Thinking outside the box• Direct action; priorities, funding, action

Beyond public sector

Priorities: possibilities

What do we mean by..

• Access to services• Buses doing many things• Connectivity• Affordable• Funded by who• Digital: skills, products, service models• Joined up working

Alternatives and models

Priorities: public sector role

…..to broker [and sharing responsibilities]

From ‘big brother’ [and silos]….

The Community

Stirling CouncilChanging roles

this place matters


INFORMATION

www.thisplacematters.org.uk

Strathfillan - This Place Matters presentation

Government & Nonprofit