PPMA conference 23 March 2010
The London Collaborative: developing creativity and innovation in the capital
Brigitte Gohdes , The Young Foundation
About the Collaborative
What we have done
London Futures Challenge
Lessons and reflections
About the London Collaborative
A consortium set up in late 2007 led by the Young Foundation and
funded by Capital Ambition
Aims: • to make London’s public sector greater than the
sum of the parts• to create capacity and resilience • to tackle future challenges facing the city
… first stage in a longer-term strategy to improve collaboration between the people who think, plan and act to shape London’s future
The idea behind the CollaborativeLondon had sharply improved performance within councils – but did less well on cross-cutting issues
→ need to create capacity outside but alongside formal structures of power to widen menu of options and ideas on key cross-cutting challenges
→ grow skills and a culture of collaboration across organisational and borough boundaries
“London local government needs to lead and shape the debate with our public sector partners about how to ensure that we are alert, resilient and adaptable enough to tackle the challenges which will inevitably come our way over the next 15 years. The London Collaborative programme is set to play a key part in helping us rise to them.”
Councillor Merrick Cockell, March 2008
DEFRA DWP DCMS MIN JUS DBERR CLG DoT HOME
OFFICE
DCSF
GOL RCU BWB Env Agency
JCPlus Benefits Agency
Arts Council
EH LSC HEFCSport England
Natural England
Business Link
Strategic Rail
CAA PLA Highways Agency
NHS London
Transport Police
Network Rail
31 PCTs
25 acute trusts
4 mental health trusts
Magistrates & Courts
5 sub-regional LSC councils
Govt Depts
Appointed bodies and agencies
Greater London AuthorityLondon Assembly Mayor of London
LFEPA
London Fire Brigade
London Development
Agency
Transport for London
Metropolitan Police Authority
London Skills and Employment Board
Met. Police Service
London focused agencies
London Councils
Bar
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& D
agen
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Bar
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Bex
ley
Bre
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Bro
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Cam
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City
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Lond
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Cro
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Eal
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Enf
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Gre
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Hac
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Ham
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& F
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Har
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Har
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Hav
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Hill
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Hou
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Islin
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K&
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Kin
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Lam
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Lew
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Mer
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New
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Red
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Ric
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Sut
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Wal
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Boroughs
London is a complex mix of agencies and accountabilities (from T Travers 2004 diagram)
CABE
London based
p’ships with
CELCreps
HEALTH
Chief Executives’ London CommitteeCapital Ambition
London Safeguarding
Children Board
London CommunitySafety Partnership
TfL liaisonpanel London LA
resilienceforums
NHS liaison panel
PREVENTBoard
NHS commissioning
group
London Resilience
Team
CONTESTBoard
SYV Board
ASB Board
Border and Immigration Agency
Children &Young People
PartnershipBoard
14-19 JointProgramme
Board
LondonApprenticeships
TaskForce
TfL steeringgroup
London Collaborative
Homes and Communities Agency
6
Early work: defining the challenge
Two key strands of work 1. The London Leadership Network
Over 400 network members from London councils and their public sector partners
32 out of 33 London boroughs engaged
Events and leadership development to develop resilience and innovation
Web 2.0 site to support
2. Work on challenges and practical collaboration Behaviour change, carbon reduction, ‘tough times’, London Futures Challenge
Key driver is saving money as public
spending reduces drastically
Facing up to efficiency and cuts
Innovation as a response
Use a range of techniques and methods
Ideas generation with our network: prevention, behaviour change, service design
Recent focus: ‘let’s not waste the crisis’, innovation in tough times, more for less ...
Leadership development and eventsSeminars, workshops, learning days, practice exchanges,ideas evenings ...Drawing on chief executives, other senior staff from network but also wide range of external speakers
“The best solutions come from people from a range of disciplines working together”.
“The Collaborative should aim to create a space to come together and develop skills to look beyond normal budget/planning cycles.” London Leadership Network members
Examples of leadership events
Max Wide, Executive Director Organisational Development speaking about ‘The truth behind EasyBarnet’ at a tough times event Oct 2010
I left with a renewed commitment to make the time and contribute to London’s leadership and to think about the transition of the organisation to equip it for the future (back at the ranch).” London Borough Chief Executive at a workshop on leadership styles BT Tower Jan 2009
Wide interest in better marshalling knowledge and ideas including from elsewhere ....
“..let’s have stimulus packages that fix society as well as the economy” Rosabeth Moss Kanter November 2008
Exchange with Beijing Municipality Dec 08
Examples of leadership events
Examples of leadership events – series on innovation
Ideas evening: public sector Innovation with charles LeadbeaterOctober 2008 at the Magic Circle
Two ideas evenings on innovation methods and practice at Sadler’s Wells Summer 2009
Innovation methods in detail:Session on user journey mapping – young unemployed at Design Council Jan 2010
Social Innovation Camp Express Feb 2010
© British Telecommunications plc
Practical work on innovation: behaviour change
Who do you think is at fault for causing obesity among children?
Who do you think is responsible for tackling obesity among children?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
The parents of the individual
Food and drink manufacturers
Restaurants and fast food outlets
Schools
The individual
Supermarkets
The government
Not stated
None of these
Workplaces
Other
%
Challenge to the public sector
Important in ‘future-readiness’ of cities and organisations ....
‘Social innovation’ refers to new ideas - products, services or models - developed to fulfil unmet social need
Innovation not just about new ideas - also about adapting, learning, grafting, copying, new to sector, new to scale, new to country
Innovation - next step from improvement?
Slide 15 The Young Foundation 2010
End to end innovation a Young Foundation framework
“The future is already here, it is just unevenly
distributed”
William Gibson
London futures challenge: redesigning the future shape of London public sector Three workshops at Tate Modern – all in context of ‘more for less publicmoney’
1: redesigning the relationship between the state and citizens
2: redesigning our organisations with leaner management and fewer staff
3: redesigning the relationship between local public services and central government
London Futures challenge
52 senior staff from 24 boroughs and other organisations participated in London futures challenge.
A group of six present the outcomes to an awayday of 26 of London’s chief executives on 4 March 2010
We presented a simulated landscape of 2012 where significant cuts had already taken place, to get participants thinking about the more radical steps required for 2015.
Materials included information about a fictional borough
and media stories to set London and national context.
London Futures challenge
We used design insights to explore the task
Leading public design agencies provided ‘one hour rapid design workshops’ to inspire creative thinking. They offered a number of tools and led interactive sessions.
Illustrations of design methods: use of recorded ethnographic stories of people and their encounters with public services to get to ‘whole systems thinking
Looking for inspiration on ‘more for less’ in Tate gallery – in art works (taking away creates something new) and in institution eg membership scheme and engagement
London Futures challenge - proposals
Relationship with the
publicCentral local relationship
Local public services
Local public
services
A deal with Londoners:
honest dialogue
Radical market making
Talent London
‘Right fit’
spatial levels
for function
s
Slide 21 The Young Foundation 2010
About this kind of informal collaborative• useful counterpoint to formal machinery – more flexible, easier to take risks, explore options• not end in itself but generates ideas and can speed flow of knowledge and information
Art of collaboration• visible leadership and encouragement is key• mobilise enthusiasts first• use visible action and support to win over more cautious• time to built trust, connections and new habits
Lessons and reflections
Banksy
Slide 22 The Young Foundation 2010
About using creativity and innovation• people are receptive• design insights, new approaches to problem solving are useful but focus has to be on substance• need to be more systematic about innovation
Emerging trends - increased interest in …• reducing dependency (people helping themselves)• mutual aid (people helping each other), civic society• reducing big state: co-production, delayering, less regulation and inspection, • new dialogue with residents/customers incl through new media• behaviour change
Lessons and reflections
The future
Collaborative skills will be key – to Total Place, to making
savings
Leadership Network will continue
For further information:www.network-london.org.uk