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

king

& D

agen

ham

Bar

net

Bex

ley

Bre

nt

Bro

mle

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Cam

den

City

of

Lond

on

Cro

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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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Hou

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Islin

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K&

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Kin

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Lam

beth

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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Sou

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ark

Sut

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Tow

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Wal

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For

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Wan

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Wes

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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

brigitte.gohdes@youngfoundation.org