“The thing is, Dan,” someone very senior once told me, “if we asked people what they want, they’d just say chocolate cake.”
So, the senior person described what he thought they’d like instead rather than asking people.
In many ups and downs it was the most depressing moment I had in eight years of local government.
I’ve always felt uneasy with this ‘we know best’ concept of public service for people.
Earlier this month I saw something different that has hardwired putting people at the heart of things.
I was in London and could make a meet-up – or teacamp – for local government people. The meet-up was tremendous. A room in a pub. Some tea and coffee and some shared learning. It reminded me of brewcamp meet-ups in the West Midlands. Hats off to the excellent Natalie Taylor of the GLA for organising.
What was hugely good was a quick exercise that spelt out what ‘agile’ looked like. It’s a process I’ve leard lots about but never really come into close contact with. In short, this is looking at a service you want to change in the organisation and going through step-by-step.
But at each step, looking at what will benefit the service user… the real person public sector people are trying to help.
It was hugely refreshing to focus on the user not the organisation. Not to say a little difficult.
There is nothing new about this process. It has been used for years and has been a mantra for places like GDS. But seeing it at close hand it’s clear there is a lesson there for communications people.
The question for communicators is not about chocolate cake…. it’s ‘does what you are communicating help real people?’