Bulletin #16, December 2021
It was good to see so many of you at our recent National Gathering. Once again, there were many wonderful contributions. To whet your appetite here are a few examples:
On joining forces with others: ‘It’s important to value and acknowledge the points of light and seek to create constellations of shared interest and need, including those we disagree with.’
On building relationships: ‘When a social worker, for example, puts relationships first, we say that s/he ‘goes the extra mile’. We need to change this, so that this behaviour is seen as the ‘first mile’.’
On leadership: ‘Feminist leadership principles – self-awareness, self-care, dismantling bias, inclusion, sharing power, responsible and transparent use of power, accountable collaboration, respectful feedback, courage and zero tolerance – these all work for me.’
On ‘re-wilding’ our imagination: ‘Children are naturally imaginative as we can see when they play, but imagination gets colonised in the pursuit of ‘one right answer’ and we end up with ‘cookie-cutter’ brains. As a consequence, imagination is side-lined into entertainment and is often only reserved for some people in our society who work in the arts, for example. But we all need imagination, so we need to de-colonise and re-wild our imaginations.’
You can find a full report from the event on our website here – do take a look, and enjoy!
Very best wishes,
Caroline Slocock and Steve Wyler
National co-convenors
Future events – what would you like to see?
We are preparing a programme of events for 2022. This will include online meetings on the four themes we set out in Time for a Change, as well as new events to explore further three questions we started to discuss at the National Gathering:
What kind of leaders should we be?
How can we unlock our humanity and imagination?
How can we remove the roadblocks?
We will also be following up our recent roundtable on social care (see below) with further roundtables to see what happens when we apply Better Way thinking to some of the big challenges we face, starting early next year with the criminal justice system.
As well as continuing with tried and tested online meeting formats, we’re also hoping to experiment with some new approaches next year, including collective imagination spaces and action-learning type techniques.
Further details of all this will be circulated soon, but in the meantime do check out our forthcoming events page for details of our regular Wednesday morning drops-ins – a great way to connect with others in the network in an informal and always invigorating way.
Also, if there is a topic you are working on, or a challenge you are facing, where you sense that Better Way thinking might make a difference, and you’d like to get together with others in the network, we’d love to hear from you – please do get in touch.
Adult social care roundtable
A well-attended Better Way roundtable in November considered what is needed to make adult social care really work. Funding matters, but it’s not just that, we concluded. There needs to be ‘a rebirth of humanity’, leading to more connection and community. The aim should be to create a new eco-system of mutual support for people within their communities - ‘local people caring for local people with local people’ - as well as more personalised services. See the full note here.
More insights from our members
Servant leadership – Jill Baker says that if you have a position of power, authority or leadership, your job is to always think how you serve those you lead, not the other way round. When working out how or what to do, Jill says, she often goes back to the question – who am I serving here?
New power – Kristian Tomblin works in a council building that ‘reeks of patriarchy, tradition and old power’. He came to realise that old power was driving humanity out of human services, and failing people, not least women who were victims of domestic violence. A ‘new power’ was needed, that included listening to people who need support and learning about their lives. Not jumping to conclusions about the services they need but co-designing bespoke responses with them.
Joining forces – Cate Newnes-Smith says ‘Collaboration is like organising a street party’. There are different ways of throwing a party which show different levels of partnership. At the lower levels you could send out invitations to all your friends to join you, or you could ask some of them to help set it up, or you could help someone else arrange their own party. But true collaboration, says Cate, is where ‘the whole road is involved and comes together to organise it.’
Authentic leadership - James Dixon recounts how his first experience of leadership, ‘or maybe the lack of it,’ was in trying to move a flock of sheep, together with their lambs, from one pasture to another. He noticed that sheep will always follow their self-selected leader but will not follow anyone who merely wishes to impose their will on the flock. Authentic leadership can take various forms, says James, but is not produced by displays of power.
Common cause – some links to what others have been doing
The Relationships Project, led by Better Way co-founder David Robinson, continues to produces thoughtful and practical material, including a Kit for Councils to support strong community relationships, and the Bridge Builder’s Handbook, a guide to building bridges across divides.
Also check out this paper by Iona Lawrence Through Thick and Thin which sets out ideas for ‘an infrastructure for relationships’.
The Human Learning Systems model, an alternative approach based on being human, continuously learning and nurturing healthy systems, developed by Toby Lowe, has attracted widespread interest. Dawn Plimmer from Collaborate discusses what it means for the role of local authorities here.
In November Together for the Common Good held a debate at St Mary’s Church in Putney (site of the historic English Civil War debates) on "The Common Good: What Does it Mean for Government?". Speakers including Maurice Glasman and Caroline Slocock. You can watch it here.
The New Social Covenant Unit was set up this year and subsequently published Trusting the People: the case for community-powered conservatism, co-authored by a group of recently elected Conservative MPs. Danny Kruger MP, the Unit’s co-founder, is currently working on the Levelling Up agenda in government.
Local Trust has published ‘Us and them’: A mindset that has failed our communities by David Boyle and Steve Wyler. This examines why the last three decades of community development initiatives left us with so many ‘left behind’ places and so much inequality, and the implications for Levelling Up.
And finally… what you are saying about the Better Way
In November we carried out a member survey about the Better Way. The full survey report is here.
Everyone who responded said they like the Better Way principles (83% saying they like them very much), and 94% of people like the Better Way model of behaviour change. Some comments:
They are incredibly useful and I use them regularly in my work.
They are written without jargon and are meaningful no matter what sector you are from.
97% of people who have been to Better Way events reported their experience was very positive (64%) or quite positive (33%). Some comments:
It's always a rich conversation and a welcoming group of people to connect with – I always leave more energised and with fresh thoughts.
The Better Way always attracts interesting and impactful people who innovate and make a difference. A great place to make connections and pick up on new ideas.
Caroline Slocock and Steve Wyler
Co-convenors
A Better Way
to improve services, build community and create a fairer society
carolineslocock@civilexchange.org.uk
stevewyler@betterway.network
www.betterway.network
Twitter: @betterwaynetwrk
About a Better Way: We are a network of people across society exploring how to improve services, build community and create a fairer society. Together we have drawn up eight principles for a Better Way and published a collection of Insights for a Better Way, A Call to Action for a Better Way and more recently Time for a Change. The network is hosted by Civil Exchange, and is also currently supported by the John Ellerman Foundation, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, and (for our work in the North of England) Power to Change. You can find out more and also contact us and indeed join us, via our website here: http://www.betterway.network/. If you don’t want to receive future bulletins, simply send an email to let us know.