Join the discussion on linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_sysprac26-systemspractice-relationalpublicservices-activity-7497908640293695490-VuEp I’m doing two workshops at hashtag#SysPrac26; a slightly alarming pair (as the performance artist said to the episcopal authority figure)...‘The consultant is in the system: a practice lab for helping without taking over’‘The system is inside the practice: making relational, place-based public services ordinary’There is no outside!In the first … Continue reading There is no outside: two systems practice labs at SysPrac26 →

My weekly posts Thoughts on Renaisi’s pattern book for place-based change The Renaisi Pattern Book is excellent, but patterns are not the place operating system. We need sharper distinctions between mechanisms, actors and effects, with power and equity running through the whole thing. Scale is about spreading the conditions for good local judgement, not replicating … Continue reading Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #235 →

Join the conversation on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_patterns-the-right-level-for-place-based-share-7496165471935827968-Phk9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADUV_eUBZSxZvFpx70OV050F6K5HM2MhTMo Patterns - the right level for place-based change? I think the Pattern Book from John Hitchin and Anna Waldie is starting one level too high.It's great. Not a collection of ‘good examples’, branded models, generic principles, or instructions on scaling! The 13 patterns are recurring mechanisms, with conditions, dependencies, evidence, failure modes, and … Continue reading Thoughts on Renaisi’s pattern book for place-based change →

Join the conversation on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_epistemological-closure-im-writing-about-share-7495375130819338240-988V/ 'Epistemological closure'. I'm writing about it a lot, and I see a lot of it around - I think LLMs often help people see it! It's the process through which a person, institution, or society loses the ability to encounter reality outside its own categories, incentives, language-games, legitimacy structures. … Continue reading Epistemological closure is everywhere →

My weekly posts Where political control really sits I’ve regrouped the UK public-sector workforce by where ultimate political control really sits. The picture is strikingly centralised, and “local delivery” is not the same as local control. A place that cannot move money, authority, measures or rules has delivery responsibility, not control. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_relationalpublicservices-publicservices-systemschange-share-7493586434503929856-ITxo/ The walls come … Continue reading Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #234 →

(rewiring for local relationality 3/3) Introduction Join the debate on linkedin athttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_relationalpublicservices-publicservices-systemschange-share-7493586434503929856-ITxo/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACuq-oBecVFDW6PCf3lkoG-peMeuLBeoho Do you know where real control sits in the UK's public services? I was at a fantastic event for people involved in governance of public services - smart, well-informed, dynamic, the people who make a real difference and who keep public services safe, … Continue reading Where political control really sits →

(rewiring for local relationality 2/3) Join the debate on linkedin at https://lnkd.in/p/ecDP6wCJ Relational public services are no longer short of advocates. What they're missing is an account of why they collapse. We keep showing the attractive picture. The walls are down. People work across boundaries. Staff use judgement. Citizens are encountered as people rather than … Continue reading The walls come back: why relational public services fail after they work →

(rewiring for local relationality 1/3) Introduction Join the debate on linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_publicservices-devolution-systemschange-ugcPost-7492848069080809472-rh-w/ To rewire, you start with the existing wiring as it's developed over time. It's a blunt metaphor; I tried a blunt test. Do you think it's helpful? Which public bodies can plausibly exercise a directly elected mandate to depart materially from UK … Continue reading Rewiring the state as a control problem →

I can take two poems of Larkin on a good day, two and a half before I slap him shut and throw away, ‘Jesus Christ, man!’ The clear-eyed monster who knows he is blind whose love spills poison. Who wants such monstrous love? The book I inherited from my father.