Collection of posts on ‘relational public services’

A collection in one place of some recent posts, including version 1.0 of my paper on ‘degrees of relationality in public services’:

These posts cover a range of issues:

• Definition: what ‘relational’ actually means
• Practice: what to do differently at the front line
• Diagnosis: ladder / degrees / gradient
• Conditions: governance, history, why it struggles to persist and grow

At heart, I’m saying:

• Relationality isn’t tone but operating system
• It’s about engaging person-to-person to move from demand to need to purpose, and from service to system to place and community
• This only works if you shift authority, measures, and system conditions (and psychology) – d otherwise immune systemss absorb or reject it
• That means our mechanism of change needs to be informed by all the above

Latest post

What empowerment asks us to grieve

Definitions – what is it actually about?

Primary diagnosis but also understanding of ‘what does relationality mean here’, while psychologically trying to move away from splitting and polarisation to pragmatic change.

Relational public services good, transactional bad? That’s not how real systems work. And it’s not how change happens. My ladder of degrees of relationality might help

A companion piece to the above, defending and explicating the common use of ‘relational public services’ and the mindset shift we need.

What do we mean when we say ‘relational’ in public services?

How do we change the way we relate? and How to move to relational public services

The most complete narrative (in different forms) of what I think are some of the key issues in the way of moving to better, more relational, public services – and things we need to pay attention to to get there.

How do we change the way we relate?

How to move to relational public services

A Hundred Origin Stories – an Unfinished History of Relational Public Services – Parker, Dove, and Taylor (2025)

An attempt at “‘a decent accessible history of relational practice/thinking/leadership (ideally short form)”

A Hundred Origin Stories – an Unfinished History of Relational Public Services – Parker, Dove, and Taylor (2025)

Relational public services and reality

The simplicity and impact of relationship public services, even in the current context – and the energy and effort it takes to maintain.

Relational public services and reality

A cheat sheet for more relational customer-first services

Focused on getting beyond ‘level 0’

Cheat sheet for more relational customer-first services

Why relational public services are linked to systems practice as a humanism

My keynote speach at #STSP26

At #STSP26 I argued systems practice is a humanism.

Some practical ways to see where current conditions come from, and how we could approach the starting point here differently.

Public services don’t fail primarily because of money, digital, or process but because they are numb to themselves

Provocations about why we’re trying to change relational services wrong, and my position papers

Why do relational public services keep failing? 

Why do relational public services keep failing?

A provocation paper – ‘we’re trying to change to relational services wrong’

Are the ‘rebels with a cause’ actually preventing the very change they campaign for?

On The Community Of The Covenant

What ethical or spiritual belief system is tucked away, perhaps in your back pocket, influencing you even if you don’t acknowledge it?

A manifesto for relational public services

A manifesto for relational public services.

A shorter manifesto

A (shorter) manifesto for relational public services.

Why we keep on keeping on

Why do people keep working on public service transformation when it’s so often frustrating, slow, and uncertain?

Comments and debates

A comment on a very good piece by Polly Mackenzie about ‘provision’ and civic life

Beyond provision: civic life is lived by people

Most public services don’t talk about real outcomes

Most public service systems talk about outcomes far less than they think they do

A response to James Plunkett’s excellent piece on ‘institutional immune system’ and Sophia Parker’s post about it

This essay on the ‘institutional immune system’ is one of the clearest descriptions I’ve read of a dynamic many of us in public service transformation spend our lives inside.

Pointing to Alison Turner’s work on failure demand in the NHS

This is a really important piece of work from Alison Turner and colleagues at The Strategy Unit.

A response to Mick Ward and Anthony Morrow: moving to community at the centre – and the challenge to commissioning

Moving to community at the centre – and the challenge to commissioning

re: a podcast interview I did

Public services are still mostly managed as if they were Victorian machines with org charts attached.

A response to James Plunkett’s ‘centre for the edge’ piece

Reading James Plunkett’s piece, I kept thinking about how strange it is that modern states still imagine they govern through decisions. Mostly they govern through reduction