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Mike Chitty

Helping realise development since 1986

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Some Reflections on Inclusive Growth and Colliding Paradigms

Mike Chitty · February 11, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Yesterday over 100 people gathered in Horizon at Brewery Wharf on the paved over flood plain of the River Aire in Leeds.  While the warm air of Storm Ciara ripped at the cladding and dumped its increased burden of rain onto the hills and valleys it transpired that our keynote speaker was unable to make the journey from the south coast due to widespread transport failures. 

Brewery Wharf itself was looking tired and grey, with apologetic sandbags burst open and significant building works underway. I had cycled down with the wind and rain ripping at me. I’d been abused by a driver who narrowly avoided ‘left hooking’ me on Regents St as he was unable to progress, stranded across the bike lane. His anger transmuted into an order for me to go forth and multiply. When I arrived I struggled to find anywhere to lock my bike. Leeds.

After the formalities of the welcome Tom Riordan, CEO of the council, spoke to us and answered questions for the best part of an hour to fill the gap left by our stranded speaker. I thought the almost biblical conditions might provide the perfect space for a city to pause, reflect and ponder whether a course correction might be required.

Flood warnings
Flood warnings in Leeds as we met…

Tom started off sharing his expectation that about 15 people would show up, given the weather and the warnings.  But loads had turned up and how very ‘Leeds’ that was.  To not let ‘a little weather’ stop us. To carry on regardless.  This might turn out to be our Achilles’ Heel.

He acknowledged the tremendous work of the council teams and volunteers who had worked since 4am on Sunday to avert a flooding disaster in the city. He thanked the engineers of the moveable dams first used in Portugal and now here in Leeds to manage the unprecedented river flows. He acknowledged the floods further up the valley and the damage and suffering that had been caused. But WE had escaped with a close shave thanks to investment in technology.

Can we outpace climate change?

I wondered, as the climate continues to warm and the atmosphere holds even greater quantities of water ushered in on even higher wind speeds, for how much longer our flood defences could outrun the climate. 20 miles up the valley and 4 significant flood events already this century in the city (remember those assurances about once in a hundred years?) hinted at a possible answer.

I reflected on the advice of one of the worlds leading systems thinkers, Gregory Bateson, to be “alert to the tendency to let technological possibility or economic indicators replace reflection; for the effort to maximise a single variable, like profit, rather than optimising a complex set of variables.”

Perhaps this was a space for reflection and alertness?

Tom described the great successes of Leeds, the city and its economy, and the councils’ progress. Homelessness is lower than our neighbours. We are going to double the size of the city centre. We are going to develop strategic partnerships with developers and business. We are going to take the idea of ‘anchor institutions’ pioneered in the voluntary, civic and social enterprise sector and bring it to the world of the large employers who could do more to recruit and develop local talent. He spoke of new roles being pioneered at the hospital combining a health care assistant with a social prescriber (an opportunity for a new TLA surely) to provide career opportunities for local people in the ever expanding illness business. 

I reflected on how much of this burden of illness was significantly contributed to by poverty, debt, anxiety, addiction, poor air quality, poor housing, homelessness and loneliness, and how much of that was contributed to by ‘strategic partners’ in the city like William Hill, Sky, and Channel 4 with adverts for consumption and gambling inclusively beamed into nearly every front-room and smart phone in the city.

The price of prosperity is rarely paid by the prosperous.

We Can’t Stop Capitalism. Can We?

Tom reminded us that ‘we can’t stop capitalism’. I’ve heard him talk before about the importance of ‘going with the grain’.

And I’m not sure that is what any of us wanted. The end of capitalism. Not overnight anyway. Some of us just wanted, as good credit card carrying capitalists, to recognise those that were excluded from growth, damaged by it, discriminated against and left behind by it. To consider how we might use it to care for the planet rather than to kill it. And to reflect on what we might be able to do about it. How we might change things. For the better.

To reflect on the way that growth was a problem as well as an opportunity. It really IS easier to imagine the end of humanity than the end of capitalism.

Tom then talked about the vibrant ‘third’ sector. It is often described as vibrant in Leeds. And it does have some incredible people who have been working for inclusion and equality for decades, using hard won funding cocktails of heavily scrutinised, usually short term, contracts and philanthropy. When money is on the table ‘vibrant’ is a good persona to adopt.

I’ve known many of Leeds ‘third sector’ leaders for decades and I know that for some, accompanying their ‘vibrancy’ is anger, frustration and exhaustion.

Tom was brilliant. Engaging, witty, informed. But I’m not sure we grasped the nettle of who was left out of the economic growth and why. No mention of ‘discrimination’. Or whether economic growth was as much part of the problem as the solution. The message seemed to be that we need to double down on our efforts.

Economist Serge Latouche has developed the concept of de-growth as a way of averting the crisis that may (or may not) be looming. After decades of speculative and financial euphoria, punctuated by the odd crash and policy of austerity, the Leeds economy is ‘doing well’. But many of its people aren’t because of displacement, the retreat of the welfare state, the increased precarity of the gig economy and under-employment.

What if we put human wellbeing before, or at least alongside profits? What if we tried to optimise many variables, instead of focussing on one?

The Wellbeing Economic Alliance seem to be working on this and are well worth a look.

Perhaps there is an opportunity to develop de-growth initiatives in a spirit of solidarity, working together to create a new era that aims for a calm, responsible decrease in consumption fostered by a love of all species and our planet? Rather than putting humans, especially those with ‘potential’ at the centre of things, what about if we saw ourselves as just a small part of a much larger and complex ecosystem? What if we were able to change the paradigm? But such radical thinking was not, apparently, on the agenda.

After a well resourced break it was workshop sessions.

I attended one on ‘Culture and Place’ and one on ‘Thriving Communities’. We had just over an hour for each workshop and the majority of the time was spent with speakers addressing the room with very little opportunity to really get into the complex issues in table discussions.

The variety of different perspectives on the same issue were leading to conflict especially where third sector knowledge of communities and private sector enthusiasm to help were at odds. At one point I could not hide my frustration when a session that should have been exploring our role, and what Leeds could do to help, collapsed into a conversation about how two big businesses with mixed reputations in the city might effectively provide enterprise training as part of their CSR work, because “it is better than painting fences”. The long history and experience of doing enterprise development work in Leeds counted for little in the face of four sessions of training that ‘worked’. Enthusiasm from the private sector unless melded with the experience of the third and civic sector and local community developers really IS likely to do more harm than good. One of our table explained that community and business were miles apart. I wondered if they had ever visited Harehills where community and business are intertwined both spatially and through familial ties.

It was a strange moment for me. I was starting to ‘other’ my colleagues from business, but without the time or the safe pace to really have the conversation I felt left with little alternative. And even though I know this is a dangerous and destructive dynamic I felt myself falling into it.

It wasn’t about personalities. It was about paradigms. Some were in the paradigm of ‘big business as a force for good full of good people that care‘. Others were in a paradigm that said ‘beware big business, knowingly or not’ it damages people and planet and shows little real intention or desire in stopping’. Some were in the paradigm that said ‘growth is sustainable’. Others in a paradigm that said ‘growth is not sustainable’.

Some were in a paradigm where they had answers. Others were in a paradigm full of curiosity and questions. Some were in a paradigm of making nips and tucks to the existing way. Building better dams and higher walls. Others were in a paradigm that that sees the need for a fundamental change in what we value.

Would we be able to hold both paradigms respectfully? To learn from each other? To support each other to move forward with love and kindness? Not in the few minutes in which we had for our paradigms to collide. No.

I have been working on the idea of paradigms and how they shift for a while now. I have written a little about it here. And run workshops to help leaders explore their role in developing and shifting paradigms.

Much was made of Leeds diversity as a strength. But unless we find the time for the diverse perspectives and different paradigms to listen to each other with respect and care the diversity is more likely to lead to chaos than creativity. To less inclusion rather than more.

In the plenary session one of the speakers quoted a piece of radical engagement work in Copenhagen that took place after riots had rocked the city. As a city and a region we have a history with riots and I hope that such unrest is not necessary to trigger a genuinely creative and transformational response to our times.

Im not a great one for celebrity leadership. But when I got home Joaquin Cortez gave me hope…

Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow…

“We fear the idea of personal change, because we think we need to sacrifice something; to give something up. But human beings at our best are so creative and inventive, and we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and the environment.”

Joaquin Phoenix – Oscar Acceptance Speech 2020

We need a space for thinking and imagining where the realists and pragmatists can take a back seat while the idealists and the imagineers can develop ideas about how things might be. To build a consensus and commitment to move towards a very different but eminently possible future.

Everyone counts…but some might count more than others?

Mike Chitty · February 1, 2020 · 3 Comments

We maximise our resources for the benefit of the whole community, and make sure nobody is excluded, discriminated against or left behind. We accept that some people need more help, that difficult decisions have to be taken – and that when we waste resources we waste opportunities for others.

NHS Constitution – Values
Mike Chitty Realise Development

I think the NHS Constitution is a wonderful document. Beautifully written, it speaks powerfully to many of us about the NHS that we want to use and work in.

One of my frustrations in working with the NHS is the infrequency with which we consult the values explicitly to help us with decision making. The values are beautiful, but in my experience, appear to be used infrequently as a management and leadership tool.

There are 7 values in all and they set an incredibly high bar. Take this one – Everyone Counts. It is the value that to my mind speaks most explicitly about the NHS ambition with respect to diversity, inclusion and equality.

I think that, in practice, we often stop reading after the first clause. We maximise our resources for the benefit of the whole community. We do our best with limited resources to provide the greatest health gains for the greatest number of people that we can. We work on ‘population health’ But in practice this means that the second clause of the value often gets neglected – We… make sure nobody is excluded, discriminated against or left behind.

Because, in practice, in terms of health outcomes we have been ‘leaving behind’ the same groups for decades. Whether this is through processes of exclusion or discrimination, or just lack of clinical knowledge I am not certain. I suspect that many factors, mostly found in wider society, play a part.

But until our health and care strategies start with a real commitment to help those that have been systematically ‘left behind’ to catch up as quickly as possible we will have widening health inequalities.

So let us re-visit the third clause in the value We accept that some people need more help, that difficult decisions have to be taken. When we take these difficult decisions, what will benefit the ‘whole community’? A focus on creating as much health gain as we can, for as many as we can, for a fixed cost? Or spending our money in a way that helps those that have been historically and systematically left behind by the system to catch up? How do we find the balance?

Who are we choosing to ‘leave behind’?

This is becoming an increasingly pivotal question for me as I work in primary care networks, integrated care systems and NHS Trusts. And if you care about equality and inclusion then perhaps its need to be a question that you are prepared to ask too.

I am also increasingly striving to increase ‘community engagement‘ not through the usual processes of patient participation groups and so on but by going directly in to communities and engaging them in playful conversation, often with academics, clinicians, commissioners and managers so that their voices can be heard directly and relationships formed that will start to change the system.

I would love to hear what you do, in your practice that helps to raise awareness, interest and action in tackling health inequalities.

Please leave us a comment!

The Business of Human Endeavour

Mike Chitty · January 27, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Mike Chitty Realise Development

For a long time now I have had real concerns about the focus of policy makers, and the projects that they spawn, on ‘enterprise’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ as being too business oriented.  It is as if the only fields of human endeavour that matter are commerce of some kind.  Making money, contributing to GDP and economic growth.

For a long time now I have had real concerns about the focus of policy makers, and the projects that they spawn, on ‘enterprise’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ as being too business oriented.  It is as if the only fields of human endeavour that matter are commerce of some kind.  Making money, contributing to GDP and economic growth.

This is especially un-nerving when I see it played out in our primary schools as during Enterprise week, 6 year olds are encouraged to wear badges that proclaim them be a ‘Sales Director’, ‘Operations Manager’ or ‘Marketing Executive’.

The root of the word entrepreneur means ‘to undertake’, and it appears to also have some connections to the Sanskrit phrase ‘anthra prerna’ which means self-motivated. And my old boss and mentor, Ernesto Sirolli, claimed it was first used by an Italian General centuries back to mean ‘Act boldly’.

What about all of those other fields of human endeavour?

We need people with the qualities to undertaking things with self motivation and boldness in all aspects of our society, not just commerce; climbing mountains, creating art, having fun, playing sport, writing, cooking and so on.

What if we encouraged our 6 year olds to wear badges that proclaimed them to be ‘Footballer in Training’, ‘Ballet Dancer under Construction’ or ‘Surgeon to Be’?

Because what really matters is not exposing more people to the world of business and entrepreneurship.

 

It is teach them to imagine possible futures, and learning how best to navigate towards them.  It is about developing people with a sense of agency and influence over their own futures.  It is about building a generation with both power and compassion. And a generation who really understand how to use the tools of collaboration, association and cooperation to shape the future of our communities.

Enterprise, entrepreneurship rightly understood. And not just hijacked by the economists and business community.

Does it really only matter if their chosen endeavour contributes to GVA?  Or is there more to our humanity that we need to recognise and encourage through both our policy and practice?

And this is not just an issue in schools.  It runs through our communities from cradle to grave.

I think this is important because we lose so many people who might learn to become more entrepreneurial but are completely turned off by the thought of a world of commerce. Let’s face it we don’t all want to dive headlong into a world of Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice.

So what about if instead of focussing on enterprise and entrepreneurship we attempted to throw our net wider and to encourage and support people to build their power and compassion in whatever they choose to be their particular fields of human endeavour?

So, let’s be bold…

While this body still can breathe
While this mind’s still in one piece
While this skin’s still good to touch
While this heart’s still good to love
Let’s be bold

Hope and Social – All Our Dancing Days

Turn That Engagement Around…

Mike Chitty · January 19, 2020 · Leave a Comment

We spend so much time and money trying to engage the community in developing our strategies and services. Striving for inclusion and representation. To ensure that all the voices are heard.

But what if we spent some of our time and money on joining the communities in the things that they are already engaged with? Their projects? Their agendas?

I think we may slowly develop different relationships based on a very different power dynamic. I think we might build trust and understanding.

We may even get to the point where they ask us about our priorities and how they might be able to inform them, shape them and put them in to practice.

Or, to explain with honesty and respect why these priorities are not their priorities.

To those who would engage us…

Mike Chitty · January 19, 2020 · Leave a Comment

We are already engaged.

We may not be engaged with you, or in what you think we should be engaged with, but none the less we ARE engaged.

The things that we are engaged with offer us what we are looking for, perhaps consciously, perhaps not. Our chosen ‘engagements’ give us some combination of love, power and money.

There is a fourth thing that some of us get from our preferred engagement, and that is freedom from pain. Freedom from the pain of hope denied. Freedom from the pain of optimism dashed. Freedom from the humiliation of yet another ‘failure’. This pursuit of freedom from pain is what you label ‘apathy’.

And freedom from endless meetings with well paid professionals that seem to change little apart from putting a tick in the box marked ‘engagement’ or ‘co-creation’.

We may choose to engage with you, and your agendas, if you offer us what we want. Unless we see possibilities for this our engagement with you, it is likely to be short lived and will change nothing. It might be enough for you to tick the box called ‘community engagement’, but little more.  Love and fun might attract us for a while, but it is making us powerful that keeps us engaged.

Many of us who you find ‘hard to reach’ or ‘difficult to engage’ have ‘been engaged’ with people like you before. We have been sold false hope and have suffered the pain of having that hope dashed when you let us down, or when you run out of funding. Your reputations go before you. Sometimes even your promise of cash can’t persuade us to engage…we know that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

You might pay us to move our muscles, or answer your questions, but you cannot buy our hearts and minds.

If you want to encourage us to change what we engage with, then you need to understand us, understand what we are looking for, and understand where our engagement is likely to take us. It is this ‘where it leads’ that is often the hardest part of the story for us to explore. Some of us have learned to live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself. But, if you can really offer us something that provides us with a genuine shot at a better future….

Often your approach appears to us to stand on the premise that you have the right to engage us in what you believe to be good for us. You impose your sensibilities and priorities. Or you impose the policy objectives of those who pay your wages. You force us into a parent child relationship.

Imagine that a powerful outsider came and tried to persuade you to live your life differently. To give up some of the things that you enjoy. To ‘persuade’ you to work on a project of their design.  How would you respond? With enthusiastic compliance?

Perhaps instead of seeking to engage ‘us’ in your decision-making processes, or in co-creating your services, or in spending your budgets, you should instead seek to engage yourselves in our agendas, our decisions, our opportunities. You should put us as individuals and communities at the heart of your endeavours.

Before you seek to engage us in your agendas, perhaps you ought to spend a bit of time trying to engage yourselves in ours? Not by pushing your way in with your authority and your money.

But by winning an invitation. By being ‘helpful’.

So, the next time you sit down to write your engagement strategy, just think about what you might need to be like for us to invite you in.

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