Stories rarely remain unchanged, the context in which they’re told matters just as much as the context referred to by the story. I wrote this sequence of 21 stories about 15 months ago. You may have read some or all of them in their earlier form. Reading it now, we perhaps see something different, especially as we consider planning after the lockdown.
As I republish these stories, I revise and polish them. Some need little change, for others the changes are extensive. At the end of each story, I add reflections based on where my thinking has moved onto in the context of the Lockdown.
Muddling Through!
In conversation with Highways Engineers, it is worth bearing in mind two basic principles, to avoid unnecessary suffering. (1) You’re better off doing something else, and (2) they’re right and you’re wrong.
In the year 2000, the UK Government passed the Local Government Act, which required each local authority to produce a community plan. It wasn’t entirely clear what they meant by community plan or how to set about it. So, each local authority adopted the tried and tested method of making it up as they went along, aka muddling through.
In Rotherham they decided to produce a single plan made up from plans from 8 area assemblies, which in turn were made up of local plans from a total of 60+ neighbourhoods. The local authority realised this would take forever and so nothing daunted they wrote the borough-wide plan first!
Meanwhile, the 11 tiny community groups in Maltby, a coal community, decided to be the first in the borough to produce their plan. I was appointed by the local authority to help them.
A By-Pass for Maltby!
A team of locals, trained in Participatory Appraisal, a highly collaborative research method, set to work. I reckon over 400 people contributed to the plan. We set up 6 small groups to write a chapter each.
The group assigned the topic of transport were especially motivated and set about producing a chapter that was well researched and compelling reading. Their big idea was to build a by-pass around Maltby. They showed the negative effects of through traffic on the main road through Maltby. They projected the impact of the new Doncaster airport.
We all knew the by-pass would never happen. The area assembly officer would not let it into the assembly plan. But it clearly showed the problem and local demand for something to be done about the traffic.
Once I’d compiled the six chapters in draft, I sent them to interested parties for comment.
Highways Engineers Strike Back!
Soon after, the phone rang. It was the Highway Engineers. They were furious. A by-pass was not council policy, they said and so it should be removed. Who, they demanded, wrote this? And then the penny dropped – it was such a good chapter, they were seriously rattled. I told them it was written by a group of locals and it was their view and worthy of publication.
The main road through Maltby is narrow and has shops on both sides. Heavy traffic is a physical hazard and a source of pollution and noise. It’s through traffic, it’s hard for traffic to park and so local businesses get little or no benefit. Just pause and consider the impact this environment has on any local economy. Local residents experience their environment and both negative and positive effects.
That evening I called in at the fish and chip shop on the main road and told the proprietor, who chaired the group who wrote the chapter, what had happened. “You know,” I said, “I think it was that the chapter was so professionally written that spooked them.” I hadn’t told Highways the author ran a fish and chip shop.
“Ah,” he replied, “that’ll be because I used to be a Highways Engineer!”
LOCKDOWN POSTSCRIPT
The thing about planning is that it has two steps. The first is to dream an idea. The second is to implemented it. The residents involved in the plan were mostly realistic. Few expected to get all they wanted, although in time much of the plan was implemented.
Community planning set the agenda for the active residents. They had their plan. So did social services, health and education, police and many others. Their plan gave residents a seat at the table with the other holders of plans.
Power was important but at least they got a hearing and for much of their plan found support. There has to be a spirit of compromise if anything is going to happen. Power mostly wins but plans produce leverage and leverage sometimes works.
Mission Drift
In my postscript to last week’s story, I discussed dependency as one consequence of grant funding. Dependency leads to loss of sustainability.
Another consequence of grant aided funding is mission drift. The residents of Maltby were a threat to Highways because at that time they were not receiving grants, they were beholden to nobody, free to say what they thought. This is why so many corporate and government plans are so dull – they all know what is acceptable.
Voluntary and community organisations in receipt of funding experience mission drift. They must compromise with the requirements of funding bodies. Any freedom to manoeuvre depends on independent or unrestricted funding.
Self-Employment, Freedom and the Lockdown
At first glance, self-employed business owners do not face this problem. After all, you earn money from your business and you do with it whatever you want. If particularly outspoken, you might put off a few customers. But few business owners seem to break cover.
Perhaps this is a good thing. When we contemplate the antics of certain billionaire business owners, we see unbridled self-expression not necessarily contributing to public good.
But as we face the aftermath of the lockdown, we are in desperate need of innovation. We don’t know in advance which ideas will work and so it is individuals, prepared to risk implementing new ideas, who discover breakthrough ideas.
The reason so few move into challenging waters is self-censorship. Our focus is not on our real work, the risky work we are uniquely positioned to undertake but on the needs of our market. So long as our focus is on pleasing customers, we’ll never come up with anything new. It’s logical really. If something has never been tried then you must seek a market for it. There’s no point asking people what they want, they don’t know whether they want it or need it until you bring it to the market place.
There are new opportunities during and post-lockdown. You won’t find them by listening to what your market wants! It’s risky and so you must learn the skill of muddling through!
This is story 7/21. Last Story: Power and Finance Next Story: Solvitur Ambulando