I want to be someone who helps to change the broken system that we’re working in. I’ve read, taken courses, watched the TED talks, and sat in all the meetings and webinars about system change, all about how we need to move from bureaucratic to human systems, all about how we need to change from ‘doing to’ to ‘doing with’. And if you’re in any sort of health related role, I am sure you have too.
And it all sounds brilliant, frankly: necessary, meaningful, and revolutionary. But, to be completely honest, I’m not finding it very easy.
Some systems are so hardwired into us, shifting from them requires constant readjustment.
And one of the most rigid elements of many systems is hierarchy: someone’s at the top, and someone’s at the bottom, and that’s just the way it is.
But it shouldn’t be. The Neighbourhood Network Programme seeks to put decisions back into the hands of residents. What do they want to see in their local community? Is it a community garden, or a new dance class for mums that takes place after the school run, or a table tennis club for men? What would help them to thrive, to feel connected, to belong?
Realistically, though, someone still holds the strings.
- The council (in this case) are the commissioners;
- then there’s me, in the middle, trying to make sure the programme is successful;
- then there’s the VCFSE organisations facilitating the ideas of the residents;
- and then there’s the residents, hopefully benefiting from the programme.
It is hard not to stack one on top of the other in my mind. It is hard not to think in ways that set up this process as if it were a tower with the council at the top and the residents at the bottom. A tower that I dearly want to topple.
I’m trying. My role is focused on the VCFSE organisations. I need to work with them in the same way that they need to work directly with residents. I need to not see myself as managing the process, but facilitating the process. I need to be quick to listen, and not to just make decisions. This is hard.
For example, we’re not getting the process for drawing down money right. We’ve made it too faffy, too onerous, too traumatic. So let’s change it. And let’s not just change it – let’s ask those who use the form how best to change it. Let’s trust in collective wisdom and not assume an ‘I know best’ approach. Yes, sometimes decisions need to be made and we may be the ones to make them – but how did we reach the decision? Was it making an assumption or did we take the time to listen first?
Part of the problem is that the shift in power can sometimes be uncomfortable for those who are so used to being ‘done to’. We have to relearn how to operate in a new system, and so will our residents. When you spend your life disempowered, it takes time to learn what to do with power – to feel confident that your voice matters, to feel confident that you may actually know what you need.
The system needs changing, that much is sure, and those with power, who have recognised the need for change, need to be patient; we have to completely recreate an ecosystem from one that disables and disempowers, to one that empowers and creates equity, and it will not happen overnight – and in the meantime, what we’re creating is fragile.
If we want a system that feels different, we have to behave differently:
- Don’t manage, facilitate.
- Listen more than direct.
- Ask instead of assume.
- Be patient as people learn to take power.
- Keep an eye on slipping back into old habits.
I think we’ve learned a better way to do things. We know how things ‘should’ be done. But the process of unlearning is so much harder, and the risk of us getting it wrong is still so great.
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