This week saw the launch of the third of three reports from NESTA/nef on co-production, ‘Right Here, Right Now’.
The first report, The Challenge of Co-production, published in December 2009, explained what co-production is and why it offers the possibility of more effective and efficient public services. It offered the following definition of co-production:
"Co-production means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours. Where activities are co-produced in this way, both services and neighbourhoods become far more effective agents of change.”
The second report, Public Services Inside Out, published in April, described a co-production framework comprising the following key characteristics:
Recognising people as assets.
Building on people’s existing capabilities.
Promoting mutuality and reciprocity.
Developing peer support networks.
This new report looks at how it can be implemented more widely. Amongst the ways it proposes for doing this are:
building co-production into services
building co-production into commissioning, giving priority to prevention and measuring what matters.
launching prototypes to see how co-production could be mainstreamed in new sectors.
government to agree a ‘co-production guarantee’ to help overcome some of the barriers to co-production.
Altogether a useful compendium of information for the emerging initiatives under The Big Society. To quote from the document:
"Co-production is central to delivering the ‘Big Society’ vision because it offers a way of integrating the public resources that are earmarked for services with the private assets of those who are intended to benefit from services. There is far more to be gained from this approach than from current practice that separates ‘users’ from ‘providers’, or from a retrenchment of the state that leaves citizens themselves to fill the gap."
It’s taken a while for me to get around to posting an update to my ‘Knowledge Hub Part 1’ post, mainly as a result of being fully immersed in the technology procurement process these past several months. This phase is now almost complete and we will shortly be starting on the actual development of the Hub, so now seems to be an opportune moment to remind everyone what this ‘Knowledge Hub’ thing is, and to give a first airing of the accompanying video (commissioned from Learning Pool – thanks guys). The following is brief summary, partially lifted from an explanation I produced for http://www.local.gov.uk/knowledgehub - and in plain English as far as I’m able:
What is it?
The Knowledge Hub is essentially the next generation development of the highly successful local government CoP platform (a previous project of mine). It will replace the existing infrastructure with new open technology facilitating integration with mainstream social media applications (for example Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN) and the rapid assimilation of new applications and web services as they emerge. This will enable, for example, much better personalisation and permeability of content. In addition Knowledge Hub will provide facilities that allow data on performance to be combined and shared (so called "linked-data") potentially providing the framework to deliver the wider move to transparent government
Why is it important?
As the UK moves towards economic recovery it is expected there will be greater demands on local government to:
continue to demonstrate cost-effective delivery methods
be ‘fleeter of foot’ in gathering and using sector knowledge – not only to learn from others' experience but also to accelerate the development and implementation of innovative delivery.
The strategy is based on the premise that knowledge of ‘what works’ and ‘what doesn’t work’ can be found within the local government community. Unleashed, this knowledge can be collectively focused on excellent public service delivery.
The overarching outcome of the Knowledge Hub programme is that by 2012/13, the culture of local government will be one of collaborative knowledge generation. This will involve everyone learning, sharing and problem-solving using a technology platform provided by LG Improvement & Development but owned by the local government sector.
While a working title of a ‘Knowledge Hub’ is being used it is perhaps more appropriate to use the metaphor of a dynamo-powered light, which shines brighter and illuminates the way more clearly the more involvement there is from participants and users.
What is the scope?
The Knowledge Hub will comprise three interdependent elements: (a) Technology:
This includes the systems, software applications, hosting and service support. (b) Data:
This will be a combination of:
(c) Knowledge Ecology
Support for and development of culture and user behaviours that will foster the dynamic evolution of knowledge sharing and innovation through improved evolutionary networks of collaboration.
Some of the key features
The Knowledge Hub will not replicate or replace any similar initiatives currently being used, developed or proposed by individual councils or partnerships. Rather, the Hub will bring together information about innovation and good practice from any number of these sources to help the development of the whole sector.
It will be a web-based service and will be accessible through any device with web capability, including mobile phones and PDAs.
The technology and systems will support ‘agile’ development, allowing new functionality and services to be added quickly.
It will find and follow people with same/similar interests, leading to opportunities for collaboration coproduction and partnership working.
It will provide visualisation tools e.g. ‘heat maps’ showing emerging trends and ideas.
It will enable performance data to be shared between councils for comparison and benchmarks.
It will have a 'serendipity engine' which will identify related ideas and themes.
It will aggregate and integrate conversations and content from different sources and enable key themes to ‘bubble up’ to the top.
It will support open standards and be available as an open platform with a published application programming interface (API) enabling third party developers and social innovators to create new applications, widgets and mashups.
Encouraging letter from the PM. I just hope that MLF doesn't get ground down by the bureaucracy of government. The 'Big Society' agenda requires speed and agility to develop some momentum. http://amplify.com/u/70th
Dennis Penberthy, an elderly Cornish farmer, received a letter from the Department for Work & Pensions, stating that they suspected he was not paying his employees enough and they would send an inspector to interview them. On the appointed day, the inspector turned up.
"Tell me about your staff," he asked Penberthy."Well," said Penberthy, "there's the farm hand. I pay him £240 a week, and he has a free cottage. Then there's the housekeeper. She gets £190 a week, along with free board and lodging.There's also the half-wit. He works a 16 hour day, does 90% of the work, earns about £25 a week, along with a bottle of gin every week, and, occasionally, gets to sleep with my wife." "That's who I want to talk to," said the inspector, “the half-wit."
"That'll be me then," said Penberthy.
Thinking that Penberthy and I have a lot in common!
A common and recurrent theme that I keep coming across is how to measure the value of knowledge management, e.g. the return on investment (ROI) of implementing a knowledge management strategy. This may cross over into having a social media strategy where the goal is to support knowledge sharing, so I’ll use these terms – KM Strategy and social media strategy interchangeably in this particular context.
I don’t doubt the importance of being able to measure results and it’s the job of managers to ensure they get value out of any investment in training, technology, organisational development or whatever.However, these things are notoriously difficult to measure – for example – how do you put a price on a conversation? This led to me thinking about turning all of this on its head and considering how we should measure the cost of NOT having a knowledge management or social media strategy, or NOT making any change.
Using this approach we can at least examine the current status quo and determine whether business processes, capacity, staff knowledge etc. are fit for purpose.So, rather than spending time and effort creating a business case for a KM or SM strategy, ask managers to justify why things should stay as they are.
Some pertinent questions for managers might be:
Are your staff currently motivated and inspired?
Do your staff have all the relevant information to do their jobs effectively?
Do your staff have the right tools for the work they are being asked to do?
Do your staff understand their place in the wider organisation and their input and output dependencies for the business processes they contribute to?
Do your staff have adequate opportunities to share knowledge and information with other parts of the organisation? Are they encouraged to do so?
Are you confident that you can react to rapidly changing demands on your staff?
Do you have sufficient knowledge and information to consider the impact of external events on you and your staff and to plan accordingly?
Do you know what your customers are saying about you (within and external to your organisation)?
Do current policies and guidelines support or hinder you and your staff in their work?
Does your manager fully understand what you and your staff do?
There are probably other questions that could be asked, but the key point is that any question which triggers a negative response is potentially a catalyst for change.This also means it could become a performance indicator if change is agreed, i.e. using qualitative or quantitative techniques.
So, we have the beginnings of a measurable approach to change; we know where we are now and we should know what the desired outcomes are. The difference is what we need to measure.
Of course, the problem remains that not all changes can be measured in strictly cash value terms, which is what many people consider to be the true meaning of ROI. I go back to the point I made earlier – how do you measure the value of a conversation or some information shared?The answer is, you don’t, and the sooner that everyone recognises this the better. Measuring impact can be just as important as measuring value. The impact might be things like improved customer satisfaction (measured using surveys), or less time to complete a task, or improved staff morale (measured using surveys). Any of these can – and potentially will – have an effect in terms of cash value to the organisation, but I firmly believe that converting impact to cash value is an exercise in futility, since more often than not, the formulae and algorithms have too many variables.
So, in terms of ‘ROI’, think ‘Return on Impact’ rather than Return on Investment when considering Knowledge management strategies, and develop the strategy from the starting point of getting staff to justify the present status quo. After all, change is part of life, and as Darwin once said:
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Date: Monday 28 June 2010 Time: 6.30-8pm Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building Speaker: Clay Shirky Chair: Dr Carsten Sørensen
For decades, technology encouraged us to squander our time as passive consumers. Today, tech has finally caught up with human potential. In his new book Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky examines the changes we will all enjoy as our untapped resources of talent are put to use at last.
Clay Shirky teaches at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, where he researches the interrelated effects of our social and technological networks. He has consulted with a variety ofgroups working on network design, including Nokia, the BBC, Newscorp,Microsoft, BP, Global Business Network, the Library of Congress, the US Navy, the Libyan government, and Lego. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, Harvard Business Review, Business 2.0, and Wired.
This event marks the publication of his latest book Cognitive Surplus.
This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, email events@lse.ac.uk
A common and recurrent theme that I keep coming across is how to measure the value of knowledge management, e.g. the return on investment (ROI) of implementing a knowledge management strategy. This may cross over into having a social media strategy where the goal is to support knowledge sharing, so I’ll use these terms – KM Strategy and social media strategy interchangeably in this particular context.