People wont give up their Saturdays. Some wont because they go home at 5 o clock and that's it, because they feel they don't get paid enough to work outside of the office in the evenings, never mind on a Saturday. Other people wont come because weekends are the only time they don't work - they spend every evening during the week working and catching up and the last thing they want to do is go and talk about more work at the weekend.
And the simple fact is - people above me in our organisation have clearly defined development and career paths and don't need to raise their profile at a national level. They've got existing networks who advise them and send through information and links on new developments - and sometimes they have the time to read those things and sometimes they don't.
But, ultimately, I can't help feeling that if I can't get anyone from our team of open minded bods to attend camp, the chances of getting anyone else at their level to do so is slim to nothing. I don't think it's anything to do with not seeing the point of attending or thinking that they would get nothing out of it - I just think that L G Comms is far more established across the industry and that unconferences are still seen as where all the 'problem' people who wont sit down nicely and shut up go.
Unfortunately, they're right. And if I were middle management, I'm not sure that'd be an environment I'd want to give up a Saturday to attend either.
I think you're right about things as they stand. But, the big problem is that those professional networks you refer to are giving them outdated information and reinforcing outmoded practices.
ReplyDeleteLocalGovCamp points to the future way of doing things, which many will find uncomfortable, but they will have to learn to become familiar with it over time.
You make an important point about Saturdays. The age range of people at LocalGovCamp is interesting, and I suspect the age range most likely to have young families is the most under-represented. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we need to do these things on weekdays and get them accepted as part of the working agenda.
Yeah. I'm operating a bring camp to Blackburn philosophy to be honest. In work time. Calling it something else. But it will be a mini-camp.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't at LocalGovCamp because I had a wedding (and small kids, but the wedding was the reason) but CityCamp Brighton saw the Chief Exec, the AD customer services, the AD comms, the AD Housing, the Director Communities, and the Deputy Chief Constable give up all or part of their weekend to participate. I think a strong lead from the ChEx that this was something the council backed was the key element in that.
ReplyDeleteI am not an expert on all this, but I have spoken to hundreds of councillors in my time. The majority don't touch computers at home. They say their connections are so poor it isn't worth the effort, so they don't do their 'homework'. They only access info at the workplace, and as we all know that is very limited. Therefore they aren't up to speed on the way the digital world is working. They may be bright and hardworking individuals, but they don't get IT yet. Until connectivity is ubiquitous, affordable and easy people remain analogue. Simple as that. They stay in their trees climbing the career ladder and don't look down at the forest floor at the workers. Perhaps we need chainsaws?
ReplyDeletechris
I'm hoping to arrange the next Hyperlocal West Mids event in Warwickshire in order to get some more of our staff to come along.
ReplyDeleteBut don't be put off by management not coming, the point is *you* are and it gives you support, encouragement, ideas to do good things where you work. That's better than no-one at all!
The networks do connect. I go to both gov camps and lgcomms. As a result of go camps I get work standing in front of senior management helping them appreciate how things are changing and how they can join in.
ReplyDeleteOne of the principles of an unconference us that the right people are in the room. Stops us worrying about "wouldn't it be better if...".
Louise,
ReplyDeleteI think that your point about having these camps at the weekends is spot on but as I mentioned in the session (excellently run by @kevupnorth & @johnpopham) there are alot of Heads of Service that would attend this type of activity if they new it was taking plac. By Dave (Briggs) own admission, the marketing for #localgovcamp does boil down to a few tweets and posts to blogs etc. so if you not in that loop, you're not going to find out about it. Another point made was the change in the dynamic if a load of Chief Execs suddenly rocked up.
From my perspective, I have held a couple of "unconference-like" sessions for the Public Sector Customer Services Forum community. The last one had 25 heads of customer service attend. It was packaged and marketed as a 1/2 day brainstorming session on the issues fa cing Customer Services in these austere times. There was no agenda but there was no lull in the discussion for 3 hours. I think the issue is how it is packaged and marketed to senior management.
HyperLocalWM run by Dan Slee, Andy Mabbett, Mike Rawlins et al was run midweek and was a success as was Shropcamp so these things can be run during worktime and this might encourage senior managers to attend.
One way of getting senior management to accept the culture of an unconference would be to hold one at the organisation for the afternoon, calling it anything but an unconference and possibly give it a single objective or mission statement for noobies to work towards but using the unconference structure.
Although I had a raging hangover on Saturday I thought that it was another excellent day from Messrs Briggs, Whitehouse et al. It's just a shame that there isn't something that measures inspiration!!
Keep up the good work
I'll start from the bottom & work up ;O)
ReplyDeleteNick H - Networks and agreed. They are known in our networks but not outside. This is about to change I think but it does raise a fascinating about lack of crossover of networks between top and bottom. Yay go heirarchies.
Also, yes agreed, how packaged crucial and as I mentioned to John, we're going to do something in house along these lines but repackaged a little. The learning and informality will be the same but the name wont be.
Finally, and I don't think I've mentioned this but had assumed others would assume - you might or might not have noticed a complete hiatus in this blog recently. I've written a post every day for 4 days now. This equals thinking/inspiration/challenge from camp. It's all good, too. Not all is positive, but all is heartfelt.
Nick B - Right people, right delivery is something I've been talking to Mrs @Sturgey about this morning. We've decided that in the same way we offer a 360 approach to comms channels, we're not going to investigate a 360 learning and self development options. So you wanna go regular conference cos that suits your learning style, fine. You wanna come unconference style, fine too.
Kate S - We're keeping ours internally to BwD atm but I look forward to following how it goes lots cos we're gonna need to learn from you!
Chris - Chainsaws is right. But...quietly and stealthily. So they don't realise there's nothing under them ;o)
Anthony - It's a culture thing. B & H has a massively diff culture to most of rest of country. Far as I'm concerned, part of the job is to try and gently shift in your direction whilst understanding respective leadership style - because I do seriously believe you can't force people to adopt a style which is not intrinsic to them and just cos someone isn't naturally that way out doesn't mean they're not valid as a leader.
The trick is to find the model which allows for all kinds of leaders.
Louise - I'd have tried to go to LocalGovCamp if I'd known about it sooner and it hadn't been full, so I'll certainly try for the next one.
ReplyDeleteAs for old v new, traditional v modern, conference v unconference, there's a risk of an unnecessary divide emerging, that's if it isn't there already, with people putting themselves in one camp at the expense of what the other can give them. And both camps need to make sure they keep refreshing what they're doing, otherwise the wheel will keep being reinvented.
There's something for everyone, and we need to sell it that way.
Louise - I'd have tried to go to LocalGovCamp if I'd known about it sooner and it hadn't been full, so I'll certainly try for the next one.
ReplyDeleteAs for old v new, traditional v modern, conference v unconference, there's a risk of an unnecessary divide emerging, that's if it isn't there already, with people putting themselves in one camp at the expense of what the other can give them. And both camps need to make sure they keep refreshing what they're doing, otherwise the wheel will keep being reinvented.
There's something for everyone, and we need to sell it that way.