Insights from the Field is a new monthly newsletter written by Derek Alton, Head of Community for Apolitical, that captures key themes coming from conversations he is having with public servants all over the world.
Hi everyone,
I hope your 2023 has gotten off to a great start. I kicked off my year by attending UK Gov Camp (January 17, 19, 21) which will be the focus of this month's Insights from the Field report.
So what is Gov Camp?
UK Gov Camp is an annual grassroots event that brings together public servants from across the UK to connect, share ideas, and help find solutions on a broad range of topics.
Why is it called a camp? Because unlike the sometimes stiff and formal feel of a conference, Gov Camp is very loose and informal. It follows an unconference format, so the agenda is created collectively at the beginning of the event, based on the interests of the participants. This means it provides a fantastic snapshot of what the burning issues are for UK public servants (here is a list of session topics since the conference began in 2008).
Gov Camp has a spontaneous, and at times, chaotic and playful feel to it. The overall feeling though, is that of a community of friends coming together to share ideas and talk about how to make government work better.
This was my third Gov Camp. After my first one, I knew I was hooked. This year's Gov Camp was spread across three days and three locations: Barnsley, London and online.
What did people want to talk about?
There was a whole range of topics from designing for accessibility, to building teams without hierarchy, to a discussion about people’s favourite books from the last year. They generally fell into a few categories: learning a new skill, dealing with common challenges (small scale), making government better (big scale), and cutting edge ideas.
Given my own interests, I mainly focused on sessions that explored ways of breaking down silos and sharing more effectively. Here are some highlights from my favourite sessions this year:
How can we we better solve systemic problems?
A lot of the big challenges we face are systemic, meaning they will involve multiple departments. Unfortunately government budgets, accountabilities, and governance systems are implemented at a departmental level, leading to siloed and sometimes competitive responses. Cross department “tiger” teams can help but often fail due to conflicts created by the structural challenges mentioned above.
A solution the group came up with was to better engage the political level since they are above this departmental structure and are the ones ultimately accountable for delivery. The challenge with this approach is that politicians change more rapidly than problems can be solved. Another solution discussed involves tackling the structural problems such as tying funding to a problem instead of a department.
Why is it valuable to have public servants based outside of the capital?
Every country faces the challenge of having their public servants mainly based in the capital yet having a large portion of the population and services based outside the capital. So why is it valuable to also have public servants based outside of the capital?
On the plus side, service designed by people living where the services are delivered leads to better services. It also allows for a larger and more diverse pool of people working in government. Many people talked about preferring the lifestyle of living outside London. On the flip side people spoke about being out of the loop and isolated from the majority of the activity happening in London. This led to feelings of loneliness, particularly during the pandemic. Living outside London also created challenges with career advancement due to a lack of options and opportunities leading many to feel pushed out of government.
Ideas to address this include moving key decision makers out of the capital, not just people doing service delivery. Having government/department hubs set up in the region to give people a place to connect with peers and more options for career advancement.
Fail Camp
This was a particularly interesting session where participants were given a chance to share their failures in a safe space. To ensure a safe space, no notes were taken. I was impressed both by people’s vulnerability and how supportive everyone was. The experience unearthed some interesting insights. First, working in government is hard and isolating: friends and family don’t understand, and the public is often very critical. Second, public servants face a lot of the same challenges, whether it is tough bosses, difficult mandates, ridiculous bureaucratic processes or uncertain paths forward. Finally, there is a real catharsis that comes from airing our frustrations and then getting a (virtual) hug from others who truly understand.
(No notes were taken to ensure a safe space)
My biggest takeaway: sharing is important but is becoming harder
Sharing is important...
There were many themes that emerged across Gov Camp in the sessions and hallway discussions. One that rose to the top was the deep desire to connect, share and learn from each other. This played out at multiple levels: from the practical, such as sharing best practices, to the mental and emotional, including sharing challenges and fears, as shown in the popularity of Fail Camp sessions and in the hallways and after hour events.
**...but it is becoming harder **
Despite the deep desire to share and its recognised value, people felt like it is becoming harder, not easier. I think there are two key reasons for this:
- Social Isolation
A lot of information is exchanged through informal networks and social interaction. The discussion over lunch, in the office, or at the pub with colleagues is where ideas to solve problems are generated and shared. The pandemic, however, has served to isolate us from each other and prevented these informal brainstorming sessions. During this time, a lot of the loose social networks that had formed to meet this need collapsed or went into decline (e.g. One Team Gov). This has led to feelings of social isolation and a loss of sharing and social learning. People are struggling to know where to find each other.
- Fragmented online networks
The online social space has become more fractured, further perpetuating the siloed nature of government and serving to block important opportunities for learning and sharing.
This can be shown through the discussion’s about Twitter at Gov Camp and this Twitter thread. Twitter used to be a central place where this community would share ideas and stay connected. However, Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the resulting turmoil has led many public servants to move to other platforms. So where have people gone instead? Some people have moved to Mastodon (a platform similar to Twitter) or LinkedIn. Others have stayed put on Twitter, determined to wait out the chaos, while some have checked out completely. The result is a very fractured platform space. The outcome of this is that public servants no longer have a single platform where they can connect with one another, resulting in a reduction of connection and sharing.
Looking to the Future
Those are big challenges but events like Gov Camp are sowing the seeds for a different future. The relationships and ideas built over these couple days will continue to grow and expand. Many of the conversations are continuing on places like the Gov Camp Slack channel and Apolitical. New events are already in the works. I will be hosting monthly meet-ups for public servants interested in helping improve government. This will be a chance to connect with peers, share ideas and troubleshoot challenges together. Please reach out if you want to join (Derek.Alton@apolitical.co). The UK government has also just announced Services Week 2023 from March 20-24, an annual cross-organisational event series focused on improving public services through user-centred design. You can learn more here.
Leaving this event, despite the many challenges, I am left with hope and optimism about what the future holds and am already excited about my next Gov Camp.
(Click Here for a full list of session notes across the history of UK Gov Camp)
Warm Regards,
Derek
The Apolitical Team at UK Gov Camp in London. From left: Derek Alton, Head of Community; Lydia Smith, Community Content Manager; Keri Landau, Head of Government Partnerships.
Check out the December edition of Insights from the field here.
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