What helped change to stick for frontline workers?
The frontline workers on the Systems Changers programme all had different experiences on the programme. We saw some patterns in what had an influence on that experience and thought it would be helpful to share for others who are thinking about engagement, participation and lasting change when designing programmes that take people away (for some of the time) from their daily work routines. This is important because everyone knows that if you are doing change programmes the hardest thing is people taking time away from their day to day and things sticking beyond the programme.
The context of their organisation
Some of the frontline workers participating in the Systems Changers programme are working in organisations who find themselves in increasingly precarious positions. Austerity has impacted on the fragmentation and erosion of civil society organisations, as well as public services and the third sector. All of the frontline workers in the programme are on the coalface in these sectors, however, for a few they literally didn’t know whether their job would exist before the programme ended, let alone the organisation they worked for.
The leadership of their organisation
We tried to design the application process for the programme to include a commitment and buy-in from the manager responsible for the frontline worker that would be participating. The manager had to complete some of the application form themselves and explicitly agree to giving their staff member the time and space to engage in the programme. Managers who stuck to this through the 6 month programme really made a difference to the frontline workers experience. If the leadership of the organisation (above and beyond the direct manager) knew about and was involved in certain interactions with the programme, it also helped make way for change and sustainability of the approaches and ideas being introduced through the programme.
The level of support people had from those around them
Frontline workers who had strong support from colleagues, friends and family found it easier to throw themselves into the programme, and ride through the challenging times. We designed small ways to ensure they could connect to others and invite them into their experience where they wanted to. At the opening residential we left stamped postcards in their bedroom so that they could send an update to family and friends. We sent them back from the residential to their offices with “kits” so that they could create a “Systems Changers” space in the office, making what they were doing visible to others. Included in the “kit” were invitation templates for them to use with colleagues – an invitation to coffee, to a show & tell etc. It’s important that people feel connected to others around them when participating in something that might completely change their perspective so you need to design in ways for them to be in relationship throughout the programme.
Their learning style
It might be an obvious point to make but ensuring that different learning styles were accommodated for when designing the programme was really important. We had words, visuals, films. We built in time to learn by doing, time for reflection, and time to be embodied and outside amongst natural systems. Some of the frontline workers found it difficult to engage in the theory, others welcomed the chance to not only learn through practice but to leaf through the reading material we gave them.
Their sense of permission
We saw that people working on the frontline have different relationships to permission. Some of them were working in very permissive environments, others not. Designing the programme for their managers to be involved as well as their colleagues was part of creating a more permissive culture for them to experiment within. Being aware of that permissiveness (or lack of it) in each persons context is important.
Their understanding of where flex is in the system
Linked to the above point, frontline workers on the programme had different understanding of where the flex was in the systems they were operating in. This was a key aspect of the Systems Changers programme – finding, understanding and questioning where change could happen. Some frontline workers had been adhering to rules and regulations for years without questioning why it was there, who was upholding it and whether it was really necessary. Of course there are rules and regulation in place that really do serve an important purpose, but a lot of the frontline workers themselves were surprised to discover just how much more flex there was in some of the systems they work within. Drawing out their understanding of this flex at the start of the programme was useful for designing where we went next.
Security in their approach ( a belief in the philosophy of their organisation)
We used the application process as a starting point for digging deeper into how different frontline workers believed change happened. For instance, understanding whether they believed people (their clients) should be kept in or out of the system (prevention vs responding to needs) was important. Similarly, understanding how much they believed in their organisations approach to change and in the change it was trying to make, was also something we tried to surface early. Frontline workers’ theories of change and the strength of their belief in that approach, affected how they used the Systems Changers programme, methods and tools.
