High rorting consultancies
First, I want to say that, having trained teams of smart and honest public sector professionals for years, it’s profoundly satisfying to see PWC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte finally get exposed for their rapacious gouging on work that should always have been done by government professionals.
Let’s see politicians and mandarins actually trust their public servants in future! And bouquets for Greens Senator Barbara Pocock for leading the charge.
ClimateFresk
More than a million people in France have attended these card-based community workshops for climate change education. It’s social, simple, tactile, visual, and doesn’t preach – effectively turning ‘education’ into a series of puzzles that people have to work out for themselves. And the card sets and methods are free. https://climatefresk.org
This New York Times article describes how it works: For a Trendy Night Out in Paris, How About a Climate Change Workshop?
Town Team Movement
It’s a kind of Landcare for urban places – friendly locals rolling up their sleeves to love up their local areas. I first bumped into it in WA, where it originated. Now it’s spread to 128 Town Teams so far. https://www.townteammovement.com
For example, here’s one of the first projects in Perth: Native BeeScene.
Climate Budgets
Just one of those great systemic change ideas. Oslo City Council managers are given a dollar budget, and a climate budget, and expected to report against targets for both, mainstreaming climate action into their unit’s normal budget cycles. This is a beautiful example of upstream systemic intervention!
SessionLab
The best collection of facilitation methods I’ve ever seen – simply described and free. SessionLab is an online platform that mechanises the process of designing interactive workshops. It actually looks quite useful. https://www.sessionlab.com/library
A little citizen science
A clever example of citizen science I found at Bussleton Beach, WA:
And a here’s reminder about my two upcoming workshops:
FOR those designing engagement or change projects, small or large.
Behaviour change psychology + irresistibly engaging tactics + systemic legacy
Two enjoyable mornings, 17-18 October. All details here: www.enablingchange.com.au
FOR those facilitating interactive workshops or forums, in any context.
10 minutes that set up success + a universal template + practice with friendly colleagues
Two interactive mornings, 24-25 October. All details here: www.enablingchange.com.au
Les
Credit to Senator Deb O’Neil too. She’s effectively out at the next election due to factional nonsense in the Labor Party. Together with Barbara Pocock, they are peeling off the covers of these big consultancies.
From the moment Howard was elected, and Max Moore Wilton appointed as head of PM&C the rats started to dismantle the APS and had heavy doses of steroids and growth hormones under the Abbott- Turnbull-Morrison. The consultancies had their own ATM.
I remain skeptical as to the current government’s commitment to rebuilding APS capability. One sign of there conflicted position was the creation of a $900,000 job, without any due process for the disgraced Kathryn Campbell.
Until we have cross bench members in both chambers in greater numbers I suspect we will see more of the same ‘outsourcing’.
Hi John, Yep. Optimistically, a bigger mind-focusing moment for the public service was the Robodebt Royal Commission, culminating in the grueling destruction of the departmental secretary (the aforementioned Kathryn Campbell). It must be terrifying for an executive class who never thought they could be called to account. I foresee an uptick in courageous senior executive advice in future.