New release date - Saturday October 10th - Episode 1, Ed Straw on the Hidden Power.

We live in confusing times - and a lot of that confusion is about where power lies. With Ed Straw, former chair of Demos and consultant to government, & Philip Tottenham.

In 2017 the UN, the WHO and the OECD all called for the use of Systems Thinking to deal with highly complex problems. But what does that mean?

In Series 1 "Proof of Concept" we explore power - power in terms traditional ideas about it, and in terms of beneficial impact on the ground - and hear from people thinking and operating at the leading edge of where beneficial impact is taking place.

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This episode introduces the experience and current thinking of my co-presenter, Ed Straw.

We talk about his journey from being an engineering graduate to consulting at the heart of Westminster, how he encountered power and the confusion surrounding it.

Then we get into his current thinking - he’s now a research fellow at the Open University’s Applied Systems Thinking in Practice Group, and has found in Systems Thinking many effective responses to issues that have plagued governments down the decades.

Ed Straw:

http://www.edstraw.com/about/

The (full podcast!) story of General Motors' collaboration with Toyota is a great rehearsal of how systemic change can work, and the relevant challenges:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/561/nummi-2015

W. Edwards Demming, genius behind Japanese revolution in manufacturing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

and that revolution:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1993/12/23/japans-secret-w-edwards-deming/b69b8c00-4c5d-483a-b95e-4aeb1d94d2c6/

Relevance of Drawing the Boundary to Systems Thinking:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_critique

The Compassionate Frome Project:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/21/town-cure-illness-community-frome-somerset-isolation

DAD and EDD:

http://www.edstraw.com/new-public-service-management-from-dad-to-edd/

Ed's story, told in more length and depth on Survival of the Kindest:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ed-straw-looking-at-it-in-the-round/id1525026504?i=1000489658805

Real world example in Australia:

https://johnmenadue.com/cock-ups-conspiracies-or-system-failures/

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Professor Eileen Munro turned decades of inadequate child protection on its head with one simple question: are we helping or hindering the front line?

In this episode, she reflects on the successes - and revealing failures - of her review into child protection. Eileen covers a lot of ground in a short space of time. It is fascinating.

Talking points:

• Centralised processes can't protect children, and this centralisation is an unavoidable consequence of the current state of governance
• How child protection can work much better, when the system is re-aligned to its purpose
• Key role of feedback, service sampling, education, and the news media.

In our commentary Ed and I pick up on these and other points, specifically the governmental conditions that allowed for success, and especially: leaders believing they have grasped the systemic nature of necessary change, when in reality they haven’t. What to do? Find out in this concentrated and stimulating episode.

The Munro Review into Child Protection:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/175391/Munro-Review.pdf

Eileen Munro:

LSE

https://www.lse.ac.uk/social-policy/people/Emeritus-Visiting/Professor-Eileen-Munro

The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/eileen-munro

Detail on what child protection actually entails (podcast)

(listener alert - not for the feint-hearted):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ffxtr

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