The strategic facilitation of change across UK public services: a critical reflection

This Context Statement critically explores my public works in my various capacities as a community organiser, strategic facilitator, an educator and leadership development specialist, and as a Director in the English National Health Service (NHS). My intention has been to consider these public works in their wider context, to draw out implications that may inform learning across relevant fields of practice, and to gain a deeper understanding that will inform my future public works.

The completed public works that I explore are:

• My facilitation of two parliamentary roundtables on behalf of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness (2017-18).
• My design and delivery of the annual Jo Cox Memorial Lecture at the University of Cambridge (2018).
• My role in leading the co-design of the NHS Maternity Summit (2021).

In addition, I consider a current public work, the ongoing development of the Future Vision leadership programme, for which I have acted as one of the Lead Faculty since 2021.

Key insights from this Context Statement include:

• The role and value of transdisciplinary attitudes, skills, and practices in creating the conditions for systemic change.
• The importance of the relationship between small-scale actions and large-scale frameworks for change, and how this dynamic enhances our ability to lead change in complex systems.
• Why people, seeking to create the conditions in which intelligent, effective and sustainable change happens, need to better understand the interrelationship between ‘inner skills’ (relating to the world, and ourselves, in more nuanced ways) and ‘outer skills’ (how we lead change adaptively with others).
• Why imagination and experimentation are critical to generating breakthrough insights that actually change the thinking and behaviour of people leading change in public services.