Becoming Intensely Relaxed

There's certainly been plenty to think about this past year.

I thought I'd kick start my new blog by setting out where things are at with me currently and what I hope to get from blogging.

If asked to choose one word that describes my life it would probably be changeable. Perhaps the biggest change has been moving from a fairly traditional/well-defined policy career in local government last year for a far more fluid and personally satisfying role promoting social innovation at the social design agency thinkpublic.

Beyond work, there have also been some major changes in my personal life. Last autumn my girlfriend and I moved in together and this June we moved about half a mile up the road to a new flat in Forest Hill.

The process of making changes to my career was not entirely trouble-free. After leaving a fairly senior role at Lambeth Council I thought my knowledge of public policy and strategy, not to mention my unfailing affability, would stand me in good stead when it came to finding a new job. Sadly, the Coalition Government in general and Eric Pickles in particular had other ideas; I was seeking gainful employment within the public sector at precisely the time when unprecedented public spending reductions meant most of the traffic was going in the other direction.

Looking back, my fortunes began to change when I re-connected by chance with Carrie Bishop, who I had first met back on the NGDP training scheme. By now Carrie was working for the social innovation consultancy FutureGov and, by all accounts, finding it a lot more enjoyable than working directly for local government. Carrie introduced me to Twitter. Carrie also invited me to attend the City Camp London FutureGov were organising.

                                                                                                                 

Attending City Camp London gave me the push I needed to make moves in a number of ways. It gave me the confidence to continue writing blogs on a freelance basis for The Guardian Local Government Network. It also connected me to a whole bunch of new and inspiring people working loosely in the field of social innovation. Through meeting these people I re-discovered my passion for making a positive contribution to society which had first led me into local government. On a more practical level, it also led to some much-appreciated work, first freelancing as conference facilitator at an LGIDevent, then the offer of three month’s work as a project manager at FutureGov.

It was whilst working for FutureGov that I first became aware of thinkpublic and its approach of using design and other creative techniques to develop solutions to complex social challenges. With my renewed confidence, I successfully applied to become of the company’s first ever role of Communications & Policy Lead and took up the position full time in March.

I have gained so much from thinkpublic. I’ve been fortunate to work with incredibly passionate and talented people. Through them, I’ve come to understand how much design thinking can contribute to solutions to complex social issues. I’ve had the chance to lead multi-disciplinary teams looking at everything from the future of online public services to the Big Society. I’ve also learned a lot more about the business side of things, from costing proposals to pitching for new work. And through it all I’ve very much enjoyed being part of thinkpublic’s much admired/coveted staff lunches, which have consistently offered up a huge variety of tasty food.

Now, after six months at thinkpublic, things are changing once more.  Due to the general economic climates and changes to the public sector thinkpublic is re-thinking its business model and re-structuring. As a consequence of this, from the middle of this month I will be working for thinkpublic on an associate basis. Naturally, this brings with it a degree of uncertainty. But at the same time it also offers me the chance to get involved in a wider range projects for different organisations and pursue issues that I am passionate about.

Looking ahead, I am hoping to use this blog to capture the changes I am experiencing in my career and reflect on them I also plan to use the blog to comment on the public policy and social innovation work I become involved with in the weeks and months ahead. Besides using the blog for work purposes, I will hopefully also find the time to write about stuff that’s going on in my life outside of work, such as music, photography and film.

Thanks for sticking with me for my first blog. I promise to work on the whole brevity thing and maybe even bring in a little humour to future posts. 

Francis