Transduction — leading transformation — Issue #175
My weekly posts
Ideology and place-based working
Watching Nick Kimber’s Test, Learn and Grow work from a distance is both inspiring and frustrating. The principles are bold and radical — changing the centre, valuing real experience, working in teams — but will they truly shift the system? I’m cheering it on, asking tough questions, and hoping this signals lasting, structural change — not just another clever initiative. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_systems-complexity-leadership-activity-7317844311910330369-obgp
Test Learn and Grow principles
What if we treated ideology as a legitimate part of system design? Real place-based working in the UK is rising — but so is central control. We need honesty about power, ideology, and learning — not just KPIs and funding rules. Let’s stop pretending it’s not political and start building trust through openness, challenge, and brave leadership. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_test-learn-and-grow-principles-activity-7317845578602741761-uO-U
Courses and events
Introduction to outcomes-based commissioning: a 10 step introduction, cohort 9
Back by popular demand — our introductory course for commissioning. Running online with anticipated dates in May https://link.redquadrant.com/introtooutcomes9
Our sensemaking community, sharing learning on devolution and local government organisation
Join our sensemaking community for the days after — a space for public service leaders to share urgent learning on devolution and local government reorganisation. We meet twice a month to make sense of today’s complexities or follow along by email. Join the group at https://sensemaking.groups.io
The Next National Commissioning Academy — coming soon 2025
We are currently working on the next iteration of the National Commissioning Academy, which we expect to launch in 2025. Dates and locations will be forthcoming! Read more here: https://www.publicservicetransformation.org/2024/09/the-next-national-commissioning-academy-coming-early-2025/
Towards Relational Public Services Conference 2025
3rd to 5th June 2025 Manchester Metropolitan University. This conference seeks to continue to explore the challenges of making Relational Public Services a reality for service users, professionals and academics alike: in an increasingly complex world, how can public services and social interventions create and sustain positive lives for the people and populations they serve? Find out more here: https://www.complexityoutcomes.org/
Complexity & Management Conference 6–8th June 2025
The conference begins on Friday 6th June 2025 and finishes at lunchtime on Sunday 8th. The currency of the conference is conversation and exploration in large groups and small. Read more here: https://complexityandmanagement.com/2024/11/04/complexity-management-conference-6-8th-june-2025/
Level 7 Systems Thinking Practitioner Apprenticeship
Work in England or Wales? Want to develop your systems thinking skills? Sign up now for the next cohort of the Level 7 Systems Thinking Practitioner Apprenticeship — Cherith Simmons, with experts from SCiO (including me) — likely start in January 2025! Register here: https://cherithsimmons.co.uk/corporate/level-7-systems-thinking-practitioner-apprenticeship/?utm_content=buffer2fd3b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Things I shared on socials:
Transformancy’s UK social value model and public sector tender checklist
In today’s competitive public sector procurement landscape, social value has emerged as a cornerstone of successful tendering. Buyers are no longer focused solely on cost and efficiency; they are now evaluating how suppliers contribute to broader economic, social, and environmental goals. To win contracts, businesses must not only demonstrate the quality of their services but also show how they create meaningful benefits for communities. This guide will help businesses align with the UK Government’s Social Value Model and articulate a compelling social value strategy in their proposals https://transformacy.co.uk/social-value-brochure-download?utm_term=social%20value%20consultancy&utm_campaign=Vert+%7C+Search+%7C+Social+Value&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=9706299446&hsa_cam=21675818303&hsa_grp=170940695430&hsa_ad=738476732119&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-814149272359&hsa_kw=social%20value%20consultancy&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAqmN2ApVhBSyawiDSNokWz9L7B3yC&gclid=Cj0KCQjwh_i_BhCzARIsANimeoEn8lnvAJrLMki-eUJlzuc2Cl9t9XlXrRPrhnqii2NNkz9lvNs50ckaAkToEALw_wcB
In defence of Linearity. Shakti’s Blog.
Why linearity despite its limitations cannot simply be wished away. It may seem odd if not heretic for an avowed systems thinker to write on this topic. The truth is that linearity is indispensable in our day to day living and in situations it may even be desirable.https://shaks.blog/2025/04/17/in-defence-of-linearity/
How to practice the three key steps of a #dowith approach. Adam Lent of the King’s Fund.
This is Anna Folwell and Dan Harman — two visionary doctors who are utterly transforming healthcare for the elderly and frail. They run the clinical side of the groundbreaking Jean Bishop Centre in Hull which has had a remarkable impact not just on the quality of life of those they help but has also radically cut hospital admissions for frail people. This is a hugely important outcome given frailty can raise emergency admissions for an individual by over 200% and costs the NHS £6 billion per year. The secret to their success — ‘doing with’ rather than ‘doing to’. Their practice follows the three key steps of a hashtag#DoWith approach. Read more from Adam Lent. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adam-lent-5b461a196_dowith-nhs-ageingwell-activity-7317813174932574210-pxD9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACuq-oBecVFDW6PCf3lkoG-peMeuLBeoho
The Complex Thinking initiative
The website hosts a collection of projects organised under the umbrella of a broader interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research programme dedicated to building theoretical, methodological and pragmatic foundations and to promoting the practice of Complex Thinking https://www.complexthinking.org/home
The energy at the edges. The system is dying from the middle. James Plunkett.
The progressive Left leans professional, managerial, technocratic, and the Right leans energised, slapdash, insurgent. This seems to be at least partly because the Right, and Trumpism in particular, has mainlined energy from every weird corner of the internet, while elite progressivism is relatively detached from the wider ecosystem from which it drew energy historically. https://medium.com/@jamestplunkett/the-energy-at-the-edges-8732ac49ecc9
