Art of the Possible:A Retrospective

In October, Essex County Council launched the

Art of the Possible, a week-long festival designed to open our eyes to

different ways of doing things and new ways of thinking. The festival provided an

eclectic range of festival acts: from devolution to design thinking, social media to soup, music to

medicine. More than 40 events across the county offered ECC colleagues and our partners a chance

to try something different. This look back at the Art of the Possible picks out some of the

great stuff that happened – reminding us of the festival and whetting our appetite for its return, bigger and

better, next year.

Service Design

Health & Wellbeing

Technology / Digital

disruption

Behaviour Change

48 GoodGym miles

Risk & Failure

Collaborative Citizens

Exploring attitudes to risk and failure in different sectors and contexts and how we shift from failure to learning to build resilience

Exploring factors that impact our physical, mental and social health – and what this means for providers, commissioners, citizens and place

What does it take to change values, attitudes, habits and cultures in organisations: insights and ideas

What do advances in technology mean for citizen/customer engagement?

Exploring what smarter citizen engagement looks like; achieving authentic voice, experience and expertise of the citizen in the design and delivery of public services

Collaborative approaches to the design and delivery of public services: insights and ideas

Our six themes

The Art of the Possible festival provided an opportunity for us to share ideas and creativity – helping us think and act differently. The festival was intended to get us all thinking about practical innovations which will make a difference to our daily lives. Each Art of the Possible event – whether a workshop, a lecture, a roundtable or a physical activity – was designed to address one of the following festival themes:

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Art of the Possible in Numbers

30 1000

8DJ

events

days

2 drones28musicians

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In October we had a fabulous week at Essex County Council with some amazing and thought-provoking events taking place around the organisation for Art of the Possible.

So firstly a big thank you to everyone involved who made Art of the Possible possible – our organisers, hosts and those of you who took time out of your busy schedules to attend.

Art of the Possible was a marvellous opportunity for us all to take a break from our busy schedules and take stock of what we’re doing and think about how we can change things for the better.

“Together we can be amazing”

The feedback I’ve heard has been overwhelmingly positive and certainly lots of new conversations have been sparked around the many forms innovation takes and could take across the county. We don’t want those conversations to fizzle out so please take the time to look though this round up of the week and refresh your memories.

The festival was also a fine example of teamwork as people from across the organisation as well as partners came together to share expertise and look at ways to help us think and act differently.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next when we pull some of these great ideas together and realise where they can take us.

A message from Margaret Lee, Executive Director for Corporate and Customer Services...

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‘It is easy to get caught up in the finances or mechanisms

of delivering housing, but we need to remember that ultimately this is about a person or family at the end of the process gaining a home. It is vital we don’t forget the human element of this’ panellist, Essex Question Time

‘“I wanted to cook dinner for my wife. But the carer wouldn’t

let me” (Trevor, case study participant). For me, this quote sums up what Public Services are doing wrong in the provision of adult social care’ Katrina, participant in Prepare to be Moved, to be Scared, to be Wrong.

‘Excited about the possibility of a MakerSpace being part of Chelmsford

Library … how do we keep the discussion going?’ Tom, an Essex technologist, talking about Making Your MakerSpace

‘This feels like the big cultural challenge (at all levels) – to move

away from counting beans to really working closely with people that need our help’ social worker attending A Minute to Change Lives

‘It was sold as a rubbish event and it lived up to its name. It really gave me an opportunity to think about how I dispose of waste and how I can make a contribution to reducing my rubbish footprint. I never

realised the cost of disposing of certain types of waste. I will really think hard about how I can dispose of my old furniture etc. or allow others access to it rather than simply throwing it away’ Tim, an ECC employee, talking about Come to Our Rubbish Event

SOUPGood ideas can come from anywhere. SOUP came from Detroit and since its launch in 2010 more than $100,000 has been raised by Detroit residents for Detroit residents.

SOUP’s beauty is its simplicity: people come together for a meal, pay a fiver, listen to three ‘pitches’ from members of the community and decide there and then who wins. The lucky winner gets the cash for their project and everyone gets soup and a roll.

SOUP has crossed the Atlantic and there are currently three SOUPs in Essex – two of them, ColchesterSOUP and HarwichSOUP, came together to run MeetSOUP as part of the festival.

Were they intrigued by the way in which a corner of the County Hall atrium was turned into a rubbish dump?

Was it surprise at the over-size price tags showing the actual cost of dealing with the rubbish residents take to their recycling centre?

Maybe the offer of a sweet in exchange for a good idea was the nudge people needed? Whatever the hook, 50+ people used the festival to give their ideas as to how best to minimise the amount of waste we produce.

Employees and local residents discussed the issue and marked down their ideas on reusable whiteboard strips. Waste professionals were on hand for specific technical insights but took a back seat - the event was an exercise in crowdsourcing good ideas rather than assuming the way we currently do things is the way we have to do things.

A 90 minute drop-in with no formal agenda and its tongue firmly in its cheek came up with scores of tangible ideas as to how reduce the amount of waste we create – from new innovations to good examples from across the globe –and all it took was looking beyond the usual suspects.

SOUP attendees were hosted by the team at Colchester Fire Station and, in addition to enjoying tunes from local musicians, participants also got the chance to see the firemen respond to a number of ‘calls’ during the course of the evening - a surprisingly popular added bonus!

Three local residents presented their ideas and the winner, a local author, won £200 to get her work published.

SOUP offers a space where people can connect. The rest is up to attendees, but wonderful things can happen when people come together, and SOUP stories are evidence of that - as ColchesterSoup tweeted ‘got the best result from ecc soup with @harwichsoup recently, an email ‘help me set up a soup?’

‘It was the best networking event I’ve ever been to – probably

because it wasn’t advertised as a networking event! I feel reenergised and inspired’ attendee, MeetSOUP

‘Can you imagine the profit and loss statement on this event? Someone walks out with all the money an hour and a half after it being donated. It’s a great feeling’ volunteer, MeetSOUP

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A rubbish event

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Striking a chord Art of the Possible always wanted to provide opportunities for people to show what they could do but we didn’t expect to see a director playing bass guitar, a committee clerk on the keys or project managers singing harmonies – they and many more were part of the Art of the Possible Jam.

When Alex Polak came up with the idea, he wanted to show how a group of individuals with hidden talents, brought together with a clear goal, could quickly achieve more than the sum of its parts – and rather than create an agile project team, he issued a call for musicians.

The 28 jammers hadn’t met before they rocked up to play from all levels and parts of the organisation, including one or two from partners such as Capita. Within a few minutes, the curious audience watching from walkways around the atrium were treated to a lunchtime gig – quiet at first, but growing to a confident sound with verses, choruses, improvisation and communication between players. Point made!

Watch the videos online here: youtu.be/pTc0pIFqXOc youtu.be/Oms7L4PpQqo

From prelates to primates: innovation in my world

Art of the Possible took over the Council Chamber and brought in 12 speakers from different walks of life to get their perspective on our festival themes.

From the Bishop of Colchester via a charity chief executive and a social media whizz who out-smarted Simon Cowell to a motivational zoo keeper, the speakers provided insights and suggestions that made the audience laugh, cry and think again.

If you didn’t get the chance to attend, don’t worry: each and every speaker was recorded. With each talk no more than 15 minutes long, the ‘Innovation in my World’ series offers an ideal way to experience the festival from the comfort of your own chair and at a time of your own choosing.

The Art of the Possible was designed to showcase good work that’s already happening across the county.

One such example was Open Book – a project which has seen the Loughton library team work with the community, asking them what they would like to do in their

library. The results, thus far, are twofold:

• A library with a different look and feel, one that provides the regular range of library services but that also offers residents the chance to use the library to do more

• A learning journey for the library team who have, over the course of a year, embraced a new, more open, way of working.

Participants toured the space, understanding how the Loughton team developed their participatory library and recognising that while strategies and plans are important, the way we engage with our customers and our citizens is more important still.

‘The festival invigorated the council to think differently about

who we work with and what we do. The apprentices and young people were able to show their passion and energy in an innovative way to help make the work we do better. It was amazing to be part of this and we cannot wait for next year.’ Bonnie Roberts, chairperson of the Apprentice and Young People’s Network

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Apprentices help ensure festival is a

successMany of the Art of the

Possible events would not have run so smoothly if it wasn't for the efforts of some of our apprentices

Nine apprentices were vital to the success of the festival, taking on a number of tasks (as well as wearing the T-shirts) from promoting events and producing publicity material to taking videos and photographs and helping with bookings.

And the experience was not only fun, it also benefited them, giving them the chance to get involved and help shape the conversation about what innovation at Essex County Council can mean.

The apprentices were: Jodie Taylor, Christie Coote, Emma Douglas, Fazal Fazal, Alfie Walls, Christina Moore, Megan Cleveland, Paige Drury-Staines and Charlee Hoad.

Jodie said: “I was lucky enough to help with the promotion and being part of the short film that was created with Collaborate. This

was a great experience to have working with an actual film crew and even though it was over two hours of filming for a 20-second slot in the short film it was totally worth it.

“The overall experience of working with Collaborate and the Apprentice and Young People’s Network was fantastic and I can’t wait until next year (or the next time it takes place) to be able to get involved and make the next one bigger and better than this year’s.”

Alfie Walls, an insurance apprentice, added: “I went to the World Café event and talked with other employees about how we could improve the Art of the Possible 2016 event and how we could appeal to residents across Essex.

“It was very interesting to see what other people thought about

the event and how passionate they were to get involved with it.”

Bonnie Roberts, chairperson of the Apprentice and Young People’s Network, was delighted with the support the festival received

‘I really enjoyed the Hackathon and meeting

all of you. I came away with some useful new ideas and skills. Amelia Grace [a secondary school age hack participant] was an excellent social media coach!’ Rose, a charity worker, talking about @hackessex 21st Century Volunteering

‘Thanks for making me feel the Art of the Possible in Chelmsford tonight’ Deborah, an ECC employee, talking about the Art of the Possible launch

One of the 'big' festival acts was our Ted-inspired speakers' event

An Open Book

Watch the video online here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAUftdp99FBaVSY3616u4HRrm1JLL2WKo

The Essex 2021 session provided an opportunity to think and talk about what public services across Essex would look like and how they could operate differently in six years’ time.

There was a range of topics to discuss - from how we could make better use of public service property and estates to how we

What will we look like in 2021?

collaborate with citizens and communities to achieve our outcomes.

Innovation is not new to Essex County Council and together we’ve achieved amazing things responding to the last few years of austerity. But it’s clear as challenges continue to come thick and fast our response will need to be even more innovative and radical in the future.

For our next programme of change, Essex 2021, we will need

to put innovation at the core of everything we do from shifting how we work as an organisation to how the whole system of public services works across Essex.

Our Essex 2021 session unlocked the hidden creativity within our employees and provided a fantastic opportunity for conversation, question and debate – all within a really friendly and informal environment.

Watch this space to see where these ideas take us.

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Watch the video online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2qLxHDB4h8

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How it all began...

Watch the video online here: https://vimeo.com/142636337

Take a look at our vibrant panel debate around some

of the big housing issues for the UK and Essex in order

to consider the future of housing across

our county.

Essex Question Time

IT’S A WRAP!If you loved the festival, please join us for the Art of the Possible 2015 Wrap Party, 3pm to 5pm on Tuesday 1 December, in the Innovation Space at County Hall (formerly known as C326).

We want to use the Wrap Party to start to bring our team together for next year, think about what our 2016 festival will look like and generate some ideas. Please make yourself known to us if you would like to be a part of #AotP2016!

There will be games, drinks and nibbles, an opportunity to see some of the TED videos, view the reflections of participants, meet other hosts and innovators, a very small number of speeches at 4pm, bunting, music, hopefully laughter, and celebration.

Just let the team know at artof.thepossible@essex.gov.uk and climb on board.

Dates for your diary: October 14–20 2016

Changing the way we think and the way we behave isn’t the work of a moment. For that reason, Art of the

Possible was never meant to be a one-off.

So, what’s next? AotP2016 will see the festival return – bigger, better and open to yet more people.

It will all start on Friday 14 October 2016 - and with 11 months’ advanced notice, there really

shouldn’t be an excuse for being unable to fit a festival act into your week!

Same time next year?