#LGE2019

Leading Greater Essex 2019 closed in March 2020

Throughout the year 45 leaders from across public services in Essex, Southend and Thurrock worked, laughed and explored together as part of the Leading Greater Essex whole systems leadership journey. ThePublicOffice facilitated learning about the theories, approaches, tools and techniques used for understanding the complex interactions between people and organisations and how to intervene to create meaningful change

Highlights included discovering and living with complexity; honing personal resilience and influencing others through compelling public narrative. 

LGE2019 comprised a combination of group learning and 100 Day Challenge team projects tackling “real” issues that impact people in Essex across boundaries.  These included mental health and suicide; homelessness and housing; infrastructure and communications.

Key messages participants say they have taken away feature:

• Service users/citizens must be the centre of the work
• "It's about relationships and trust, not structures and hierarchies”
• “Start somewhere and follow it everywhere, notice and discover”
• “Use narratives and framing to change the way people perceive issues”
• "Work with coalitions of the willing and live with discomfort and complexity”
• "Make connections, form networks and use offline conversations to build support”
• "Make progress and keep checking what’s happening rather than trying to solve an issue at the first attempt