400 words (5 minutes reading time) by Tim Whistler

Saying that system governance is the key to paradigm change is stating the obvious. Any way of thinking about change requires existing power structures to be understood and for the people controlling those power structures to be given incentives to start thinking and behaving differently. We see it happening every day.

A friend who works as a consultant to various councils was explaining her work to me recently. She was dumbing it down for me and used the analogy of cake decoration. She said her role is the equivalent of helping community to sort out Smarties to pick colours to decorate the council cake. Everyone knows people have favourite Smartie colours, and there will be the ‘right’ colours for the cake. Without knowing exactly who will be eating the cake it can be tricky, and a lot of effort goes into talking to the community about the colour of the Smarties.

I asked what the problem was and she said it was the cake. Most people were going to find it inedible because it wasn’t well made. The icing is already in place and being kept in place by the council executives. It is brown to avoid clashing with the Smarties, whatever colour the community say they want. A tasteless, brown cake. It is the opposite of what I think Steve Jobs was saying…

“You’ve baked a really lovely cake, but then you’ve used dog shit for frosting.”

Steve Jobs

I know my friend was feeling as though their capability to help extended far beyond Smartie selection and cake decoration, but they knew they wouldn’t be asked to help make a better cake. The decision makers have decided that a better cake isn’t possible and fancy decoration is the only way forward. This is a prime example of the need for power structures to change.

As long as passing off a colourful cake as a tasty cake remains successful, it will keep on happening. Someone needs to call it and demand a better cake. The performance of the current cake makers needs to be properly evaluated and if they can’t work out how to produce a better cake, then new cake makers are needed! If councils are ‘marking their own homework’, as has been suggested, take it off them and give it to someone else to assess.

PS. I am pretty sure that despite all the effort to ask about colours, the cake will just get all of them because no one can decide who is going to miss out on their favourite colour…