So how do you change an important community service? One where there is a lot of emotion attached and where there are multiple perspectives, ideas and knowledge? Creative Cognicion recently worked with one such service. It was a large community serviced based in Gippsland Victoria and covered a large area geographically. Previous work had been done around service changes but the recommendations that came about largely put the consultants in the role of the expert rather than listening to the various perspectives and harnessing the wisdom of those within the system.
The chosen methodology by Creative Cognicion was methodology developed by Cognitive Edge which is specifically designed to work with complex issues. It puts the people in the system in the centre of the decision making process, allows all voices to be heard and encouraged insights and ideas for resolution to emerge.
In this particular instance there were local councilors, the Board of the service, staff of the service, community members and the CEO of the service. No ones voice was more important that the other. Narrative techniques, emergence and refinement of ideas was undertaken with the end result being a compilation of everyone’s voice. Participants expressed a great deal of satisfaction with the process as they were all energized and able to contribute from the perspective of their experience.
