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February 2007

27 February 2007

Back from holiday

Oh dear. I have to start my second blog post with an apology. I said I wouldn’t let holiday stop me blogging but the demands of family, friends and dog, and the allure of long walks and slow drinks proved too great. Aviemore was great and my sons got in a few days snow boarding. As a small step towards reducing our carbon footprint, rather than flying our group all travelled by train.

This year has continued the trend of less snow on the slopes and my older son asked one of the small army of instructors whether they worried about the impact of global warming. “We never discuss it, it’s too depressing,” was his reply.

Back at work, yesterday was my first meeting of the RSA Council. I made a presentation outlining a strategy for the RSA which tries to bring together our ideas, our model of change and a vision for the Fellowship into a single brand and vision. The Council members were pretty positive but want to know how we are going to deliver. One council member suggested I do a version of my presentation as a webcast.

Would anyone listen I wonder?

Later on Monday I went to a Government seminar on 'co-production' of public services. This is the idea of getting public services users – patients, parents, pupils, carers etc – to take shared responsibility with providers for meeting outcomes.

Everyone (across the main political parties) seems to support the idea but the really hard question is how Government encourages public service professionals and institutions to develop innovative ways of working in partnership with citizens. This is one of the issues I hope we can explore as part of our project on 'pro-social behaviour'.

While I was away we had another successful Thursday debate – this time with Will Hutton and others debating the impact of private equity (you can download the MP3 file here). I am really pleased by this series as it shows we can move fast and intervene in very current issues, as well as get audiences of over 100 in three days. The website will have the details of the each Thursday event as soon as they're decided.

Also finally just to reply to Michael Smethurst who commented about the Cialdini lecture, to say that the transcript is up on the RSA website and can be read or downloaded here.

Posted by Matthew Taylor

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15 February 2007

First blog post

Welcome to my first blog post. It's a regular chance for me to chat to Fellows about what's happening at the RSA, or about broader issues that I think the RSA should be engaging with. I hope I will provoke responses but rather than just a dialogue with me, the aim is to get conversations and ideas flowing across the Fellowship.

The last two months have been pretty intense. As well as getting to know the RSA, I have been writing an essay and speech on 'pro-social behaviour'. The speech was delivered last week and the response seemed pretty good. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne even wrote an article in the Sunday Times claiming that my speech showed I was now a Cameronian!

The job now is to turn the ideas into a project: there are a lot of people and organisations interested in how better to engage and mobilise citizens so we need to be clear how the RSA can add to this debate. And, as always, we need to develop practical ways of testing out ideas on the ground. Oh yes, and we have to find a way of funding the project.

Today (Thursday) sees the third in our new series of lunchtime lectures and debates. The first was delivered by Ronald Dworkin one of the world’s leading political philosophers and the second by Ali A Allawi, senior adviser to the prime minister of Iraq. Today we hosted a debate about why it is that society gives so much status to actors. Academic and author Michael Bywater who thinks it is a sign of how infantilised we have become locked horns with Michael Attenborough, artistic director of the Almeida Theatre in London.

The idea behind RSA Thursday was to underline that the RSA can be opportunistic and provocative. I am really pleased with the way people here have risen to the challenge of being a bit more fast-moving, and with the response we have had from people attending. If any Fellows have ideas for topical debates don’t hesitate to drop us an email.

Preparation is also well underway for this year's Coffeehouse Challenge. The CHC is the practical expression of our commitment to 'citizen-centric' social change so we are aiming to have more events and achieve greater impact than ever before. We’ll keep you updated on the website.

That's all from me today. Next week I’m on holiday but it won't stop me blogging!

Posted by Matthew Taylor

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