Of course my approach to complexity didn’t work ’cause my means fitted my ends. I wasn’t trying to provide a top-down solution but working as one of the team, kind of an ‘insider consultant’ model. Which at one level is obviously counter-cultural for the NHS, despite the fact that the MA (Modernisation Agency) had written a report on harnessing social movement theory to making change happen, the reality of what that means is outside most people’s experience. Kind of like what I recall some social psychologist who been brought in by City Hall in deepest California reporting the cry that went up from the employees on his arrival each morning: “Hey, here comes the Chaos guy!”. And equally to the average manager what I talking about sounds a bit counter-intuitive, what bring someone in with a big idea but then get them to blend in with everyone so that it kind of disappears. But that’s the point, you want people to accept it for themselves, to own it and shape it, using social software. And my contention is that you need an unusual low-level attitude (kind of like putting sync into action) to show how it operates amongst staff not managers to actually make it fly and pay on its ROI. (So you don’t need to write weighty reports, but you do need to sell it in many different ways on a day to day level that connects with how staff connect with their work and their world).

Enough. Got to go and get some fresh air and buy a new washing machine. The old one broke down while I was doing my ironing whilst watching the rock documentary ‘Dig’.