Duncan O'Leary
Duncan works on projects looking at public services, skills and work.
- Why we get the politicians we deserve For me, the answer (as always) seems to lie in Ronald Heifetz's analysis of leadership and change. He argues that our instinctive reaction is to expect our leaders to solve problems on our behalf - like a doctor giving us the magic treatment to make it all better again.What leaders need to do though, according to the Heifetz is to: - hand the work back to people themselves by bringing issues out into the open - create holding environments for people to adress the problems themselves and... continue reading on 19th May 2006
- If Mark Moore made libraries' As with so many of the innovative projects that we?ve visited this week it seems to work on (at least) two important principles.1. Find out what the community really wants from it public services and start from there, rather than the organisational structure that tend to dominate public services2. Get people in the door at all costs, and then carry on the conversation with themThis takes time, and can be a difficult and frustrating process.But it seems to provide the foundation for a much more... continue reading on 10th May 2006
- Back in the pavlova paradise The PHOs in particular seem to be doing some really interesting work by linking GPs, communities and other local health providers, and putting a big emphasis on preventative work. My favourite story is about a PHO not too far from Wellington (which is where we're staying at the moment). The Lower Hutt PHO launched itself by taking a market stall and exchanging frozen chickens for packets of cigarettes as part of a cessation campaign. They ceremonially burnt 50 packets of fags at the end of the... continue reading on 1st May 2006
- About Us [part II] Sorry for the second posting in a week about Demos, but i couldn't let my favourite description of us so far drift by. From Saturday's Times :"the achingly trendy, mind-bogglingly esoteric and ridiculously pretentious think-tank Demos"Much more interesting than 'the independent think-tank'... continue reading on 24th April 2006
- Thought for the day No Friday rant as yet, so a thought for the day instead:Before you criticise someone, walk a mile in their shoes. Then, when you criticise them, you'll be a mile away, and you'll have their shoes. continue reading on 21st April 2006
- Demos in wikipedia ...ok you've clicked this far......so you might fancy editing the discription of us on Wikipedia. I've just been sent a link to it and it's a bit dated/boring so let's see what you think. The existing text is below:Demos is an influential think tank based in the United Kingdom. In the run up to the 1997 UK general election it was seen as being close to the Labour Party, in particular the current leader Tony Blair. It is however, independent of any political party.Its co-founder and first... continue reading on 12th April 2006
- Case studies of new professionalism You may have noticed that we have a bit on an interest in professionalism at Demos at the moment. What does it look like in a world where people are less deferential? Where we have Google to provide us with all the knowledge in the world? And where the value of professional boundaries and identity are repeatedly called in to question in the name of ?joined up? services?Well, fortunately we have some projects to explore these issues [here, here, and here] ...and we?re on the look-out for some... continue reading on 10th April 2006
- This time its personal Just a quick entry to point towards a couple of interesting things going on over at the Conservative Party website. Last week there was thw online petition (has there been one of these started by a party before?} to preserve tax breaks for home computers, and now there is the 'Personal political broadcast'. You send in a short video clip saying how you would improve your local environment and the best clips will be be edited into broadcasts and aired to the nation on the BBC.Seems like a good... continue reading on 6th April 2006
- Trust me, i'm a doctor The announcement from a group of 900 doctors that the government should look at moving away from an entirely tax-funded system of health is an interesting one. The obvious question is: why should we listen to them? Is it because they are experts who know the health service inside out? They are professionals after all. Or do they represent ?the producer interest? ? a phrase we keep hearing recently. In which case, why should we listen to them at all? Shouldn?t we be listening to service users... continue reading on 3rd April 2006 Comments (2)
- Civil Partnership - Using the Children and Young People?s Plan to agree a where national priorities are brought together with an assessment of local need ? therefore agreeing a basis for partnership (and the terms of inspection) between central and local government. - Separating the advice and compliance functions of central government advisers wherever possible ? allowing a much more honest and frank conversation to take place between central and local government - Allowing local government to commission... continue reading on 24th March 2006