As Albert Einstein said “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”
As I see it part of the problem is the often large disconnect between those in government, developing policy and those in the community who will be affected by those policies. As some have pointed out those in the civil service are often caught in between these extremes. It seems a complex web of relationships, thinking and consulting has developed trying to connect government thinking to community need, from the top down. I wonder if every new consultation process just adds to this web.
At the other end is the problem of who is this community we talk about and how do they express their needs. Ordinary everyday New Zealanders rarely get a say in it and in my experience cannot be expected to come up with solutions - rather do their best to articulate their needs, but who is listening? Democracy is a very crude instrument for community engagement.
They are others in the middle who are looking around seeing the problems in a slightly more objective light who then either try to connect with government to articulate the issues or simple get on and try to create solutions to the problems they see around them. I put myself in this camp along with the many many “community workers” ranging from street level workers through to managers running NGOs, non profits and of course government employed “front line staff”.
These are the people in my opinion who are the closest to the social problems, are developing at least some insight into why we have the problems in the first place and are therefore an integral part of developing the solutions. There is something incredibly grounding in doing the thinking toward social solutions while needing to face – in the same day – the actual reality of the problem when for example a client phones up in tears/rage/grief/joy with their story.
Why then are we not actively seeking engagement with these front liners? Can we seek this engagement outside the usual political dynamics or central and local government? Why can we not see this wide ranging group of front liners as a key resource and find creative ways to engage, listen ( really listen) and jointly develop or prototype solutions? Let’s have a group of trained solution brokers who seek out those people working in the community struggling to develop answers, actively seeking out those who are coming up with innovative ideas and solutions. Sure these solutions may well need work to develop them into really effective policy or projects but can that be the place for experience civil servants. It seems government makes up policy in isolation or tries to “consult” from the top down. Lets turn the process on its head and have entrepreneurial agents actively seeking out solutions from the ground up, developing these ideas and selling them back up to government decision makers .  

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