Doing - here in Ulverston

If one agrees that the problem is with the way the civil servants get entrenched in their views then one way is to open up dialogue with the public.

This could lead to greater job satisfaction as long as the public didn't keep thoughtlessly slagging them off.

One example of this is with the police force. Very few people have a good word for them. Yet I have found that they are a really good set of guys trying to do a very difficult job. Granted there will be some that aren't as enthusiastic as we might expect. But just imagine being in a job when one gets continuous hassle and very little appreciation. Ever since I've given them some appreciation on this blog I've got on well with them and I now regularly get excellent honest 'off the record' communication with them. This is not because I've been easy on them with the things I've said occasionally.

In the long term I find I build really healthy relationships by giving honest reactions to people (this is not seen by most as the way a good politician operates but then I'm trying to be true to myself and not an imitation of someone else). I try to tell people exactly what I think and this is includes giving praise where it is due.

So back to improved communication.

First we have to get the officers to give us truthful answers to our questions. Many avoid contact unless you persist.

Second we could encourage the public to communicate directly with them. At the moment we leave this to our councillors but often they do a very surficial job and are manipulated by the officers. The officers are often laying down policy not the reverse.

The way I've decided to do this is the form smallish very localised groups that come from an identifiable area. Having tried this once I found we got a group of talkers who wanted to sit and dream of what could be done but not actually do much.

So I'm now tackling the group formation differently. Get together a group of doers rather than talkers. This doing can be anything and my interest is pottery. I already run three weekly groups of potters in my workshop and they are great people. Potter of course is a demanding thing to do particularly if one is being creative and trying new things. There are plenty of frustrations when the product isn't up to expectations - it may fail at the first hurdle and crack in half as it dries!

With this practical craft it encourages risk takers and whingers quickly stop coming.

So a new group is being set up in a community centre without the dreaded grants, so people have to pay small amounts for themselves which will ensure that the group continues. Having got one group going it is hoped to form a second and a third in different areas of Ulverston.

Having got doers together, I'm hoping that these people will have views that they want carried out for their areas and one or two will want to represent the group at local government level as independent thinking people. They will gradually learn which officials to contact to get things done and reap the reward of things actually happening.

It's a long term strategy and it will be fun to see what happens. There are other groups of doers amongst us of course - the largest probably are the gardeners with their allotments.

A great scare crow!

So far they are managed by the council but they could claim more ownership of their work and set up independent self help groups. Something I'm just getting to find out about.

So it is to be "doers of Ulverston work together" but not necessarily 'unite' as that implies that they will all want the same thing.

That was a long post - how did you cope.

With my main contact with people through doers, you can perhaps understand my lack of enthusiasm for people who just talk especially in the early hours on their computers. As I've said before I write this for my own benefit - it helps me sort my thinking out and sometimes spot where I'm going wrong!

I sometimes make contact with another doer too!