(This article was first published in the Belfast Telegraph on Tuesday 18th July 2023)
A few years back I was fortunate to come across ‘Future Search’ — a method for enabling people to make and implement ambitious plans on issues that need fixed. What struck me then, and in the time since, was that this approach is infinitely better than any other process I had been a part of to date.
The method is used around the world and the key to its success is getting the whole system of stakeholders into a room, then using a series of principles to unearth answers and a commitment to action.
As someone who engages in many-an-interaction with politicians and decision makers, I have since become ever more attuned to ‘process’ in my personal and professional life. But whilst process can be somewhat boring on the surface — effective process helps to bring people along a journey and when done right, can deliver truly emphatic results. Think treble-winning football team, space launch — or at the more complicated end of the scale… a child’s birthday party.
I’ll go further and confess to a mild obsession on the ‘power’ of good process or systems across each facet of life.
It seems process can appear too simple or is taken for granted and therefore overlooked. But the joy is in using process to maximise the potential of people and get results.
The pioneers of Future Search — psychologists Sandra Janoff and Marvin Weisbord — also published a book about how to run effective meetings called ‘Don’t just do something, stand there!’. Meetings are often part of a much larger process, and one such process rolling on for some time is childcare reform.
Readers will need no introduction to this issue due to first-hand experience or given its emphatic rise in public consciousness, especially since the pandemic. And rightly so. Childcare reform in NI is exactly the type of issue that Future search, and good process is made for.
Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) represents businesses that include self-employed childminders and childcare providers. We represent businesses run by women. And of course, we represent businesses that have women within their workforce.
But many thousands of women are being denied an opportunity because of the cost of childcare. In that context, we want to see a government subsidy that brings the cost of childcare down so the maximum number of parents and guardians — primarily women — can choose to train, to work or to start a business. That’s not to say that every woman would choose to do so. Nor is this all we want to see — but at its core, the investment will remove barriers and unlock potential.
In developing a new childcare system for NI, the risk is that future provision does not meet the expectations or needs of those it can impact upon most. Children; parents and guardians; women; and businesses. I say this because at FSB we are concerned an effective vision is yet to be articulated and the process — despite best endeavours and challenging circumstances — could be seen as less than effective.
But it’s not too late. Despite the challenges, in order to avoid not meeting needs, expectations or potential, we must first hone in on and simplify what exactly it is we are trying to do. We need to create a vision for what we want to see, and only then should we work towards implementing this vision.
In the coming weeks, our elected representatives will be presented with options for a childcare strategy. These options are being developed by officials and will contain a range of possibilities — with costs attached. Our elected representatives then need to decide on the size of investment they will commit to the issue of childcare.
It is essential they do not fall into a trap of thinking that the largest investment is ‘unaffordable’ or that if a vision cannot be realised immediately, we shouldn’t commit. This is a 10 to 15 year project in which we can ‘invest to save’.
And so alongside costed options, the thing that will help decision makers to understand and commit is an effective process — one that lays out if and how we might reach an ambitious vision; one that shows the opportunity lost; and one that reassures parents, providers and employers that improvement will come at each step along the way.
FSB will continue working with politicians and others to help ensure a childcare vision is articulated, process is harnessed and that decision makers finally deliver — after many, many years of underinvestment.
On this issue, we have stood still for long enough. Now it’s time for the right kind of action. We can’t opt for the low cost, easy option - just so we are seen to be doing something. Otherwise, in future we may find ourselves searching for answers that stare us in the face at present.
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