Comments on: Andy Burnham, Steven Gerrard and the spiral galaxies

By: Latching on to the crowd’s enthusiasms | Crowd Surfing

Latching on to the crowd’s enthusiasms | Crowd Surfing — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:44:58 +0000

[...] typically smart thinking from RSA Chief Executive Matthew Taylor about the best way for government institutions to influence consumer behaviour. Rather [...]

By: matthewtaylor

matthewtaylor — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:53:26 +0000

Thanks for the link

By: Andy Burnham, Steven Gerrard and the spiral galaxies | Matthew … | End Smoking using Hypnosis

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:33:28 +0000

[...] A smart blogger placed an observative post today on Andy Burnham, Steven Gerrard and the spiral galaxies | Matthew …Here’s a quick excerptMatthew Taylor’s blog. Politics, brains, social action and the day to day life of the RSA’s chief executive. Subscribe to Matthew Taylor’s blog RSS Feed Â· Subscribe to Matthew Taylor’s blog … The state is forever trying to get people to do things; lose weight, stop smoking, get trained, get fit, recycle, pay tax on time etc. So we the citizens are overwhelmed with messages with the net effect that we feel put upon and somehow diminished. But instead of starting from … [...]

By: Indy

Indy — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:47:58 +0000

I think you highlight the deeply perverse nature of what “consultation” has come to mean in Britain – effectively “we’ll let you have your say and then do what we want anyway.”

I would contend that a real consultation process very much starts from people’s own enthusiasms and that they should be the ones in charge of spending the money. I’m very open to learning a new word, if you have one though.

By: matthewtaylor

matthewtaylor — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:19:18 +0000

Thanks Indy

I applaud effective consultation and the amazing progess in public health in the Nordic countries. But a couple of points. First the process of consultation doesn’t fit my suggestion that we start from people’s own enthusiasms. Many people don’t feel that beng consulted is something they are very good at. The important thing is that consultation is real and rewarding. The Youth Opportunity Fund http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/youthmatters/youthfund/ is, I think, a very good example of a process in whch control over how to spend money to encourage participation is actaully handed over to young people.

Matthew