My picture. 3 Minibuses, Pen y Pass carpark, Yr Wyddfa.

If you want to improve the governance of any committee/ Board / organisation, it’s worth looking outside of what you’ve got. I’m not suggesting you look to copycat what others are doing, but it does help with the process of self refection, learning and improvement.

So how do you do it? To quote the excellent Max Caller (the man who fixes broken councils), who spoke recently at an Audit Wales event about the cost of failure in Public Services; Get a Minibus!

“If you want to know about your own culture, spend some time in someone else’s.” I heard this from Dutch Author Fons Trompennars waaayy back in 2013, and it prompted me to write this blog post (link here). A anecdote from Fons still sticks in my head, “I didn’t realise how Dutch I was until I spent some time in America”. That resonates hugely and pretty much captures the feeling of being very Welsh when I get off the Cardiff Train at Paddington Station (London).

But how does it help governance? The point Max Caller was making was around the issue that many of the people ‘charged with governance’ often don’t experience things beyond their immediate surroundings. This is true of organisations, local politics and all sorts of Boards and committees.

The risk is that you become too inwardly focussed and not aware of different experiences, thinking, risks and opportunities. A lack of diversity of experience and thinking, that could also be extended to the policy arena. An often raised criticism is that the people make who policy are remote from the people who it actually impacts upon. This is where the minibus comes in.

Metaphorically, the Minibus is just about leaving the place you are familiar and comfortable with, and going to experience another ‘culture’. That’s it. Have a go.

Leave the portrait of the Queen alone! I do have a little bit of experience of Minibus Cultural Exchanges. Many years ago there was a project to develop the effectiveness of Scrutiny Committees in Local Councils. This involved some actual minibus trips of Local Councillors going to observe the Scrutiny Committees at different Councils; generally at a sensible distance from their own.

A few observations:

• It did absolutely prompt self reflection. I sat next to Councillors who went though a range of responses from awe and respect to dismissal and despair.
• What was common was a response of; ‘it’s opened my eyes to what we do,’ and also ‘I really hope we don’t do that’.
• That ability to reflect on what you do a ‘home’ (your culture) was amplified by sitting in a deliberate observation role.
• And everyone spoke about it on the minibus trip home (embedding the learning).

The ‘leave the portrait of the Queen alone!’ statement comes from the visit of Local Councillors with very pro Welsh Independence views, to a Council that was far more Anglicised.

The host Council had a portrait of the Queen in the Council Chamber and the Union Jack on display. It was a cultural leap that the Independence Councillors struggled to come to terms with, when they should have been observing the Scrutiny Committee. And no, I wasn’t going to allow them to turn the Queen’s portrait around to face the wall.

Our town is twinned with… One final refection. I remember when the practice of town twinning used to be more common. It seems to be less prevalent nowadays in a world of austerity (like school exchanges).

I think we’ve lost something in the decline of those cultural exchanges. The last one I experiences was linked to a Rugby Club, a ‘very’ broad rugby / Town Hall cultural mashup.

As I drive across the UK those town signs that say ‘twinned with’ fill me with a little bit of sadness and nostalgia.

Bring back the International Minibus Cultural Exchange.

So, What’s the PONT?

1. Different views, experiences and knowledge all help to make good decisions. Avoiding ‘groupthink’ if you like.
2. If you ‘never leave the house’ you are naturally narrowing your horizons and limiting the information you can use to help make a good decision.
3. Getting in the minibus (metaphorical or real) will help you to understand your own culture by immersing yourself in someone else’s.