Book Nook: Human Learning Systems

 Today, a network of public service transformation advocates - the Human Learning Systems (HLS) Collaborative - has released a new e-book that calls for a new era in public administration. Research has shown time and again that public service isn’t designed or managed for the real world. It is widely known that public service workers have to routinely bend the truth in order to do their jobs, with more than 80% of research into target-based performance management finding evidence of “gaming”.

The Human Learning Systems approach - already taking hold in public service organisations across Europe - offers a powerful alternative to the often dehumanising, wasteful and fragmented world of public management.

Human Learning Systems: Public Service for the Real World, has been written by a collaborative including Dr Toby Lowe, together with authors from the Centre for Public Impact, Collaborate, Easier, Inc., Institute for Voluntary Action Research, Newcastle Business School, and ThemPra Social Pedagogy. It features nearly 50 case studies demonstrating this new approach in action across Europe. The e-book is a guide for organisations or teams working in public service who feel the current way they’re doing things isn’t working and are keen to explore an alternative.

Key takeaways from The Human Learning Systems: Public Service for the Real World are:

• HLS enables public service to support human freedom and flourishing by acknowledging that people’s lives are complex, as are the responses to the problems we face.
• HLS works to produce better outcomes for less money whilst also also increasing staff motivation and happiness.
• HLS can be used at any scale - from the local voluntary sector to national government.
• Nearly 50 public service bodies have now successfully implemented HLS and are witnessing its impact, including Wellbeing Teams, Liverpool City Region, The Children’s Society, Plymouth Alliance, Likewise and most prominently the Finnish National Education Agency, often referred to as one of the best in the world.

HLS does this by:

• Making the process of creating change more human, putting decision making into the hands of the people who know best - the people using services, and those who directly support them.
• Supporting collaborative working across organisations, departments, and with citizens to build trust and support into relationships.
• Changing the role of management to creating a learning culture rather than exercising control.

Dr Toby Lowe, Visiting Professor in Public Management at the Centre for Public Impact explains further:
 

“Human Learning Systems offers an alternative to the “Markets, Managers and Metrics” approach of New Public Management. It outlines a way of making social action and public service more responsive to the needs of each person it serves, creating an environment where improvement is driven by continuous learning and adaptation. Our new e-book outlines how this approach to public management can be put into practice, and the amazing benefits we have already seen it deliver.”
 

As we move into a new post-pandemic world, now is the time to act and join the HLS community. Download the e-book today and join us for a webinar on the 17th June, to discuss the key takeaways and hear from practitioners on how they are using this approach to transform the way they work.
 
Notes to editors
 
About the Centre for Public Impact
At the Centre for Public Impact, we have an emerging vision to reimagine government so that it works for everyone. A global not-for-profit organisation founded by the Boston Consulting Group, we serve as a learning partner for governments, public servants and the diverse network of changemakers leading the charge to reimagine government – holding space to collectively make sense of the complex challenges we face, and drive meaningful change through experimentation.
 
About Collaborate
Collaborate CIC is a social consultancy and research organisation that helps people and organisations work together to tackle complex social challenges. We do this by supporting communities and partners in places across the UK to develop the relationships, behaviours, leadership and infrastructure that enable collaboration. We produce practical tools and frameworks that influence the debate about social change, work to build a movement for collaboration and help people to collaborate in their own contexts.
 
In partnership with Dr. Toby Lowe, Collaborate has been involved in the development of Human Learning Systems from the start, co-authoring A Whole New World and Exploring the New World.
 
About Easier Inc.
Easier Inc is an organisational design and transformation partner. Bringing together ideas and approaches from across disciplines, they provide straightforward, jargon free support which helps people to:

• make sense of complexity;
• focus on what really matters;
• create workplaces where responsibility, mutuality and fellowship flourish.

About IVAR
IVAR is an independent charity that works closely with people and organisations striving for social change. From the very small that directly support the most vulnerable in their local communities, to those that work nationally – across the voluntary, public and funding sectors.
 
We use research to develop practical responses to the challenges faced and create opportunities for people to learn from our findings.
 
About Newcastle Business School (NBS)
Newcastle Business School is part of an elite group of the top 1% business schools worldwide, following accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in business and accounting – the first in Europe to gain the double accreditation. Recognised by Times Higher Education as one of the top-rated universities for the provision of business and management education in the UK, NBS offers an Outstanding Learning Environment with £70 million iconic state-of-the-art city centre campus in Newcastle, along with Campuses in London and Amsterdam. We have Accreditation by Educational Planning and Assessment (EPAS) for 18 undergraduate programmes, more than any Business school in the UK. EPAS is part of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) accreditation programme – the leading international management development network. As a professional and international School, Newcastle Business School develops individuals to achieve leadership, management and career potential through research-rich, business relevant and academic excellent education. Drawing upon research informed practice, Newcastle Business School works extensively with a regional, national and international client base, with principle expertise in public policy and public management and leadership and organisational change.
 
About ThemPra Social Pedagogy
ThemPra is a social enterprise supporting relationship-centred practice and ethical leadership in social care through a range of short courses, organisational capacity building and whole-systems strategies. We help professionals and organisations to explore social pedagogy and relate its principles, philosophy and theories to their practice.