Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Page 76

Practice Issues

Dear Social Service Practitioners,
You may have come across situations where much effort is involved in the
process, but the outcomes may not necessarily be good. Or there could be
occasions where you are given a list of questions to respond to that gives
you the impression that the decision maker is trying to buy time to respond
to your proposal. This may be so because the questions don’t seem to be
too connected to the decision that needs to be made nor do they seem to
appear to help with the decision making. How then can we make work more
productive and what does a more purposeful way of working look like?

Missing conversations
There are various ways of addressing such situations. One less often
discussed way is the idea of instating a “missing conversation.” What does
this mean? These are conversations that are crucial to facilitate productive
and purposeful work as they seek to clarify and deepen understanding. They
often provide direction and focus or help to establish common interest.
Let’s look at several of these situations where we must inject these missing
conversations.

Policy is Implementation
One example where a missing conversation is required is when there
is a lack of clarity about leadership in the next phase of a project. The
communication on the leadership for the next phase should be made
known to avoid confusion and to establish continuity. For example, a project
might be to develop a framework, a system or a protocol or process. This is
usually done well as it is often clear as to who is to take the lead. The follow
through in terms of application and implementation is however weaker as
the leadership for this phase may not be the same as the phase for the
development of the framework, system or protocol. It is sometimes wrongly
assumed that the leadership for execution will be continued by the one for
the first phase. However, the execution or implementation may be led by
another leader.
What can help in such situations is a clear conversation about the handing
over of leadership. This is often the missing conversation that needs to be
injected in order to optimise the investment in the project which otherwise
will under-achieve. This is in a way linked to a key principle called “policy
is implementation.” It is insufficient to have a good policy or framework.
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