The Mightify Manifesto: 2024 Edition

In late 2019, I wrote an article here that looked at the last General Election as "an unenviable choice between a punch in the face or a kick in the shin". I'd like to apologise for being overly optimistic on that one.

So, as we approach another period of campaigns, information and misinformation, promises and mud-slinging, it's time to set my stall out again with an entirely hypothetical manifesto to improve things in future.

This is about the topics close to my heart - people, leadership, effective and progressive emergency and public services to name a few - but equally about the wider ethics, values and behaviours true success depends on.

I'll also be trying to be as positive and forward-thinking as possible: time spent raking over 5 years of morally bankrupt, self-serving asset stripping of the country setting education, public safety, social mobility and wealth distribution back a generation doesn't really feel very appealing.

Seeing as 3-word slogans are so popular in modern politics, my own ideas last time round were based on the simple thread of success in emergency services talent management:

Recruitment - Retention - Resettlement

These are issues I've spent countless hours working on since 2019. The fundamentals haven't changed. If you want to deliver an effective service (whether that's to the community or your shareholders), you need people who are thriving. People thrive when they have the environment to do so, alignment to a personal and/or professional vision, a sense of purpose, meaningful development and appropriate recognition.

I set out a simple ambition for each of these three pillars (based on the emergency services but applicable everywhere):

Recruitment

Understand why people join, how they want to progress their career, what drives them – and support it. Harness their individuality instead of stifling it.

Retention

Proactively develop people by investing in their personal and professional development. They give it all for you – ask what you might give them in return.

Resettlement

Proactively equip people to leave successfully and positively by helping them understand the options available to them, giving them the confidence to enter new sectors and boldly sell their value.

Much of this is about the "tactical", day-to-day actions that build these systems: what we advertise on recruitment posters, what we ask in interviews, what we define as performance goals, how responsive an internal HR system is.

However, all of that is about putting an overarching strategy into action, and for me this comes back to asking the right questions from the beginning.

What is the purpose of each organisation in the public or emergency services?

How closely is each role within that organisation aligned to that purpose?

Too often, what we still see is empire-building, siloed working and a laser-focus on hitting targets that may not have any real meaning or impact. Hitting the target, but missing the point.

Take the example of policing in recent years and the direction (interference, you might say) it has received from politics. Arrest more people. Don't arrest so many people, there's no prison space. Tackle knife crime, but search fewer people. Play a wider role in society, but alongside councils with no funding for supporting services.

Is it any wonder people (who probably did join for a fundamental purpose like "to help others") feel so disillusioned and disconnected?

In my 2019 article, I drew on the phrase that:

Humility is the beginning of all understanding

I'd add openness and vulnerability to that. For example, seeing wellbeing or leadership campaigns within the emergency services is brilliant - but it's really frustrating when they're fenced in by insular "we can do this ourselves" thinking that only leads to the same wheel reinvented with a new design.

Instead, what if we took the time to understand the diverse set of perspectives, values and strengths available among the wave of people wanting to work towards a truly healthier overall society?

What if we allowed them the freedom and space to bring new ideas, test them and refresh them - without fear of being seen to be disruptive?

What if we held those to account who have held and squandered roles of influence, requiring them to move aside before they simple reinforce their positions?

What if we really are entering a last chance saloon before public services collapse around us?

It really doesn't have to be that way - but we need to start asking better questions of each other and not shy away from the answers.