WDCO – New Ways of Working

[Adrian Essex]

WDCO is the body that represents residents’ views in the partnership made up of WDCO, Berkeley Homes, The London Borough of Hackney and Notting Hill Genesis.

The Problems

Recently, questions have arisen over the way in which the WDCO board conducts its business.

My perception of these questions is that they relate mainly to the passing of information between the various sub groups of the board and the main board.

The problems here are two fold:

1. If a sub-group sets about its business without having first discussed the issue/topic with the main board, then how can the sub-group be sure it is representing the board’s views
2. If the sub-group does not report back very fully after its meetings, then how can the board have any idea what is going on.

And clearly this is circular. Without the flow of information between 1) and 2) then a co-ordinated, coherent approach becomes very difficult indeed. This problem was made manifest in the proceedings of the Design Committee. This sub-group included representatives from the WDCO board, but the information these members were given as part of their role on the Design Committee was deemed to be confidential, i.e. it could not even be discussed with other members of the board. The information was also overwhelmingly voluminous. Thus a huge amount of work was being done in the name of the WDCO board, about which most of the board knew nothing, until it was presented as a fait accompli.

A related problem comes in that in order to represent the views of the residents of Woodberry Down there must be a flow of information between the board and those residents. At present I'm just not seeing that flow.

 Possible Solutions

I can see parts of the solution being implemented in various ways:

• The WDCO constitution is being reviewed, and the ‘confidential’ requirement must be written out of it. Every WDCO board member signs an undertaking prior to his/her first meeting not to disclose information marked ‘confidential’. So, even with the constitution as it stands, ‘confidentiality’ should present no constraint
• There should be an obligation on every sub-group of the board to report its proceedings in writing to the full board
• Modern methods of communication should play a much greater part in board proceedings
  1. For example, I am publishing this discussion paper where it can be seen, not only by members of the board, but by a wider public, the public the board claims to represent, in a form where comments can be feely posted, and rebutted if necessary. I have also posted my views on the WDCO Vision and the WDCO Mission. I may be completely wrong in these views. Just click on the links and disagree with me.
  2. A considerable amount of time is spent at board meetings sitting through presentations, all of which can be made available on line. The requirement to gather a large number of people together in one place, all at the same time, is extremely onerous. Board meetings typically now have more than 20 participants, all of whom have competing pressures on their time. The presentations are often made by council officers, who already work long hours, and , I hope, are being paid overtime for pitching up of an evening. A more efficient proceeding would be to make the slides from the presentation available online. Those board members with a real interest will take the time to study, and ask questions. The others might not. As an example, there was a presentation to the board in December setting out some detail on the library feasibility study for Phase 4. I missed the December meeting, but I have now seen the presentation, and don’t feel the loss. I particularly like the slide below which reinforces my point about the WDCO mission and the pace of change. The full presentation is attached.  WDCO Libraries Strategy .pdf
  3. There is a tab on the WDCO website labelled “Board Meetings”. It is empty. It should not be.
  4. WDCO has a communications sub-group. Its role at present is quite limited. This group deserves to be moved much nearer the front and centre of the public vision.
• I have referred above to the increasing size of the WDCO board. The tenor of these meetings appears to have grown out of a time when the board was much smaller. The mood is relaxed, the contributions from participants discursive, sometimes repetitive, often nostalgic, from time to time quite chatty. The meetings themselves can be repetitive, with lengthy points repeated from one meeting to another. The style of chairmanship is very light touch. Given the size of the meetings a stricter tempo is called for.