We offer a different approach. You can hire researchers to tell you what you already know or to repeat what they’ve already said. But if you want to understand what other people think - your employees, service users, clients and stakeholders - if you want to know what they know, talk to us.
We believe in a much more open approach to research, going well beyond the closed ‘policy elite’. We’re not interested in fashionable ideas or received wisdom - there’s too much of that already. Our view is simple: we can create better social policy and practice by drawing on the insight, experience and expertise of the people who actually use and provide public services. If this makes sense to you too - if it’s so obvious you wonder why anyone could think differently - then get in touch.
Open research
We think that research should be conducted with the people at the frontline of the issues you care about. So much research is conducted without the researchers having talked to a single practitioner or service user. We will work with the people who deliver public services and those who use them to get at the reality of services and problems - and to capture insights that will help to improve policy and practice.
Open policy
Deference is dead - people want much more of a say in the things that affect them. People want to be involved, where organisations can demonstrate that they want to listen. The Government has committed itself to ‘open policy-making’ - and so should you. We can help you to understand this radical new agenda, what it means for your organisation, and how you can influence policy using this approach.
Open strategy
Just as in policy, the traditional way of doing organisational strategy doesn’t work anymore. How can you engage your employees and stakeholders in your strategy so that they believe in it and make it work? By working with them to develop it in the first place. We can help you.