By Susan MacLeod, NS GovLab Fellow
“Where’s the Deputy Minister?” “Where’s the MLA?”
Two legitimate questions asked by another NS GovLab Fellow in one of our first group conversations. They spoke to issues on my mind too.
We’re all here together in NS GovLab, passionate — a group of citizens deeply concerned about how our ageing population is going to thrive and be attended to in Nova Scotia, our dearly-loved “have-not” province.
But where’s the power? Where’s the money?
The assumption is that meaningful, sustainable change can’t be possible without either.
While there is truth in that, there’s more than power and money required in the affairs of humans, especially in the heartfelt issue of our ageing selves.
What I’m learning as this Human-Centred Design process unfolds is that it isn’t about who’s on first. In fact, the experience is less like baseball, a competitive sport, and more like a community dance.
If you indulge me in some reckless use of metaphor, the process begins a bit like a rave (minus the stimulants) with everyone hopping around in the same space more or less to their own beat and inclinations. It’s chaotic, the music is discordant, and it’s difficult to see how anything meaningful can be realized. It’s not pretty to watch either.
Now, as we move into the synthesis phase, the raving individuals are morphing into something closer to square dance quadrants: There’s some order, some guidance, and suggested moves. We’re still different groups within the same space, each wearing unique colours and trying out new steps, but we’re all moving to a more melodic genre of music.
I don’t know how our dance will morph as we move through the NS GovLab process, nor do I know how we’ll end up helping create positive societal change for ageing people (that’s each and every one of us by the way).
But I do know that this process goes deeper and feels richer than other industry and government change process I’ve been through.
There’s no Drum Major up front telling everyone where we’re headed, setting the exact beat for all, and dictating who plays what. There’s no punishment for falling out of step to listen more closely to the tune we’re hearing over there.
Instead, we’re coming together first as who we each are: building trust, appreciating the uniqueness in our individual moves, and offering what we each can to improve the music for the sake of something bigger than ourselves.
I, for one, am developing confidence that this kind of co-creative choreography has a sound footing.
And I can see how it will take us to the point where power and money can finally step in to take our grand jetes even higher.
(I award myself first prize for Over-Enthusiastic Use of Dance Metaphor.)
Susan MacLeod is a NS GovLab Fellow and writer who draws about ageing. Her Humans of Saint Vincent’s Instagram posts reveal the spit, vinegar, heart and soul of those living in long term care. Currently, she is creating a humorous graphic memoir about shepherding her mother through nine years of care.
