The UK Experience by Malcolm Morley*
I recently visited the home of Manchester United, the English Football Premier League Champions. The stadium had over 75,000 people in it. The vast majority were supporting Man U, as the team is colloquially known. The noise was incredible, with the fans willing their team on.
The crowd was a community in its own right. The thing that bound them together, which made them rise as one and which drove normally quiet men and women to bouts of voluble passion, was their commitment to the club – their club.
They were part of a huge emotional binding force. Fast to forgive lapses in skill by their own players, even faster to celebrate the skill of their players and success. Totally committed to the success of their team.
This passion and pride was not only seen in the fans but in every member of the club’s staff from car park attendants upwards. There was clearly a sense of belonging. A sense of being part of something good and pride in it.
Surely this must be the aspiration of every council. To have staff proud of working for it. To have a passion for what it is doing and what it is achieving. To have a community that is proud of its work, passionate about its achievements and feeling part of those achievements. Proud of being part of their community.
There is a saying: ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’.
In these difficult times with tight finances, increasing demands for services and communities under stress, it is vital that councils get going – that they and their communities work together, strive together and achieve together.
There is always a danger that adversity creates discord. A danger that people feel overwhelmed, and that decision making becomes disjointed, with the vision for communities becoming lost. Now is the time to pull together and to perform.
Councils in England have a long track record of working with their communities, of responding well in adversity and in making difficult choices. They are the binding force for their communities. If they fail, their communities fail.
When times are good the council is often seen as just the organisation that provides services and sends bills. When times are difficult the council’s true role as community leader becomes even more important.
Councils must generate the passion of the Man U supporters in their communities.
They must galvanise their communities and themselves. They must promote and protect the sense of belonging and pride in their communities. They must perform for and with their communities.
Councils have an opportunity to engage with their communities, to involve them in making difficult choices, to illustrate that they share the pain and to illustrate that they are there to lead and serve their communities.
Only through engagement and the passion and pride of their Councillors and staff will community passion and pride be generated. Through engagement comes commitment, recognition and success. Councils are a binding and motivating force for communities. Council United?
*Malcolm Morley is Chief Executive of Harlow District Council and can be contacted via the Editor, email info@lgfocus.com.au The views expressed in
this article are not necessarily those of
his employer.
