In a quiet corner of Whitehall there is a space where civil servants can have space to think outside of the box, and even visit alternate worlds. Ruth Keeling hears about how the civil service is preparing for the future.

Imagine deciding that you need a meeting with some colleagues from half way across the world and arranging it for that afternoon. Then imagine actually sitting in that meeting a few hours later and, when the coffee comes, stepping outside the room to stand on a balcony and look out over the sea.

Now imagine doing this on Victoria Street in central London. Confused? Unless you’ve been to the futurefocus facility, you should be.

The purpose built facility, situated inside the Department for Businesses, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Berr), has just installed second life – the virtual world that has been sweeping the online community. Hence civil servants in Whitehall meeting with colleagues on the west coast of America – what director Clive Margetts describes as an “extreme form of video-conferencing”.

Second life is an experiment which Margetts and his team are very excited about exploring:  “I don’t know quite where this is going to lead us,” he admits. Second life at futurefocus has already found another use – in public participation activities. “That is something that this government is increasingly keen on,” Margetts explains. “We have facilitators here connected to the virtual futurefocus and other people can join in from anywhere. It is another way of engaging with people.”

The virtual version of futurefocus is away from the traffic of Victoria Street, situated in a tropical looking island in a science park which boasts neighbours such as Nasa. Visitors can take their avatar and wander in this virtual world, an almost out of body experience. Which is exactly what Futurefocus is about – taking people out of their normal environments and encouraging them to “change the dynamic of the conversation”, as Margetts puts it.
 
The unit was set up eight years ago by the then Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) to provide a space that would help civil servants think about the future, how things were going to change, and how that change was going to affect strategy and policy. “Future proofing the decisions people are making,” Margetts explains.

It is fitted out with a theatre where ‘future scenarios’ can be played to act as a stimulus and get groups into the right frame of mind, alongside a number of rooms where visitors can gather to think, discuss and produce ideas. The creative spaces range from the low-tech, one has a curved walls made up entirely of white boards, to the high-tech, with a networked computer room which allows ‘anonymous idea gathering’.

Working equally

Margetts explains: “In normal meetings or workshops the group can have a conversation, but the loud voice might dominate, whereas the processes that we have, our neutrality, our facilitation techniques and software for anonymous ideas gathering, means you get collective decision-making coming out of it - the loud voice doesn’t dictate the action, it is the group’s voice. You are building consensus on the way forward and that is what gives it strength.”

But it is not all about technology, the centre’s director says, “it is the thinking underneath – the way of engaging with people and understanding people’s body language that ultimately makes it successful”. The facility and its facilitators, whose backgrounds range from acting to science to business, provides a space where people feel comfortable and can explore new possibilities. For example, even before a group come in, the event organiser will meet the team to discuss what they want to do and agree what the outcomes should be. This planning part of the process is fundamental to getting the design of the event right and producing the most successful outcomes for the client in the long-term, explains Margetts.

Having begun as a DTI initiative, futurefocus is now available for free to its three successor departments: BERR plus children and schools, universities and skills. About 70 per cent of its work is taken up with those departments, and the remainder is spent working with paying clients from other government departments and outside bodies – alumni range from the Design Council to Marks and Spencer. “We have worked with every government department at one time or another and also now work regionally as well,” Margetts says.

But Margetts is keen to emphasise that to be of value to clients they act as an independent organisation. “A lot of business stakeholder group events have been conducted successfully in here because participants can have a full and frank conversation. If they were going to a meeting room or a conference centre they might feel like they're on the territory of the department.

And the centre has been exceptionally successful. Margetts says that customer feedback has always been very good with over 95 per cent customer satisfaction from evaluation research. Independent, academic evaluations have also tracked the long-term outcomes – which proved the greater number of ideas and actions arising produced at the futurefocus session were more appropriate and therefore, implemented successfully.

Proving popular

“All of the indicators that we have had over the years have shown us that it does work”, Margetts says. Which is why futurefocus is happy to rely on word of mouth – and even without any marketing, it finds itself working close to capacity with 350 events a year, as well going on the road to take their facilitation service to clients on their own territory and organising team coaching and away days. Though Margetts points out that futurefocus tries to  find a way of saying yes to all prospective customers, so there is no real limit on the number of events they can deal with.

There are a few similar types of facilities in the UK that have elements of the tools available in the Victoria Street centre. There are a number attached to universities such as i-Labs and businesses such as Royal Mail, and one in Reading developed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. There are more in Europe, especially in the Netherlands and Denmark, and Margetts has been instrumental in setting up a European group of “futures facilities” in order that experiences,  inspiration and projects can be shared.

“Their facilities can be quite amazing,” he says. “They’ve got castles out in the country, they’re very much into using creative spaces and different types of environment. You can lie on the floor and look at painted ceilings, climb into rooms, or sit in the middle of a tank and turn all the lights out so it’s pitch black and experiential.

“I guess we have to be a little bit more conservative with the sort of clients we have here. The Royal Mail have more toys and gadgets with lots of primary colours. They’re all equally successful in their own way but you have to bear in mind the clientele and what they’re prepared to accept whilst at the same time trying to push them ever so slightly so they get a different experience and different outcomes.  Ultimately though, its about what works in terms of achieving the best possible outcomes for our clients”.

As well as linking with overseas facilities, futurefocus is developing a working relationship with the Department for Innovation and Skills (DIUS) to provide facilitation skills in its new headquarters up the road. “They don’t want to replicate what we’ve got but it is about how can we mix and match and share our respective spaces to make life easier for people and achieve a more joined-up way of working,” Margetts explains. His team have also been talking with the officials in the Department for Children, School and Families (DCSF) who developed the award-winning Bridge. “It is about using our skills and ways of working with others in other places so that not necessarily everyone needs to come to London and of course, it helps reduce the carbon footprint,” he adds.

Ensuring that more and more people can have access to such tools is the way departments are going, Margetts believes. “Creative zones to sit in with brightly coloured walls to take themselves out of their working space.” And, even though those spaces might be elsewhere, Clive believes futurefocus still has a big part to play as a source of planning and facilitation expertise and skills.

“There is always something new and challenging for us. Although we are eight years old, we are still learning and developing all the time,” Margetts says. “There are always new opportunities for us, that makes it exciting and interesting  and we can pass that enthusiasm on to the people who pass through here too so they ultimately get the benefit.”

For more information about futurefocus visit www.berr.gov.uk/futurefocus or call 0207 215 0299/6626