What should Labour be getting on with and how are we going to get there?

By Mike Aistrop

I left a comment in response to Alex Smith’s article “This is the type of unhelpful factionalism I was talking about moving on from”. In my response I asked the question – what do you want to see from Labour going forward?

I thought it would make a really interesting article which would allow participants on LabourList to identify reasons and debate ideas about what they would like to see Labour getting on with.

A process that we use at work when we are trying to understand what we want and how we are going to achieve it, is by using a Benefit Realisation Map (see image). You start the process by identifying what it is you want to achieve (your objective), you then work backwards, and ask what the benefits would be from achieving this objective. From there you identify what changes you are going to have to make to achieve the benefits and you also need to identify what activities you are going to have to carry out if you are to achieve the said changes.

The idea is that once you have created this map, it is a visual representation of what your vision is and also, how you are going to reach your objective (your strategy). It’s just a good way of developing your thinking on a subject and checking that the logic works. But it’s hard work.

The Government has started to use this approach for IT projects. Not sure how successful it has been with them, but we like it.

I have done an example of a BRM for helping single parents back to work; this is just an example and not based on experience or fact.

Anyway I just thought this would be a great subject to debate and might even give Labour some food for thought.

Let’s debate!

In Unity

MA