Public life: design makes a difference

Deborah Szebeko helps policy-makers, staff and the public communicate better, reports Martin Baker

Early on in theinterview for thisarticle, it seemedthat DeborahSzebeko was doingher very own version of theaccountant who can neverfile her own tax return ontime.

The enterprising andobviously able Szebeko hasfounded a company thathelps bits of the public sectorcommunicate effectively witheach other and with thepublic. On top of that, she hasan MA in communication.But after 10 minutes'conversation, it was almostimpossible to make sense ofanything she had said.

There are good reasons forthis, as she explained: "I'm adesigner. I talk designlanguage. Now I also talkNHS stroke public-sectorjargon, the language that'sspoken at lots of meetingsand conferences. I thinklearning the language hasbeen key to our success."

As Szebeko warmed up,she began to explain whatshe does in a language thateven dim-witted journalistscould more or lessunderstand: "Thinkpublic isa bridge between front-linestaff and the public andarm's-length bodies andpolicy administration.

Wehelp people understand eachother and think about how toimplement change andrepresent information inuseful ways," said Szebeko.

"People on the front lineand people in policy unitstalk in a different language.Consequently, there's a gapin understanding. That'swhere thinkpublic comes in.We get people to understandeach other."

It all became clearer stillwhen Szebeko gave aconcrete example of a smallservice she has provided in ahospital: "There was a lack ofinformation for patients," shesays. "For example, thepatient experience wasgenerally affected by biginformation gaps. By that, Imean a lack of written oraccessible informationexplaining to parents andchildren about what to expectand what they could do tohelp themselves, resulting infear levels of the unknownbeing really high. What we'relooking at generally is how toexplain complex informationin a simple way.

"A key part of thethinkpublic offering involves"co-design", which "is abouthow you do that process ofgetting people to understandeach other. We use a lot offilm and a lot of story-tellingtechniques. How do you doexperience-based design? It'sa tough question.

"It's also about helpingpeople to recognise whensomething is working well,and looking at ways thisapproach can be sharedwithin and across thatorganisation. This is the mostchallenging part of our work.It's important forcommissioners not just tofinancially back new ideas,but to support the spread ofexisting great ideas, whichmay not appear radical, butactually make a bigdifference."

A practical example of theapplication of this techniquewas creating a new clinicspace in a hospital, "anattempt to get patients andstaff to get the space thatworks best for them".

Szebeko founded hercompany, thinkpublic, for anumber of reasons: one wasto make money for providinga service that the NHS sectorclearly valued: "

A core pointwas that there was no job rolefor what I was doing. Eventhough they were ringing meup asking me to do things,there was no way I could getpaid for doing them.

"I took on a role at GreatOrmond Street Children'sHospital. It was a voluntaryrole as a project manager todesign an information touchscreensystem. That was whenI saw the opportunity to startthinkpublic. There where somany small things that couldbe improved by using adesign approach to thinkdifferently about commonproblems."

Szebeko founded thecompany in 2003 as she wasdoing her MA after a two-yearstint as a freelance art director at various advertisingagencies in London. Shemanaged to get somefinancial support fromNESTA, the NationalEndowment for ScienceTechnology and the Arts, anddid research into the service:

"One thing I was looking atwas how a front-line staffmember might have a goodidea that he or she can't turninto a reality," says Szebeko.

"How do they go about that?Where do the budgets sit? Itcan be quite frustrating."

But not that frustrating.Thinkpublic is a small butfast-growing private company(its current headcount is six)which has clearly locatedquite a few budgets.

A longclient list is headed by theNHS Institute of Innovationand Improvement, theDepartment of Health, theDepartment for Educationand Skills, and the SchoolFoods Trust.Others include Timebank,the Royal Society for theEncouragement of Arts,Manufactures & Commerce,Involve, the NationalEndowment for Science,Technology and the Arts, andthe Alzheimer's Society.

Despite that impressive listof public clients, Szebekoinsisted that getting businessis not easy, partly because ofthe difficulty of explaining thevalue of what thinkpublicdoes: "It's easy to get caughtup in the system. There is lotsof noise. Whenever I've metpeople who ‘get it', it usuallybecomes the foundation ofthem becoming clients.

"I had to sell what I wasoffering. But to whom? That'sa really hard question. Youmight go to 10 meetings andmaybe you'll meet twopeople, perhaps just one, whocan make a decision."

Szebeko, a self-confessedidealist, has a vocation farwider than simply generatingbusiness. "The big challengesin the public sector are aboutfinding out where the poweris, where the influence is. Is itwith the government, theadministrators, the media orthe power of the public? I'dlike to get people to believethat they really can make adifference. I'm quite anidealist and would like to getpeople to believe in the powerof community.''

Szebeko's next project isaddressing "a big skills gapbetween graduating andcoming into work. We arecurrently developing a pilotcalled ‘The Real WorkExperience' to connect designgraduates with public sectorbodies, helping to skillgraduates and raiseawareness in the publicsector that design can make adifference and help themconnect with their users."