The Office for the Impact Economy launched on 10 November with a front door, a central hub and a wider virtual hub. It offers the nation’s partnerships a clear route into a building that may exist mainly in PowerPoint.
The new office says it will develop cross government strategy. It will build capacity and support partnerships too. It also calls itself a front door for new and strategic relationships. That will reassure anyone who has stood outside a government department with a carefully prepared relationship.
Office for the Impact Economy welcomes visitors
The arrangement uses a hub and spoke model. The Cabinet Office is the central hub. Other departments and units form a wider virtual hub. As a result, everyone can coordinate without occupying the same room. They can also avoid agreeing which room they mean.
Officials have placed a large sign above the entrance. It reads “Front Door”. Fictional facilities manager Patience Ledger said the sign followed a lengthy consultation.
“We rejected ‘gateway’ because it sounded too welcoming,” she explained. “Front door suggests access, process and a possible follow up email.”
The Office for the Impact Economy aims to connect new and strategic relationships with the machinery of government. In practice, the first relationship needing support may be the one between the front door and the central hub. They have spent the morning being introduced by a third department.
The virtual hub remains present in theory
The wider virtual hub brings together other departments and units. Nobody needs to move desks. However, each participant receives a diagram showing where their desk would be if the hub were physical. The spokes must also become measurable first.
Fictional coordination director Clive Meridian said the model would make partnership work more joined up.
“We are replacing scattered activity with a single map of connected activity,” he said. “Six teams approved the map. Then they returned it because the arrows lacked ambition. Now it is attending a workshop on what counts as a line.”
The Office for the Impact Economy now has a front door, a central hub and several spokes. The design should make collaboration easier to enter and harder to leave.
The launch has delivered its first measurable outcome. One office can direct you to another with unprecedented strategic confidence. Government has finally built a front door that opens directly into the corridor between two meetings.
Source: UK Government.
