Gavin Jones is this week’s guest on Ratio Talks. Gavin is the Chief Executive of Essex County Council -one of the biggest local authorities in England- and Chair of Solace, the network of local authority chief executives. Early on in his local government career, Gavin worked with Hilary Cottam who was thinking about, experimenting with and developing relational approaches at least a decade before anyone else (as summarised in her book Radical Help).
That was the impetus for the podcast. But we were recording just before this years U.K. general election. Gavin was in the mood to chat. And I was in need of guidance. So the conversation shifted quite naturally into Gavin helping me with my work on Inclusive Statecraft to inform the new government.
For the postscript I had invited my brother Geoff, a former local authority Chief Executive, to reflect on what we learned from Gavin. Geoff was very engaged, particularly in the way that Gavin and Hilary’s work informed U.K. Government policy from 2010 onwards. In fact, he was so engaged that we talked for longer than anticipated and we decided to publish that conversation as a separate, short episode next week.
One of the joys of the podcast is discovering the gifts and interests of my guests outside of their working life. Gavin Jones is a musician, with a significant following in the United States. He plays us out of the episode. If you like what you hear you can find his work by searching GibsonGav on Apple or Spotify.
Join us next week for Geoff Little’s reflection on today’s episode.
Ratio Talks is available on Substack, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Get in touch with us any time by messaging us on the Substack
Ratio Talks is produced with the help of sound designer Nik Paget-Tomlinson. The show’s theme song is by Luca Picardi.
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