Introduction
Enforcement services are recognised as those public sector services that are designed around stopping people from doing something; littering, noise, anti social behaviour are good examples.
The services are always backed by legislation that defines the limits of what is acceptable, and those in the service often see themselves as having to ‘police’ or defend something.

Typically, for most services this is a warning, then a fine. Interestingly it is often the case that staff wear uniforms of some type.

Below is an example from a Food Safety Team from England, using a service design, Lean and systems thinking approach to challenge their current way of working.

The Details

When looking at food safety if you ask them what their job is, it is to; 

enforce food standards on restaurant owners. 

They have the ability to fine, or even to take the owner to court, if they think it is appropriate. For the restaurant owner, the experience is never one that they enjoy - the officer suddenly turns up at my door, telling me that I am here to inspect you. 

What Used to Happen

• A stern officer arrives suddenly in my restaurant.
• “Please give me a place I can change my clothes”
• I wait, and worry about all the things I have not got right in my kitchen.
• The officer comes into my kitchen all dressed in white, with a clip-board. They ignore me, and look into every corner of my kitchen.
• They ask me for my staff training records, and I have two new staff who have not done the training.
• After 30 minutes, they take me into my office, and they tell me what I am doing wrong.
• The inspector did not see what I was dong right, that I have been very busy this week, and that I am trying my best. I hate them, I try and hide things from them. 

When the officer arrives, they put on a white outfit, and walk around the kitchen inspecting what they want to see. The restaurant owner just has to watch. And the officer usually has a list of items they expect to see; clean surfaces, training records & certificates, proof of inspections, and so on.

At the end of the visit the officer will go back to their office, and type up a reference document that lists all the items that failed the inspection. Each problem will include sections from the legislation, and a warning of when they should be completed. The tone of the letter is very standard and official - and the wording must be written assuming that the letter might be shown in court.

What They do Now
The same group of officers, after they have transformed their approach, did something very different. Firstly, they realised from a systemic perspective, that their purpose was to:

help restaurants create safe food - not to fulfil a pre-determined list of criteria.

• They now first phone me, and ask when it would be a good time to visit.
• They arrive, they get changed, and we have a conversation about what issues I am facing. I tell them about the two new staff, and how busy I have been.
• They go to the kitchen and simply watch what is going on.
• Then, we have a further conversation and they show my staff a few things that they ask about.
• The inspectors write down a few points that I should take care of, and ask me if I need any help with them.

Back in the office, there is the biggest change:

1. Paperwork has reduced by 80%. We only record what we need we need to, and we don’t type formal letters to the restaurants.
2. We are not interested in the old measures, so we don’t need to record each problem on the measures system.
3. The number of activities we used to do in an inspection flow was 134, now it is11.
4. The purpose has changed from checking, to helping people when they need help. Our motivation has gone right up - I enjoy my work.
5. If a restaurant manager has a problem, they will now call up the inspector and ask them for advice.

"We can now do two visits in one day, not just one.

​As an enforcement officer, it is now up to me to decide what I do and how I do it, for each situation I find myself in. It is great to be able to put into practice my knowledge, and help people.
In the office we have regular sessions, where we discuss what were doing, and what techniques we have learned. If any of us ever need help, all of us are there at the end of the phone - but the most helpful person is my manager.

Enforce principles of working - Command & Control principles:

• We follow instructions
• We ignore the individual issues with the person
• This is just a job, managers dont like me.

Help me principles of working - Person centred principles:

• We understand the customer, and their problems
• We adapt and do the right thing for them
• I enjoy my job, it helps people, they like me.

Summary of performance measures

    •    Service improved from requiring special measures to excellent
    •    Service ethos changed from enforcement to helping
    •    Waste reduced by 75%
    •    Cost saving 24% overall
    •    Staff reduced by 2
    •    Nationally recognised transformation 
    •    Customer feedback changed from suspicion to welcoming

The Method - Systems thinking and Service Design
The approach that was used was to take a team of inspectors and the manager through a series of stages of learning and prototyping - they started by understanding what mattered to the restaurant manager. They also mapped out all the activities that they took to complete a visit, it was 134 steps!
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They then set about experimenting with a new purpose - to help the managers create safe food. The team realised they had little idea how to actually do that, so they worked with one restaurant, and then another, until they had learned a new set of techniques and approaches that became their new way of working. They discarded those activities that they deemed not necessary.
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The Implications
Think of those public services that are 'enforcement' - that fine, chase, force people to do certain things. Imagine what would be the implications to the community if those services, instead of
we enforce became we help??????
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The difference was so great, that an article was published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. You can read it here.

The approach that this piece of work took combined Design Thinking principles with Service Design and System Thinking. Each 'thinking' is woven into the overall method, so that in one morning, the conversations will always start with what matters to the end user, and incorporate an end to end perspective. We challenged everything. 

The Plan was agreed with the client - but they already had experience of this type of approach, and they know that they could not rely on a fixed outcome - it had to be part of the Understand. But what might be interesting to the reader is that this is really about Transformative change. In this type of change, which is a wicked problem; part of the discovery is to find out where we were going to go. I say we, because this involved transforming peoples thinking as well as the service.
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The team - Transforming thinking is something that happens when people decide to explore and accept other possibilities. So, the team that went through this had to be officers from the organisation, plus a manager. They had to undergo the journey, and the only way to do that was for them to actually do it themselves. 
My role as the consultant was as a facilitator, and as a coach. I would give them the right tools at the right time, and they would develop the outcomes. So, no nice clean diagrams form me, they were all generated by the team.
The managers - two of the managers were involved for about 1-2  days a week. They had to start by being part of the team, and they had to learn. Slowly over time they started to learn new ways of interacting with the team and allowing officers to come up with the solutions. The manager had to learn how to work with an empowered and self managing team. Whats the role of the manager when the team are self managing?

I have always believed that we learn more from our mistakes, than from when things go well. Here is the latest example, see if you agree.
I dont think many who are reading this could have failed to notice the recent changes in Skype, on both phones and computers. What was that feeling like when you opened new Skype, after that update, you thought ... What?...
For me, I felt a sinking feeling, of dis-empowerment, of a removal of a control that I thought I had with my technology. My reaction was to go to a website, and vent my feelings by recording my displeasure... Did I feel better? No, and I am still resigned to the fact that technology Mistake no. 1 has occurred:

Mistake No. 1 - Never, ever do something where you push something onto an existing user, that you think they need because you are powerful.

The whole point of modern technology is that it is the ultimate consumer driven service - the power comes from what matters to the customers... It has to be the customer that has the power to direct the workflow or process or software experience. Break that rule, and it will be your downfall. Its easy to grasp, but for some it is a new mindset to get your head around, and that adjustment may not be easy as it sounds. I have never met a manager who has said that they do not understand customers, so it has more to do with approach adjustment, and as with many conceptual issues, it will benefit form outside help to assist the adjustment.
What do Microsoft do about this problem feedback that turned negative, when they learn that 'users' are not happy? What do Microsoft say in response? They answer that they believe that we will end up liking this, once we get used to it.

What is Mistake no. 1 based on? The premise that: We are not users, we are the ones that own the use of the application. So dont treat us as 'users', treat us as 'owners.'

Even though Microsoft wrote the software, its ours... Is this not the key principle behind the design of the user experience UX?

The next thing I read they said: We are listening to you. Shudder...

Ok, Mistake No. 2 - Dont listen to your customers, What this means is that listening to customers - we take some time out to listen, but what is going on in our minds is still focused on ourselves. 

Forget listening, thats old hat, what you need to do is understand customers. Thats all any organisation needs to start with, every time, all the time. Its the most important thing you will ever do in business. Get that wrong, and your'e off in the wrong direction.
It is important to see the positive in negative things. So, for those in the service industry, this is a great lesson in what not to do. The learning opportunity is there to take, and perhaps avoid this ourselves in the future with UX and UI. And what of Skype, anyone know of a good alternative?

​Public Sector
So youre doing some Digital project in your organisation? This approach is much more important to you, because you sometimes deal with issues that affect peoples livelihood. You need to ensure you don't end up putting in more barriers to helping people.
I recently saw some digital implementation in a council - its purpose was to save resources at the front end. I took some measurements of the results and I recorded an increase in work for the council! 
This can be easily avoided by understanding customer, then
Measure the change in performance before and after. Second demand numbers - value and failure demand.
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