In July 2026, A Better Way hosted How Public Sector Professionals Can Use Storytelling to Create Change. This event built on learning from A Better Way and Co-create’s 2025 collection INVOLVEMENT, which featured 10 NHS professionals telling stories that demonstrated why storytelling matters, especially during times of change. We followed this with a workshop in October on The art of listening: How Public Sector Professionals Can Better Engage with Stories. One theme that emerged in October was the importance of building relationships without a short-term agenda. This is important when public sector organisations are building relationships with the people they serve, and it's fundamental to providing joined-up services in a complex world.
So often relationship-building has a short-term outcome attached - to consult a community about a service change, to jointly access much-needed funding, or to meet government requirements for joined-up working. These are all important goals, but when relationships are valued only for what they can achieve in the short term, we risk undermining the trust on which they depend.
What would it look like if we treated relationships as core infrastructure, and building reciprocal relationships as a fundamental part of our work? And how might we achieve this in practice?
We’d like to invite you to a session where we can explore together how we can centre relationship-building in our work. We’ll look at this through two lenses: how public sector organisations can build relationships with the people they serve, and how organisations can build meaningful, long-term relationships with each other.
"Putting Relationships First" is one of A Better Way's four behaviours and our members have written extensively about this. Download the chapter here or explore our website for more member insights which we will draw on during the session.
The event will be online on Thursday, December 3rd, from 1–2.30pm
Reserve your place
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