Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
THE new brand identity for the Borough:—"I am in"
New brand identity strategy for Haringey
"I am in"
Discuss.
CDC
Haringey Councillor
Liberal Democrat Party
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update to mark the 'soft launch' (click to enlarge):—
The £20,000 film, The Haringey Story
Tags for Forum Posts: I am in, Local Government, brand strategy, folly, identity, nonsense, vanity, waste of money
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Grover on
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Why does almost every bloke they filmed have a beard? The logo is dreadful: Haringey is a London Borough, not a nursery school.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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The Haringey Independent is another paper conducting a poll:
So far, 1% Don't have an opinion, while 8% plump for, "It's not that bad - I don't mind it".
The balance of 91% are divided, with one side currently ahead of the other.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Here's how it was introduced to staff by email:
Get past the hype, and I suppose we can hope for improvements in customer service. I've had a quick look at the website and to give credit where credit is due, it looks pretty good to me as council websites go.Dear colleagues
As you may have already noticed, today we launch a new brand identity for Haringey.
It is much more than just a logo, this is about recognising the borough’s enormous strengths and starting to shout about them. That is why our new identity is less about the council as an organisation and much more about people and place – which is what makes our borough. Our new identity celebrates Haringey as a place of warmth, compassion, creativity, energy, authenticity and charm. A place where people support each other.
We are raising the bar on what is expected of all us which is why we are using this opportunity to launch the council’s new values: human, accountable, ambitious and professional. Human, we care and make it easy for people to deal with us. Accountable, we take responsibility and deal things without being told. Ambitious we push boundaries and continually seek to improve. Professional, we are Haringey’s ambassadors and resolve matters first time. Over the coming months we will be inviting staff to tell us what the values mean to them, sharing stories where they see these standards being exceeded.
We are also using the new brand identity to support the transformation in customer service. That is why today you will see the first phase of our website modernisation. Our aim is to make it easier than ever for residents and businesses to access services online. In the coming months we will be launching a Haringey Account to make it easier for people to transact with us.
Haringey is a fast changing council and a fast changing borough. We are all working hard to make our corner of the capital the best it can be and through the brand identity we are intent on recognising what makes our borough great.
You can learn more about Haringey’s new identity, view the Haringey Story film and share your views at www.haringey.gov.uk/iamin.
Yours sincerely
Claire Kober Leader of Haringey Council
Nick Walkley Chief Executive
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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The egg on their chins is barely dry from the debacle at Marcus Garvey library, where they had clearly underestimated the space needed to shoe-horn in the Customer Services from Apex House. Moving it all online is going to take years, the fast changing borough won't be socially cleansed of the offline part for years yet.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I don't think it is, or should be, a case of one thing or the other Pam. I much prefer to do transactions on line and if there was an opportunity access all the library stock on a reader that's the way I would do it; I doubt I'd visit in person. But that's me and what works for me.
On the issue of the email sent to staff that Hugh posted, I think it's a good thing that staff are clear what is expected of them. Yes, the language and delivery are clumsy to say the least, but looking past that I'm glad to see that staff are expected to take responsibility. I also like that they want them to be ambitious (though hate the phrase 'push the boundaries') and hope it means what I think it means, that the staff who know the service best can be allowed to get on with it and make things better.
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I think it's a good thing that staff are clear what is expected of them
Michael, if any staff don't know by now what is expected of them or do not know that they are expected to take responsibility, I'm not sure this message will help.
I fear you're too charitable in your interpretation of the language used: can I invite you to increase the sensitivity of your -FFLE settings?
(Baffle, Muffle, Piffle and Waffle)
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It is important Clive. It's too easy to fall into the way of working where you're insular and don't think beyond your own job. We've all probably had these two experiences
"Sorry you've come through to the wrong number you'll have to call the switchboard"
"Sorry you've come through to the wrong number. I'll see what I can do to help"
Setting standards like the ones quoted in the email from Claire Kobler was done several years ago by some other local authorities (including the one I used to work for) and it did make a difference from my own experience. I'd like to think I was already more of the person in the end of the phone in example two. But what standards like these did help me with is that they made it clear that if I had and idea to make something better I could get on with it without endlessly writing reports and getting sign off from a chain of command. And also let managers know that it was OK for staff to do this.
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Permalink Reply by JJ B on
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1The staff is already under tremendous stress from the cuts. Manpower has been severely curtailed in many departments and what is expected of them is going up and up and up. And there are more cuts to come!
2 Spurs has just put its latest application to increase the size of its new stadium including a very high tower block hotel and DEMOLITION OF MORE HERITAGE BUILDINGS in the heart of the conservation area up there. The architectural charm in the White Hart lane is being destroyed and the council puts up very little fight to this.
Read section 4.1.2 of the Heritage Statement and see how callously they talk about demolition (i.e. further demolition on top of the disastrous demolition of the traditional High Street shop frontage that has caused years of increased blight in the surrounding neighbourhoods).
THIS IS NOT A CARING COUNCIL!
I AM DISGUSTED BY THE ONGOING DESTRUCTION BEING FOISTED ON US HERE IN TOTTENHAM!
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Michael you won't be surprised when I say that I believe political leadership and staff selection are likely to have more influence on Council performance than all the new identity branding in the world (including any accompanying emails).
It is said of advertising agencies that they sell the sizzle, not the sausage.
Most residents are interested in the sausage, whereas this new identity is all sizzle.
With LBH the ratio of sizzle-to-sausage is high.
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It's a concept that has been widely adopted elsewhere Clive. As an example. You have someone working at a park. Their job description is an endless list of tasks the have to accomplish. It's all too easy to make the completion of the tasks more important than the job because that's what your performance is measured on. If the task list says you need to pick litter once in the morning and once in the afternoon, that's what you do because that's how your manager (and their manager) judges how well you've done the job. If you're told that your job is to keep the park clean and safe, that's what you're measured on. On one day a single litter pick up may be enough. On another you might need to go around three times. Changing from an output driven job (a lot of tasks you need to tick off) to one that focuses on the outcome of what you do (is that park clean and safe) treats staff as adults.
When we adopted this way of working at my old employer a few years ago (under a conservative/libdem administration as I recal) some staff jumped at it and others were worried as for years they had come to work and just carried out tasks; little thinking was needed about if those tasks were to anyone's benefit. Those staff were helped, not slapped down, and there was a real change in attitude after a year or so.
I do completely agree with you on leadership. It's all just words unless the leadership of the council, political and managerial, actually let this happen and don't get scared and go back to tick box management.
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Doe PR spin do this? Normal systems and processes should handle this as wells as the setting of goals and objectives along with control and training, all part of good management!
And if the REALITY on the ground doesn't support the spin you get tremendous cognitive dissonance, which is what Haringey's new logo typifies!
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Some of the info on the website is out of date though, badly laid out and confusing.
For example, I had a look today at the school term dates for this year and the first lot of term dates on the website are for 2016-17, and then it refers to 2014-15 as the current academic year. Not to mention the page was last updated on 3rd July.
T&WG Independent says "Red and black is used as the colours of London to show the major role Haringey has in the council". I'm not sure if they are quoting someone from the council but wtf does that mean?
It reminds me of the Roblox logo tbh.
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