Bottom-up System Change
Something very interesting is unfolding right now in the West Midlands. The winds of change have been gently blowing over the Region for a while and now there’s a palpable whiff of innovation in the air.
Together with a range of partners, we are introducing a ground-breaking App which could significantly increase health and well-being across the region by offering people everywhere the opportunity to take control of potentially harmful habits.
Wellbeing at Our Fingertips
PocZero is partnering with Paul Dolan (Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and the brain behind BBC’s ‘Lose Weight for Love’) to promote and deploy the new technology.
The “Attention Training” App helps users to take control and become more mindful of the underlying triggers of day-to-day decisions. Scientifically proven, this App can deliver results after the first 4 uses, and continue to train our brain to improve willpower and mindful decision making.
Combining health and wellbeing with technology is not in itself something new. What is interesting is the range of new partnerships that are emerging to support and cultivate the kind of conversations needed for innovation to gain traction and scale-up.
In the past, top-down campaigns have been the preferred approach to ambitious innovation programmes. That’s no longer the case in the 21st century. Our approach ensures the Village’s needs are hard-wired in from the start, and that the question “What does good look like?” is defined by people with their “feet in the Village”.
Community Partnerships
Talking of which, community partners such as Transfurniture and RnR Organisation have been busy connecting with target groups and giving them the opportunity to try the App early, and contribute their thoughts to its development. In other words, we are working in partnership to introduce “Attention Training” from the bottom-up.
At the same time, we are continuing to harvest stories, gather honest feedback and gain extraordinary insights from real people in real places.
Steve and Duncan, the team behind Transfurniture, are both in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and instantly saw how this innovation could help reduce the risk of relapse. We’ll be hearing more from them over the coming weeks as they share their experience of using the Attention Training app to scale-up up their inspirational business model.
Statutory Services in Prevention Mode
Statutory services with a strong track record in prevention, such as West Midlands Fire Service and South Central CCG, are also working with PocZero and recognise the potential of these sorts of tools to significantly increase health and wellbeing in the City. Best news of all? Our strategic delivery partner, Royal Society for Public Health, are spearheading the campaign with their “Well Communities” model and bringing their impeccable track-record of Precision Public Health to the party.
It’s truly wonderful to see diverse organisations coming together to innovate in this way. It supports our belief that 21st-century system change is about new kinds of partnerships at all levels of the system.
