In 2003 when Sarah came to see me at HMP Dorchester she was probably the last person I would have thought could get us out of the hole we were in. I had been Governor there for about a year and things were not going particularly well. After initial encouraging progress we were hit with the double setback of an escape and a very poor security audit. Our performance status was downgraded and we were subjected to a Performance Improvement Plan. Effectively the message was “shape up Holland or you’re out!” The last thing I needed to do was talk about it. Or so I thought.
Fortunately I listened to proposals to work with us to deliver whole system change using a dialogic approach. It made sense to me. The system was broken because everyone within it was beavering away trying to get out of it what they wanted, managers, staff, prisoners, me. We were all convinced that we all wanted different things and we could only achieve them by following separate paths.
I had been a fan of the work of David Bohm and the role that dialogue could play in organisational change for some years and suddenly the light came on. This was in fact what Dorchester, a prison with a very troubled past, needed. We needed to arrive at a shared meaning of what was going on so we could start to find our way out of it. Despite the urge to become completely task focused I decided that we should shoot for whole system change or perish in the process.
There was understandable scepticism from all quarters. How would conversations between managers, prisoners and staff possibly change our situation? Many believed that more talk was the very last thing we needed.
It was against this background that Sarah began her work. Whilst being completely determined that the project would succeed, she was pragmatic enough to either park or navigate the objections and work with the regime.

The dialogues happened and started to have impact. Her work with the Principal Officer group and the Senior Management Team began to bear fruit. Her work with the difficult to influence ‘wisdom holders’ or ‘dinosaurs’ as we had called them up to this point started to break people out of their inertia.

...at the heart of the ‘quiet revolution’ was the work of Sarah and her colleagues

The results are self-evident. Dorchester has risen from being 135th in the prison league table (bottom) to 4th. Last year it was named the most improved prison following outstanding results in the Measurement of the Quality of Prison Life Survey and Her Majesty’s Inspection of Prisons.
Of course there were other factors that contributed to the change at Dorchester but at the heart of the ‘quiet revolution’ was the work of Sarah and her various colleagues. Together we thought and talked about the issues that faced all of us. Together we arrived at a shared meaning of our situation and together we found solutions.
I cannot praise Sarah highly enough for her vision, her common sense and her determination. She understands the constraints we operate under and rather than ignoring them finds ways to work with and round them.
I continue to develop dialogic practice at my current prison, HMYOI Portland, and here too we’ve seen dramatic improvement. I am also continuing my own learning through participating in the one year Dialogue Development Programme that Dialogix offers. I would wholeheartedly recommend Sarah and Dialogix to any organisation seeking to develop and improve.