Department swapping for the win?

Inspired by @clarewhite who wrote about looking at parks and open spaces through different eyes and with a disclaimer that I absolutely know this can’t happen cos it’s utterly bonkers, right, but;

What if we all swapped staff for a week? As in, our Communications Department upped sticks and took their rather unique combination of skillsets, ideas and life experiences and descended on, I don’t know, some other Local Authority in a completely different bit of the country?

What if we swapped Amenities Departments – the bit that looks after parks and open spaces and took our world which contains bowling greens down to Devon which might involve grass tennis courts and a completely different clientèle? Could things be learned, would things look different through different eyes, or would the grass just look greener (ha ha ha etc)?

And, ultimately, is this what digital is going to allow us to do? To look at someone elses problem at the other end of the country which seems a bit tricky and allow us to suggest solutions and ideas?

Or will localism reduce collaboration across borders as we all contract and look inwards to hack off any corner we can in order to make a saving?

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