“Listen to the whispers and you won’t have to hear the screams.” This Native American proverb was mentioned in a newspaper article about gossip that I read recently. It reminded me of scrutiny of course!

For ‘whispers’ think of those examples of things that you and your committee members raise from time to time, things heard in the community or from casework.

Sometimes these things are dismissed as ‘mere anecdotes’ but I prefer the term ‘anecdata’ as they are indeed a form of data. Down towards the bottom of the data pyramid of course, but data nevertheless.

Sometimes, when corporate performance reports say that everything is good, these pieces of anecdata provide clues that everything might not be.

As Paul Shoemaker suggests, organisational attention can miss things on the edges. He uses the metaphor of peripheral vision to capture this idea. Whilst executives have that focussed view of performance, scrutineers can help the organisation with its peripheral vision. In other words, keeping a look out for the ‘weak signals’ of something more significant.

Of course, not every piece of anecdata is a weak signal.

As Margaret Heffernan says: “The challenge of weak signals is when to dismiss them and when to take them seriously.”

The key, then, is to find out if the concerns about a particular service are a one-off or part of a pattern.

Kathryn Waddington, in that newspaper article about gossip, suggests: “If the information being shared is recurring, and from several sources, it’s worth looking into with an open mind.”

It’s the same with anecdata. Have fellow scrutineers heard something similar? Have officials heard something similar? Perhaps they could go back to the office and ask colleagues? Once a pattern starts to emerge, it’s then that organisational attention can be brought to bear.

From a good governance point of view, I like to think of scrutineers as the ‘sensors’ in an early warning system. They are uniquely placed to bring weak signals into meetings - particularly as they keep in touch with residents, with staff and with people experiencing services in many different ways. Indeed, effective scrutiny surely depends on bringing things in from outside, not just depending on the reports being provided by the executive.

And maybe it’s helpful to think of scrutiny meetings as the ‘processors’ in that early warning system. Discussing and testing anecdata and escalating concerns when needed.

So, don’t let your pieces of anecdata be dismissed as mere anecdotes, pay attention to those whispers as they might be trying to tell you something important.

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Hunt, E. (2025) It’s not whether you do it – it’s how you do it’: the expert guide to healthy gossiping, Guardian, 7.2.25

Schoemaker, P. (2019) Attention and foresight in organizations. Futures Foresight Sci.

Heffernan, M. (2011) Wilful Blindness p.318