A good week

It’s been a good week. I’ve been out and about meeting staff in Monkton Park, Corsham and various other locations which I always enjoy. It’s amazing how much you learn about the county and our organisation and what’s working and what isn’t. Whilst celebrating the former we can then get on and tackle the latter.

Yesterday I spent some time with Tim Williams in our customer care team listening to calls. I learned a lot, especially the issues caused by 1471 ring back after one of our officers has called a customer. When the customer dials 1471 and calls us back it goes straight to the customer team who of course have no idea what the original call was for. The people I spoke with yesterday get half a dozen each of these call backs a day which they can’t handle. We’ll have to think about how we can reduce this (failure) demand.

Yesterday I held one of my regular monthly managers meetings – for all team leaders, supervisors, managers, and directors to come together for an hour or so to talk about the big issues. This is open to anybody from any service area so please feel free to join in. I updated everybody on the major issues which the corporate and associate directors are dealing with including our current performance, budget (including next year's £30m reduction challenge) and our current major areas of risk.

We then had some excellent presentations from Rachel Kirby (Police systems thinking work and how this will need to link with housing and social care systems), Julie Seddon (graphical information systems deployment in highways where the new technology has saved over £50,000 this year and improved performance), Jay Gascoigne (our strategic economic plan and major projects that we have just won funding for from central government). We finished with a briefing from Paula Marsh on the upcoming staff survey which starts shortly. It is important that all managers prepare for this; encouraging staff to take part and also communicating what we learned from the last survey in 2012 and what we did about the issues raised.   

I enjoyed the Tour of Britain visit to Trowbridge last week so much that I have redoubled my cycling efforts. I’m now doing 16 kms before work every morning and it’s surprising how good that makes you feel for the day ahead. My legs are screaming a bit though…

Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.
Carlton

Change ......

It’s been a week where I keep meeting people who think that change can occur by redesigning new structure charts, reporting lines and job titles. It never works!

The Figure below looks at the scale and scope of an organisation and, therefore, the possible changes that might take place in an organisation.

The figure displays a sequence of organisational concepts and dynamics that shape and are shaped by each other. It is a “clean sheet” organisational model, indicating the likely sequence in which we might design an organisation from scratch.

Some comments on this model:

1. Purpose: Without clear and constant purpose, nothing else will fall into place.

2. Systems: The notion of systems includes all the elements of the lean/systems thinking model: suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers.

3. Functions: Function is not synonymous with jobs. Some jobs consist of several functions and some functions require several jobs. Function is a discreet category of tasks: invoicing, planning, housing, etc. Here we should try to describe the system by identifying the sequences of interdependent functions.

4. Capabilities: In order to perform the functions, we need certain capabilities, some of which are equipment driven (e.g. a computer), others that are personnel driven (computer programming, etc.) and some that may be either one or both (e.g. mailing). These are still not yet jobs, but the capabilities around which jobs must be formed.

5. Roles/Jobs: Here we describe the positions, roles, or jobs we create in order to distribute the needed capabilities in a way suitable for performing the functions. Some jobs require several capabilities and some require only one. Some roles are involved in many functions, some in only one.

6. Structure: The purpose, systems, functions, capabilities and jobs must now be integrated and supported. The structure does not precede these but rather is designed specifically to make them work: form follows function. Structure involves:
• Reporting relationships
• Pathways for formal communication
• Divisions, departments, groups
• Policies
• Ongoing teams
• Modes of management and leadership

7. Personnel: Whom will we select to work with us?
• Whom will we recruit or hire?
• Whom will we promote?
• Whom will we fire?

Figure - From Purpose to Personnel: A model for organisational development (from Sholtes, The Leaders Handbook)

What Gets Changed and Why?

When somebody proposes a change in the organisation, we should use the Figure above to locate where in this scheme the proposed change will take place and ask, “Why?” and “Why there?”

• If the purpose changes, then everything else must necessarily change.
• Nothing will improve by changing the structure or the personnel (for instance setting up new teams, finding a new manager, or altering who reports to whom) if the problem lies elsewhere. A new organisational structure will not ordinarily improve a dysfunctional system or an ineffective purpose.

• In the public and private sectors in the West, our knee-jerk reaction to organisational problems is to change the personnel or change the structure. Are these changes or improvements? Why do managers think that working at the level of personnel was what was needed to improve?

• Sometimes bringing in a new manager does bring in new capabilities and provides an occasion for the re-examination of purpose, systems, functions, capabilities, roles and structures—a more systemic view of the organisation. If those who hired and fired managers themselves had a more systemic view of the organisation, they could better decide when and why to replace management personnel and what to look for in new leadership. Unfortunately, all too often there is no systems view. A changeover in management occurs, but the same old problems continue under the new regime. 

Some questions for us all

1. Are we clear about our purpose? Do each of our functions and services have a clear purpose? Do our staff understand the purpose?

2. Where are we with our systems? Are they fit for our purpose?

3. Do our managers have the right capabilities? If not, how will we teach them?

4. Should we work on purpose and systems for 6 months before worrying about PIDS, structure, recruiting people, etc.?

Speak again soon. Enjoy the Tour of Britain as it comes through the county today. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.

Carlton

Autumn is here ....

Autumn is here and we won the test series against India which was excellent. The subsequent one day performances have been lamentable, so let’s hope we will win today’s final match to salvage something from the summer.

I spent yesterday in Salisbury touring the various buildings and meeting staff at Milford Street (customer services) and Bourne Hill. It was good to catch up with the issues in the city and hear all the news and views. The co-located Police and Council services in Bourne Hill looked impressive. I spent some time with the City Council too discussing our joint plans for any flooding in Salisbury this coming winter. It’s always good to plan and rehearse in the dry months. The key action here is that we will have a fully defined flood plan for the city by the end of October.  

Today I have further discussions with our Police partners about our strategic partnership and how we develop that further to the benefit of the county and both organisations. We have single IT, transformation and programme office teams now but we wish to explore further opportunities to share and collaborate. More on this anon.

As usual at this time of year we are starting to plan next years' 15-16 budget. Despite a general election next May, early indications from all political parties are that funding for local government next year will be cut further by around 10%. This means we are having to work up proposals and assumptions for elected members that will enable us to reduce our budget by around £30 million. More on this anon too.

Speak again soon. For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.

Carlton