Half term has been a busy week for some of us! Late last week I was at Newport Council in South Wales leading a peer review of their IT service. This was a good opportunity for me and the team to see how others work and balance the performance needs and financial constraints they have. We learned a lot that we can use within our organisation as well as helping the Newport team with ideas about how they can develop their good service further.
Monday started with two interviews for BBC Wiltshire radio on our consultancy spend. Although this spend accounts for around 1% of our budget, it quite rightly receives regular scrutiny from our elected members and people and organisations outside of the council. We use consultants to provide services which we are not able to provide as part of the set up of the normal organisation. For example our highways and bridges are designed by consultants because we don’t do enough of this to warrant employing our own experts including the capital plant required.
Mid-week I spent most of one day working with two young managers as their coach. They had completed their personality profiles and we were exploring how these could be used to develop their self understanding and as well as their role as managers. Growing the next generation of leaders is something I am passionate about and prioritise.
I met up with one of our customers yesterday in Shurnhold. He was very cross about a whole range of our services, across all departments. I listened carefully and tried to explain some of the issues that he and we faced. It was a good learning opportunity for me and gave me a number of ideas about how we can sharpen up our services in some areas.
Finally, the week ends with my preparation for next weeks’ selection process which is on Tuesday. Fingers crossed.
For daily updates, opinion and all sorts of things, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 28 October 2011
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Tuesday 18 October 2011
My apologies for blogging a little late this week. I was out of the office late last week at Microsoft’s HQ in Reading. The building was very impressive – as you might expect – show casing how thoughtful building design coupled with new technology linked to a change in people’s behaviour (some call this culture) can deliver a modern, flexible, productive yet low cost operation. Exciting as this is the direction that we’re moving in quickly with the hub elements of the transformation programme. We discussed and agreed some radical actions around how we get many of our applications into the “Cloud” and how we deliver tangible service benefits to our external customers quickly over the coming months. Watch this space.
I had a good meeting with the property team last week also. We reviewed the initial thinking around moving to a new operating model for the service, encompassing all of the elements of the transformation programme. The service needs to be designed around the needs of its customers – both external and internal as well as striking the right balance between commissioning services from others and providing direct services where it represents best value to Wiltshire. This is exciting and innovative – the team are doing a great job.
Today I shall be in Browfort all day. I have a short meeting with one of the Corporate Directors from B&NES first thing to explore opportunities for sharing some services. Very initial discussions with no specific services in mind yet. Value will be the key determinant; if we can improve performance whilst reducing costs it’s sensible to share. If we can’t we won’t.
Cabinet starts at 10am with a full agenda and then we’re straight into informal meetings with Cabinet for the rest of the day around capital assets and general discussions around the business plan and budget for next year and key council contracts. I always enjoys these meetings with politicians – it’s why I came into local government from the private sector!
For daily updates, news, views and opinions you can follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand. 65 followers now so please join us... it’s a great way to keep in touch and communicate.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
I had a good meeting with the property team last week also. We reviewed the initial thinking around moving to a new operating model for the service, encompassing all of the elements of the transformation programme. The service needs to be designed around the needs of its customers – both external and internal as well as striking the right balance between commissioning services from others and providing direct services where it represents best value to Wiltshire. This is exciting and innovative – the team are doing a great job.
Today I shall be in Browfort all day. I have a short meeting with one of the Corporate Directors from B&NES first thing to explore opportunities for sharing some services. Very initial discussions with no specific services in mind yet. Value will be the key determinant; if we can improve performance whilst reducing costs it’s sensible to share. If we can’t we won’t.
Cabinet starts at 10am with a full agenda and then we’re straight into informal meetings with Cabinet for the rest of the day around capital assets and general discussions around the business plan and budget for next year and key council contracts. I always enjoys these meetings with politicians – it’s why I came into local government from the private sector!
For daily updates, news, views and opinions you can follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand. 65 followers now so please join us... it’s a great way to keep in touch and communicate.
Thanks for reading and talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 7 October 2011
7 October 2011
Lots going on this week including many communications events. We held the regular Departmental reference group with front line staff to talk through what’s happening in key areas and how we plan to achieve our objectives and budget for next year. If anybody would like to attend these then please contact Jane or me for future dates. Always a good opportunity for some frank Q&A too...
We held the Departmental Leadership Team (DLT) meeting for all managers. Again we took stock of where we are, the major corporate issues that we need to engage with as well as an update from all the service directors. The ICT team also gave us a presentation on the new Lync2010 and Sharepoint2010 systems. We’re using SharePoint now to manage all of our projects and programmes in real time on the system. It works brilliantly and if you haven’t seen it please contact Karen Perrett’s team for more information and a demo.
I have been using Lync2010 now for 24hrs and it’s already made a big impression on me. It’s great for instant messaging and video calling so will be a key enabler to underpin new ways of working in the refurbished buildings that we occupy. Please familiarise yourself with this system and start using it. If you’re a team leader or manager it’s important that we demonstrate visible leadership by using this technology to show case how it enables flexible, lower cost working by eliminating some travel.
Cabinet made their decision yesterday about the senior management restructure. Two of the five senior posts will be deleted – the CEO post and one corporate director. This will put Wiltshire Council at the leading edge of local government organisations in terms of its leadership model. We’re been at the leading edge of so much recently so this is a real plus in my opinion (LGR, Community Area Boards, Political Team of the Year, our work on systems thinking, work place transformation, campuses, the list goes on...).
Well done to the property and legal teams who have delivered seven community asset transfers (CATs) up to the end of September. This is great progress and shows that we’re delivering on our objectives to transfer assets to our communities quickly.
Finally we had a good session at Cabinet Liaison yesterday afternoon. We got through a lot of business and planned key objectives over the coming weeks and months. The team is working very well together and we’re right on track to deliver our business and financial plans.
For daily updates, opinion and discussion you can follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
We held the Departmental Leadership Team (DLT) meeting for all managers. Again we took stock of where we are, the major corporate issues that we need to engage with as well as an update from all the service directors. The ICT team also gave us a presentation on the new Lync2010 and Sharepoint2010 systems. We’re using SharePoint now to manage all of our projects and programmes in real time on the system. It works brilliantly and if you haven’t seen it please contact Karen Perrett’s team for more information and a demo.
I have been using Lync2010 now for 24hrs and it’s already made a big impression on me. It’s great for instant messaging and video calling so will be a key enabler to underpin new ways of working in the refurbished buildings that we occupy. Please familiarise yourself with this system and start using it. If you’re a team leader or manager it’s important that we demonstrate visible leadership by using this technology to show case how it enables flexible, lower cost working by eliminating some travel.
Cabinet made their decision yesterday about the senior management restructure. Two of the five senior posts will be deleted – the CEO post and one corporate director. This will put Wiltshire Council at the leading edge of local government organisations in terms of its leadership model. We’re been at the leading edge of so much recently so this is a real plus in my opinion (LGR, Community Area Boards, Political Team of the Year, our work on systems thinking, work place transformation, campuses, the list goes on...).
Well done to the property and legal teams who have delivered seven community asset transfers (CATs) up to the end of September. This is great progress and shows that we’re delivering on our objectives to transfer assets to our communities quickly.
Finally we had a good session at Cabinet Liaison yesterday afternoon. We got through a lot of business and planned key objectives over the coming weeks and months. The team is working very well together and we’re right on track to deliver our business and financial plans.
For daily updates, opinion and discussion you can follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand.
Talk again next week.
Carlton
Friday, 30 September 2011
Friday 30 September
This week has been packed! On Monday we held our Autumn Team Day for all staff in the department. We use these twice yearly events to review where we are including what we’ve achieved and learned together; assess the issues we face at the moment, and describe and agree the priorities for the next six months. There has been a lot going on in the organisation over the past few months so it was important to get the the whole team together. We try to inject a little fun into the presentations and exercises as well as addressing the business issues that it is important to discuss. Everybody seemed to enjoy the day and we have had some really positive feedback from staff on the importance of these events.
Wednesday was the Audit Committee where members approved the final accounts for 2010-11. These were unqualified and finance also had to comply with the new international standards for accounting reporting. They have done a fantastic job achieving these outcomes this year. Well done to the team.
On Thursday, Cabinet and CLT met with their counterparts from Buckinghamshire CC. The purpose was to exchange information and views on what we’re both doing and to pick up ideas from each other in terms of how we might develop our thinking and delivery in different ways. The Bucks transformation programme is very similar to ours and I was interested to hear how they are using SAP to automate their performance appraisal process on line for all employees. The Bucks way of commissioning their economic development work from a board comprising many private sector business partners was innovative too. We’ll be exploring how we might achieve some of the benefits that they are seeing from this approach.
Also published this week is the report to Cabinet on the senior management restructure. Cabinet will make a decision on this next week, October 6. This is well worth a read and can be found at the link below. I think this is an excellent report; innovative, bold and deliverable in my opinion and sets us up very well for the next few years as we deliver our business plan together.
Thanks for reading and we’ll catch up again next week.
For daily updates, views and opinions, you can now follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand
Have a good weekend in the sun.
Carlton
Wednesday was the Audit Committee where members approved the final accounts for 2010-11. These were unqualified and finance also had to comply with the new international standards for accounting reporting. They have done a fantastic job achieving these outcomes this year. Well done to the team.
On Thursday, Cabinet and CLT met with their counterparts from Buckinghamshire CC. The purpose was to exchange information and views on what we’re both doing and to pick up ideas from each other in terms of how we might develop our thinking and delivery in different ways. The Bucks transformation programme is very similar to ours and I was interested to hear how they are using SAP to automate their performance appraisal process on line for all employees. The Bucks way of commissioning their economic development work from a board comprising many private sector business partners was innovative too. We’ll be exploring how we might achieve some of the benefits that they are seeing from this approach.
Also published this week is the report to Cabinet on the senior management restructure. Cabinet will make a decision on this next week, October 6. This is well worth a read and can be found at the link below. I think this is an excellent report; innovative, bold and deliverable in my opinion and sets us up very well for the next few years as we deliver our business plan together.
Thanks for reading and we’ll catch up again next week.
For daily updates, views and opinions, you can now follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand
Have a good weekend in the sun.
Carlton
Friday, 23 September 2011
Here we are on Friday again and this week has been excellent. It’s always good to finish the week on a high.
The DTR team met for half a day yesterday to define how we will balance our budget next year and deliver the £5million reduction that we need to contribute to the overall corporate position and investment in front line services. We now have a plan for how we will achieve this and the service directors and I are working on the implications for our customers, communities, the business, politicians and of course our reputation. I am so pleased that we have retained our services in house and are able to do this – redirecting spend into our priorities and front line services. If we had contracted these services out, or if we were in a shared service arrangement, then these savings at these levels would be unavailable to our communities and the rest of the business.
I chaired the Shaping the Future Board earlier in the week where we reviewed the work on our new values and behaviours. This is a great piece of work and will help us to change the culture of the organisation over time in line with the aspirations described in our Business Plan. There has been a huge amount of staff engagement in developing this and I thank you all for getting involved and for setting out the behaviours that will help make Wiltshire Council a really great place to work in. This will be rolled out and communicated progressively through the autumn but will also feature as part of our team away day on Monday.
I spent some time coaching and mentoring two young managers in the team this week. I love this aspect of my job – developing others, and frankly it is the most important part of any senior leaders role. Growing managers and leaders is something that great organisations do and I would encourage others to make the time to do this. The return on investment is massive!
Finally, we have our autumn team day on Monday in Devizes. This is a chance for the whole team to get together; to review where we are, what’s happening, to celebrate successes and talk about our objectives for the next six months. Always enjoyable and challenging, I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. Sharpen your pencils for those tricky questions...
For daily updates, comment and opinion on all sorts of things, you can follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand.
Have a good weekend and speak again next week.
Carlton
The DTR team met for half a day yesterday to define how we will balance our budget next year and deliver the £5million reduction that we need to contribute to the overall corporate position and investment in front line services. We now have a plan for how we will achieve this and the service directors and I are working on the implications for our customers, communities, the business, politicians and of course our reputation. I am so pleased that we have retained our services in house and are able to do this – redirecting spend into our priorities and front line services. If we had contracted these services out, or if we were in a shared service arrangement, then these savings at these levels would be unavailable to our communities and the rest of the business.
I chaired the Shaping the Future Board earlier in the week where we reviewed the work on our new values and behaviours. This is a great piece of work and will help us to change the culture of the organisation over time in line with the aspirations described in our Business Plan. There has been a huge amount of staff engagement in developing this and I thank you all for getting involved and for setting out the behaviours that will help make Wiltshire Council a really great place to work in. This will be rolled out and communicated progressively through the autumn but will also feature as part of our team away day on Monday.
I spent some time coaching and mentoring two young managers in the team this week. I love this aspect of my job – developing others, and frankly it is the most important part of any senior leaders role. Growing managers and leaders is something that great organisations do and I would encourage others to make the time to do this. The return on investment is massive!
Finally, we have our autumn team day on Monday in Devizes. This is a chance for the whole team to get together; to review where we are, what’s happening, to celebrate successes and talk about our objectives for the next six months. Always enjoyable and challenging, I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. Sharpen your pencils for those tricky questions...
For daily updates, comment and opinion on all sorts of things, you can follow me on Twitter, @drcarltonbrand.
Have a good weekend and speak again next week.
Carlton
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