Money, money, money

Money has somehow obsessed us all for months (for some, years). Now, as news emerges that the recession will soon end but that the public sector will be squeezed for years, it does little to light the fire.

It will call for a new skill set for senior decision-makers.

1. The ability to say "no". We'll be called upon to say it in many ways. The challenge will be in getting people to feel good about hearing it. It will require tact and diplomacy, no doubt. But it will need to be laced with that sense of regret and sorrow that enables those we deal with to feel that there was literally nothing we could do to hep them.

2. The ability to get others to say "yes". We will have to get fewer people to do less. The fewer people is an almost inevitable consequence of dealing with the squeeze (sounds so much better than "crunch" doesn't it). We'll need to ramp up discretionary effort. It will require emotional leadership. If you hear yourself saying, "just do it" you may well be looking for a change of career.

3. The ability to give nothing away. It's not always easy to hide emotions. Most of us manage it under tricky circumstances. I think we may well benefit from conveying emotionlessness all of the time. It will be one way of creating private space in which we may live as the madness ensues.

4. The need to be clear about why we're here. We may well have come into this business to "make a difference" but the nature of that difference may well be, well, quite different. Learning to downsize will probably be more important than building. Still, it's a living.

5. The ability to paint big pictures. Change causes people to focus on their bit of the picture - or even their pigment in the picture. Holding minds on that which is greater will matter. It will provide certainty in uncertain times. Now, at last, visions will not be there to fill a space in the strategic document. They'll need to mean something.

And, oh yes, money. Well, there's never ever enough of that. So some things don't change.

The meaning of life (in local government)

I have spent the week pondering my existence, particularly in the light of the approaching black hole aka public sector finances. 

Times have been good. But no more. 

We will have to get used to a new way of thinking. If the big drivers for organisational leaders are about "making a difference" (in some sort of tangible, non-inspection-driven way) and creating a legacy, this may be the time to ponder a career change. 

There will be opportunities to make a difference but maybe there will be less to shout about. It's one thing to build - quite another to dismantle. And if the best we can say that we dismantled in a sensitive way (not a bad outcome in real terms) it may make the time when we receive the gold watch/clock/shoes a little light on amusing anecdotes and proud nods. 

As for legacy, if all we can do is look behind at the scorched earth that was once a thriving organisation that approached each day with a spring in the step but no more, then maybe we all ought to take up sculpture or some such physical endeavour. If you build it, at least when they come they'll have something to look at for five minutes. 

Looking ahead, I think I'll need to see things differently. 

I will have to be adept at making silk purses out of sows ears (and the rest of the rotting remains). 

I will have to spend as much time managing down expectations as I used to spend managing people. 

I will have to accept that the market may be the only way to get things done since nobody else will have the money and the voluntary sector will long since have burned out. 

I will have to accept that consultation will be about the when rather than the what,  a like it or lump it approach to public services. 

I will not have to go quietly amongst the noise and haste since there will be fewer of the noisy and no haste other than getting on with it. 

I will know that the unthinkable ideas we used to smirk about (knowing they would never happen) will now be the unstoppable forces that will shape our destiny. 

I will know that the tough times were really the good times and that history is, in this case, not so likely to repeat itself. 

And I will have to get back to work and stop fiddling with the inevitable. 

The dust is settling

Changes at the top. One prepared but one is never really prepared. People see you differently when they are in opposition. "I never really trusted you" the new man said when I met him on Monday. "But now I can see that you have potential - you're someone I think (his italics) we can work with."

Isn't such everywhere. 

Colleagues have been on the phone all week. One called to say that he'd been summoned upstairs for a chat. Turned out to be something different altogether. "I know we're not meant to work this way but I feel that it's time for a parting of the ways. Clearly, we need to talk money. I will, of course, say that you have made a massive contribution to our organisation, that you've taken it to places we never dreamed possible and I'll leave plenty of blanks so that you can blah-blah to your hearts content. Bottom line: your cardboard box is over there."

But it isn't like that here - thankfully. I still have a mortgage "and so much I want to do". 

So we've met on and off all week. Tell me Leader what you want me to do, just tell me...

Control the story...or it will control you

Like everyone else, I've been riveted to the row over MPs' expenses. Day by day, the respect that the public holds for our system of democracy is being eroded away. No question. 

How to stop the salami-slicing of democracy: manage the story or it will manage you. 

1. Look at the worst. If there was a disc that The Telegraph now has then the information will be available inside the Palace of Westminster, one assumes. I don't work there so I don't know. Get the information and look at how bad it is. One doesn't doubt that it will be bad, if the last 9 days are anything to go by. 

2. Decide what action you will take against those who may be working "within the rules" but who may not look good in the bright lights of the public gaze. Remember, the public think in common sense not in legal frameworks. 

3. Set up a press conference - get a live feed onto the web and seek to persuade one of the networks to carry it as it happens. 

4. Apologise. Tell everyone watching that those in the system have demonstrated errors of judgement, that actions will be taken against those who have transgressed the law and reprimands, warnings and harder actions will be set out for the rest. 

5. Make all of the information available on the web. 

6. Take action. 

7. Restore confidence. 

8. Move on. 

Do what it says on the tin

Disturbing that despite millions and millions of pounds spent on council comms the "brand" is suffering. It's not the lack of communications people or the lack of investment in services. 

It's time to be smarter about how the message is sold. Here's a starter for ten. 

1. Tell them what you will do for them - not just once a year in the A-Z but every time they come into contact. Front line staff should "know the product" (as they say in the commercial world) and be able to talk to customers about "the other things we do". 

2. Tell them what you don't do. There are people out there who think that you run buses, the electricity companies, the rail network - even the weather. Disabuse them. Otherwise you will get the blame. 

3. Be clear about your service standards. Keep them simple. Understate if possible and ALWAYS deliver. If you don't, deal with it. Don't ignore failure. It's not just what you do - it's how you do it. 

4. Apologise when you get it wrong. Don't make people wrench the words from your clenched jaws. Do it at the start - when people expect it and when they are listening.  

5. Keep your staff in the loop on everything. Don't force them to read the bad news in the local press. Trust them and build advocacy. 

6. Simplify your language. There are way too many "strategies" and "portfolios" out there. Add in all that enabling, empowering, partnering, scoping and you quickly see eyes glaze. If they don't understand you, it's harder for people to trust you. 

7. Deal with the negative stories early. Councils are getting maligned over the misuse of extra surveillance powers. If you don't do it, don't take the blame for what others do. If you do, explain why.

8. Sell the benefits of your services. Describe what you do in terms of the difference you make to people's lives.

 

9. Involve people. Listen to what they say, look for better ideas, tell them what you will do as a result of what they have said. 

10. Do an annual report. Every year show people what you gave them for their cash, what went well, what could have gone better and what you will do to fix the things that matter to them. 

...food for thought anyway.  

Get them to expect less but deliver more

I'm always struck by how easily people are disappointed by things. We all are. I fear that public policy is at times driven by announcementism: we're keen to tell everyone now what we're going to be doing for them. This is a bit like hire purchase - people want the product now but invariably get disappointed in it as the monthly payments leave the bank account. Everything loses its lustre over time. 

We need to cut back on our "we wills" and up our quota of "we haves". We need to train ourselves in not allowing the hype to overtake us. Enjoying life is so much about the relationship between what we expect and what we actually get rather than just what we get.

The trouble is that we all expect more and more. We expect our public sector experience to feel as good as it might in the private sector. It won't always. That's because the private sector differentiates at the point of consumption (or experience) in order to win market share and new customers. (It often goes downhill pretty quickly after that). 

The sad truth is that if we try to live up to expectations, then people will always be disappointed. Anyone with children will know that we all learn to want more very early on. We need to promise less and deliver more. If waited until we had delivered before we promised, local authority stock would probably be rocketing. 

Unfortunately, whilst there are news columns to fill and profiles to raise, there's a tendency to go for the sugar rush now. 

More for an exceptional candidate

The Leader wants to advertise for a new head of strategic programmes. "Go all out" he said. "There'll be more for an exceptional candidate." Cash he means - not work (that's standard). 

I'm worried. It's not a message I want to send out. Either we get the right person or we don't, in which case we don't appoint. If we signal we're prepared to put up with someone who is not quite right, not the full shilling, then we're sending out some pretty strange messages about our standards. 

And what about the poor candidates? They can't really settle for anything less than the "exceptional" salary. If they do, they'll always be second best. They'll always know - as will everyone else (people have a habit of finding such details out) - that there was someone better out there but we settled for them. They'd be on the back foot before they got out of their car on day one. 

Add into the mix that nobody else in the building gets anything other than their agreed terms and conditions - no matter how hard they work (and some do) - and it feels to me like the wrong message altogether to send out. 

So I will be advising that we play it straight. Situation vacant: apply within.