Beware assassins with silver bullets

The first shots are being fired - senior staff salaries are in the crosshairs. To which problem is this a solution? None is immediately obvious. 

Will it deliver massive savings from the public purse? In a word: no. 

Will it show the public sector that the government understands the financial dilemma that it faces? No, it over-simplifies - and everyone knows it. 

Will it enhance the standing of senior executives? Sadly, no. It will put public sector leadership in the spotlight in a way that will make it harder for those people to do their jobs. 

The only thing this suggestion has going for it is that it's easy to grasp. So when the tabloids are scrapping around looking for people to blame for the inevitable restructuring of public services in the light of the trillions of pounds that will need to be found, they will now have them - those public sector fat cats. 

It would not surprise me if there wasn't a press pack available with the attack - comparative salaries (how much the PM earns, how many teachers/social workers/classroom assistants you can by for one CX), the cars most senior staff drive (pictures available), their addresses so that we can marvel at the opulence of their lifestyles, pap-sourced images of them supping wine and eating fancy food (downloadable from easy to access websites)...

But is this any more than turning firm friends into unwilling enemies?

There are some serious challenges ahead. Responding to the growing needs of local communities will not be easy - particularly as those needs will be growing. Prioritising the needy over the very, very needy is another problem for which they will not be lauded. And taking councils through the potential impact of all of that - local government will not be the same in ten years as it is today. 

Hard enough. But will they be able to lead on these challenges, undistracted? Unlikely. All the while at every debate, every staff session, every partnership meeting, every public event one thing will pre-occupy and dominate the minds of those who face change: how much senior executives earn. Resentment, envy, churlishness will obscure the real value of strong leaders who have consistently delivered excellence in the face of turmoil and escalating demand. 

A plea to the government. 

Do not contribute to this illusion. There are no silver bullets. The challenges ahead are tough. Senior executives will drive through the massive changes that will be needed. They will ensure business resilience. They will keep the show on the road - as they always have. Systemic and cultural change is complex - but they'll manage it.  

Please don't start shooting at the people who will help deliver what's needed. They'll have more than their fare share of bullets to dodge without this. 

Sick things and illness

Tis a pity the CBI has chosen to attack the public sector over sickness rates. One wonders why? Motives are almost always as interesting as the substance of what people/organisations actually say. Let's, for the moment, give them the benefit of the doubt and take at face value their interest in the health and well-being of the public sector. 

Strange then that they failed to mention that the research on sickness rates in both the public and private sector are much the same when you get to organisations above 1,000 employees. The reason appears to be that when one is a member of a big organisation then, should the dreaded "duvet moment" occur then one is more likely to think that someone else will pick up the problem. Not so in small organisations. When we think that our colleagues - that small band of people with whom we work - are going to be under the cosh, then we are much less likely to throw a sickie. 

Absence management is guilt management, in a sense. 

Of course, the majority of the private sector comprise SMEs and the majority of them are relatively small. There is a danger that the CBI is comparing lorries and elephants - they both look the same from a distance - but that's where it ends. 

It won't escape anyone's notice that profit drives the private sector. Absence equals money, they will argue. If people had the same motivation, they would say (I would suspect) then they would attend. But private sector staff no more benefit from the potential profit than they do in the public sector. Few employees are on a profit share scheme. But when the cold wind of economic change blows, it's not motivation that gets them to work - it's fear. It gets staff through the door but doesn't necessarily make for a happy workforce. Happiness is in short supply enough these days without taking away the mirth that remains. Surely the CBI is not advocating fear as a motivator. 

Fear and guilt may be great motivators to get people through the door (they work pretty well for society in general) but applying them systematically would be perverse. When people are ill - particularly with contagious illnesses - the last thing you want is for them to be coughing and sneezing all over people. Surely, we want them to exercise good judgement, to recognise that there is no merit in spreading their bugs to their colleagues and to stay home in bed. 

The trouble with fear and guilt is that they together can make us do things that really ought to be against our better judgement. That's probably the sickest thing of all. 

Survive and thrive 1

Chief executives could become an even more endangered species in the years and months ahead. Already the life expectancy is closer to the lesser spotted newt than one would like. But it need not be so. Get a plan and make the most of all that comes your way. 

Be clear about what you are promising - set out your stall. You may have problems if you have already promised much and delivered little. You may be able to deleverage (as they say in some circles) your promises. Circumstances have changed after all. But don't allow undeliverable promises to be the means by which others judge you. 

Look at the opportunities - there are upsides to downsizing. Shifting poorly performing staff and removing services that deliver little (or recommending etc), can be done when the heat is on. 

Require more - it's easier to make the case for more effort from your top team when the pressure is on. And that's not just more time in the building, but more from the time you get. The same applies throughout the organisation. More for less is the mantra. 

Grow the long grass - some things you may simply have to park. Allow the grass to grow to and provide a shelter when it's necessary. 

Manage the small things - don't change your car (unless you're going for a smaller one), be in the office early, leave late, be visible, support key people, listen more, look confident (don't behave like a victim or you may become one). 

Have a plan B - know what you would do should you have to depart these shores. Keep it under review and always negotiate from a position of strength. 

Feels like it's time to take the gloves off

I heard this morning that it could be 2018 before we get a balanced budget again. And that's with a fair wind and clamping down totally on the use of paper, paper clips and paper cups - which will save the trees at least. I think many people must be thinking that a move to France would be in order. Sticking in at school would have helped - the vocab needed to get through two weeks in the Dordogne probably won't be enough to guarantee gainful employment in anything other than offering traffic directions to passing Brits. 

Given that, we're going to have to get on with it - and there's no point in tinkering. Fiddling at the edges will get us nowhere. 

Maybe we need to apply two simple tests to everything we do: would we notice if we didn't have it? And could we manage without it?

A straightforward example might help readers get the feel of this. I would notice if I didn't have a car (there would be more space at the front of our house and the garage could be converted into something much more useful). Could I manage with out it - of course. There are buses, taxis, the net, the phone and all manner of possible adjustments. 

So it feels to me like it's time to take the gloves off. All of the things we would have wanted to have guaranteed for ourselves into our dotage will simply have to go. Needs must. This is about tough decisions. Do we really want to mortgage our future? I'm not really convinced we can afford it. 

Expect it to be tough. Turkeys don't vote for Christmas. But then we only have turkey once a year and can, if we have to, manage perfectly well without it. 

Core skills for CXs 1 - managing expectations

The sun may or may not  be out today but woe betide the person who promises it will be. Even the weather people hedge their bets. We live in a world where there are more potential hostages to fortune in captivity than there were in Beirut at the height of their troubles. 

We must be careful about what we say. It will be set down in writing, sent back to you by email, blind carbon copied to the world and then forwarded to anyone who might not have seen it the first time. 

It's not delivery that kills us, it's delivery against expectations. 

Say little, promise what you have delivered and learn to nod, mirror and empathise. 

Today's message? 

We will be cautious about the recovery. We are making tentative steps. We must not over promise. We must see how things go. It would be wrong to create false hope. Whilst we would (genuinely with breathy emphasis) want to talk specific numbers, it would not be right - too much rests on our every utterance. 

Embrace opacity. The future will be bright - but we would be loathe to confirm one way or the other. Luminosity is simply not our field of expertise. 

The art of obfuscation 1

The ability to get people looking the other way is never to be underestimated. Increasingly, it's the must-have skill - the one that will mark you out from your other CX colleagues. Never mind the ability to manage complexity, to inspire, to motivate, to drive forward change, drive up productivity or drive down costs. It's all for nought when measured against the ability to say, convincingly, "look over there" at just the right moment. And when the unsuspecting are peering into the distance, along comes something that would certainly have got their attention had they been able to see it. 

It's nothing less than the ability to produce fog at will. But this is a special kind of fog - it's sculpted, shaped and paraded for all to wonder about. 

In a world which values the merits of plain English there is much to be said for the ability to weave opacity and yet extol transparency. Things are getting worse but at a slower rate and so, in truth, things are getting better. One of my school science teachers was a keen fisherman. Anything on the subject of trout was enough.

Some skills never leave you. 

The council pension is a juicy plum

Whenever people are on the look out for savings, they look for juicy plums. Management types call them "low hanging fruits" - the sort of things that grabbing shouldn't hurt since it would be just a question of time before they fell of their own accord. And so the pressure will be laid on - bit by bit - so that council pensions fall from the tree. 

It will happen this way. First, it will be both hinted at and rejected. The possibility will emerge in the public sphere and ministers will jump to the defense of pensions. "No", they will say. "Never". Etc, etc. 

That will be enough, though, for the right wing press to get the bit between their collective teeth. Numbers will emerge. How many pensions, how much, how much every week, what the money could be spent on and so on. No-one will rise to defend them because doing so would trigger a reaction similar to that experienced in the Fred the Shred case. At some point, ostensibly to take off some of the emerging public pressure, some insider will confirm that pensions are being looked at - but only inasmuch as all options are being looked at. Unions will then be obliged to get into the argument and staunchly defend them. But the briefers will allow all sorts of stories of public sector profligacy to emerge, the implication being that pensions are just another one of those things. 

In time, an options paper will be published - a gun to the head paper - either you work until you drop or we change your pensions. The soft messages will be: we all have to make sacrifices, the greater good, the public sector shouldn't be exempt etc. 

Ministers will continue to deny vehemently right up to the point where they reach up, eyes glinting in the sunshine, and grab the juiciest plum you ever did see.