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Leavism
  How do you know your organisation’s absence management strategy is working? You might assume it was a reduction in absenteeism but this might be masking a problem with leavism. The issue of...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  06 Mar 2020
0
Blog
Adult Social Care Client Level Data 
Every year there is a large demand for additions to the annual aggregate adult social care (ASC) data collections, while there are typically no areas identified for reduction. The resulting...
By: 
Philippa Lynch
Last updated:  06 Mar 2020
0
Blog
The need for curiosity 
I have never seen it written into a management JD or identified as an essential requirement in a person specification but recent events have confirmed the need for curiosity amongst senior...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  02 Mar 2020
0
Blog
Questions 
The best don’t know all the answers but they know the right questions to ask. Blair Mcpherson www.blairmcpherson.co.uk 
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  01 Mar 2020
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Blog
Advancing Practice in Knowledge and Organisation Learning
At this month’s Henley Forum 20th Anniversary Conference, Knowledge Hub received the Highly Commended Award for Advancing Practice in Knowledge and Organisation Learning. You can check out the...
By: 
Knowledge Hub Team
Last updated:  26 Feb 2020
0
Blog
Gaming the System
Not all managers play by rules. The recruitment procedures are designed to ensure candidates are not discriminated against and managers can’t slot in their favourites. The process is designed...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  24 Feb 2020
0
Blog
Frank Sinatra, Mr Teflon and the Professor
They use to call him Frank Sinatra because he always did it his way. Trying to explain the importance of following the correct procedures whether that be in recruitment, tackling absenteeism or...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  18 Feb 2020
0
Blog
Morse v Clouseau
Under what circumstances is it ok for HR to go the full Morse on an anonymous letter and how do you ensure clumsy attempts to identify the culprit don’t come over all Inspector Clouseau ...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  12 Feb 2020
0
Blog
Not the best judge
At university I had a lecture who supervised one of my placements and believed students were a good judge of their own performance. I was tipped off in advance by a student in the year above so...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  12 Feb 2020
0
Blog
Winning 
It’s brutal, wrong and dangerous. It’s cheating but if you can get away with it, bending the rules is all part of the game. This is not new no but it’s is a new and disturbing low.   Blair...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  12 Feb 2020
0
Blog
Have we become a society of people too easily offended?
Here’s some advice I read in the news paper recently. “ Don’t quote The Office without explaining the context”. From my recent experience even providing the context won’t stop some people being...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  03 Feb 2020
1
Blog
Support with year two Local Child Poverty Action Reports
There’s been a definite – and very welcome - spike in the number of inquiries I’ve received from local child poverty leads over the last few weeks. Although your work to tackle child poverty...
By: 
Hanna McCulloch
Last updated:  31 Jan 2020
0
Blog
Rogue Monkey
“ If you want to change things you sometimes have to disrupt things.” Dame Sue Campbell Director of Women’s Football at the FA. (Apparently referred to by some in the FA as Rogue Monkey!). ...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  05 Feb 2020
0
Blog
The Oxymoron Manager
We need to be bold whilst at the same time not taking unnecessary risks, we need to be financially prudent but invest to make the most of technological but not see it as the solution to...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  28 Jan 2020
0
Blog
From Humiliating to Surviving and Thriving
  I once played in a football team that got beaten 15-1. What made it worse was it was only 2-1 at half time. It was a capitulation and a humiliation. Our goal keepers confidence was...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  27 Jan 2020
0
Blog
Hire and Fire with Impunity
In 2011 the Harvard Business Review published the findings of 10 years research into management effectiveness. The headlines read, USA managers are the best , and as is so often the case ...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  14 Jan 2020
0
Blog
Gavin and Stacy
Taking words out of context and simply banning them as offensive does not take forward the battle for greater awareness and sensitivity in the cause of equality and diversity. If you were in...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  12 Jan 2020
0
Blog
How to start a difficult conversation 
The person you are going to talk to isn’t going to like what you have to say. They are going to take it personally. You are going to challenge them and their reaction may be defensive,...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  13 Jan 2020
0
Blog
Happiness - a review of the decade
As we reach the end of the second decade of the 20th Century, it seems a good time to look back at what has happened in that time in relation to happiness, resilience and wellbeing.  ...
By: 
Adrian Barker
Last updated:  31 Dec 2019
0
Blog
Tinsel, trends and sparkling searches...
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…..  enough of all that. Everyone loves something new and we have a few new prezzies for you on Knowledge Hub. Let’s start with the new...
By: 
Knowledge Hub Team
Last updated:  20 Dec 2019
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Blog
Christmas Crackers
A table of middle aged, single, American women were preparing to eat a Christmas meal in the splendid dinning room of the cruse ship as it sailed down the Danube. The table was festively...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  17 Dec 2019
0
Blog
Christmas and New Year Challenge 
There is an old Mexican saying that if you drink the water then you will stay. Meaning if you stop for even a short period you will be captivated by the place. But in view of the state of the...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  08 Dec 2019
0
Blog
The Perfect Crime
In HR they call Passive Aggression (PA) the perfect crime as it involves a variety of behaviors designed to “get back” at another person without the other recognising the underlying anger. I...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  04 Dec 2019
0
Blog
Are your event surveys any good?
When you go to most events you get a lovely happy sheet at the end or emailed to you after the event.  Most of them are tick box based.  But does that really help if your hosting the event.  One...
By: 
Michael Norton
Last updated:  03 Dec 2019
2
Blog
The voice of reason
I had a good friend who played in the same football team as me. In the changing room and later during the post -mortum in the pub when we would all agree that their third game changing goal was...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  29 Nov 2019
0
Blog
Manager says upsetting people is part of role
What if England had lost? How would the managers disciplinary action against one of his best players be viewed?  So some members of the England team thought the manager over-reacted to an...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  23 Nov 2019
0
Blog
Simply the Best 
Last year Liverpool were the best in Europe. Judged another way Manchester were the best in England. But if you take into account the amount they spent to achieve this performance then it looks...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  26 Apr 2020
0
Blog
How do you improve performance and make winners?
Everyone has heard about the revolution in British cycling which led to the biggest ever haul of Olympic medals. Every one in sport and any one interested in improving performance wanted to...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  18 Nov 2019
0
Blog
A managers arrogance is one of the things that make them successful
“ I am the greatest” Mohammad Ali said it and it was arguable true since at the time he was the undisputed world champion. It was certainly boastful and probably deliberately intended to get...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  29 Nov 2019
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Blog
‘To be a manager you must forget the player you were” Valerity Lobanovskyi - Dynamo Kyiv 
Management is different to being a practitioner. A gifted teacher doesn’t necessarily make a good manager, nor does a social worker, solicited, accountant, or housing officer. And yet most LA...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  06 Nov 2019
0
Blog
The Computer doesn’t like the look of you 
It’s a video interview for a job you really want. But the interviewer is not like any you have experienced before.    The interviewer you are trying to impress is immune to your charms and it...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  06 Nov 2019
0
Blog
Knowledge Hub shortlisted for the Henley Forum 2020 Awards
We are really pleased to have been shortlisted as one of the highly commended organisations in the Advancing Practice in Knowledge & Organisational Learning category of the Henley Forum...
By: 
Knowledge Hub Team
Last updated:  05 Nov 2019
0
Blog
The Director and the Local Authority bottle it
The judgement relates to a man with learning difficulties who is described as “having a high sex drive”. A man who has in the past used sex workers and now lives in sheltered accommodation. His...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  05 Nov 2019
0
Blog
The Gig Economy
The gig economy sounds very rock and roll. Rock bands do one night shows referred to as gigs. Strolling minstrels, turn up, play , get paid , move on. Free to come and go as they please, work...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  07 Nov 2019
2
Blog
Succession
He has been the leader of the council for 15 years. During that time the council’s has acquired a national profile and come to dominate the region. The first to embrace out...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  07 Dec 2019
0
Blog
Super Heroes or just Masked Vigilantes
Difficult times produced heroes, ordinary people who did exceptional things often at great personal sacrifice. But in the USA heroes were bigger and better they were stronger, faster, with...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  28 Oct 2019
0
Blog
Why chief executives and directors are never off sick
The average number of days lost to absenteeism in the public sector is ten days. But this figure is closer to five days for office based staff and higher for staff who have direct contact...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  24 Oct 2019
0
Blog
Play the Wild Card
His fancy dress costume was a white sheet with trigs and leaves attached! No one can remember what he was meant to be but everyone remembers his costume. He had been an operational manager and...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  21 Oct 2019
0
Blog
The Boat Trip
It was a private hire. The four of us to visit the more secluded inlets around the coast for a day of sun, sea and relaxation. The two of us had made the same voyage last year ,on the same...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  21 Oct 2019
0
Blog
Is it always the managers fault?
Disappointing performances, poor results, critical audits, damming inspection reports is it always the managers fault? Budget cuts remove much of the room for manoeuvre. Management...
By: 
Blair McPherson
Last updated:  15 Oct 2019
1