Entries with tag local government .

thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
13 Dec 2021 - 14:07

null 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 sourcing. The first to agree a major contract to outsource all back office services. The leader has a reputation as a canny negotiator and a ruthless political manipulator. Which has not always endeared him to... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 753 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
24 Feb 2022 - 16:59

null Domination and Cooperation

Hundreds of years into the future humans have colonised the solar system. Earth and the Moon are in a state of cold war with the much bigger and far more prosperous Mars. Further out lie the numerous clusters of small colonies on the asteroid belt off Jupiter and the Moons of Saturn. These outer planets are totally dependent on Earth and Mars, surviving on the export of the... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 4614 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
07 Jul 2021 - 10:41

null Are organisations inevitably hypocritical?  

 Writing in defence  of hypocrisy would be like  expressing sympathy for the devil, you’re not going to convince anyone that it’s anything other than despicable. And yet hypocrisy exists in every organisation for a very good reason. It occurs whenever decisions and actions are inconsistent or conflict with previously stated ideals, values or performance measures. This... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 1998 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
14 Jan 2020 - 18:36

null 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 the reaction was to the headline rather than the detail of the research. To some commentators and management consultants this was further support for their view that management skills in the U.K. ... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 20469 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
08 Dec 2019 - 15:05

null 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 water supply it might be more appropriate to say that you need a strong stomachache to live here. When I think of how local government use to be and how it is now I think of old Mexico and the... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 25958 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
07 Dec 2019 - 13:07

null 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 sourcing. The first to agree a major contract to outsource all back office services. The leader has a reputation as a canny negotiator and a ruthless political manipulator. Which has not always... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 29167 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
24 Oct 2019 - 22:17

null 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 with the public. Much energy and research has gone into how LAs could reduce costly absenteeism. How do you tackle frequent short term absences, which are often very disruptive to the service and... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 24151 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
07 Oct 2019 - 14:18

null Why senior managers and politician so often say nothing of interest. 

In my experience when politicians and senior managers talk they chose their words so carefully they can end up saying nothing of interesting, unless it's about themselves.    As an Assistant Director I would write the speeches for the chair of social services. I would ask him to open a conference or workshop or address a group of staff about planed changes. He would ask what I ... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 10330 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
06 Aug 2019 - 13:46

null Boss Quits Abruptly

The leader has a reputation for moving quickly and plain speaking. In the surprise ousting of the chief executive who has only been in the job 18 months , he has lived up to the speed part. But what happened to the famed blunt speaking when it came to why the chief executive had to go . There was, claimed the leader, no personality clash or disagreement on strategy. By way of... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 23768 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
13 Sep 2019 - 06:58

null Loyalty, ambition, betrayal, vomit and sudden violent death 

I have always (nearly always) been loyal but sometimes my dissent was taken as disloyalty. I have always been ambitious but didn’t realise just how ambitious till I repeatedly put myself and my family through the torture that is the recruitment process for a directors post. Sometimes you have to make your committee reports graphic if you want your capital bid for new premises to... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 28243 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
30 Apr 2019 - 06:23

null Probably not the best

A new era of honesty and self awareness has been ushered in by the revised Carlsberg advertising slogan.  Where the private sector leads will the public sector follow?    Most people know the slogan whether or not they drink larger. The companies self confident claim to be the best in the world is given a jokey twist by inserting the word “probably”. Now the cleaver people at... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 1133 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
23 Oct 2018 - 17:55

null Making decisions is the easy part 

You pull a lever and nothing happens. Tony Blair said this about his period in office but I think he was quoting President Bill Clinton. The point being that despite occupying very powerful positions both were frustrated by the long time delay between making a decision and seeing some action and on occasions pulling the levers of government and seeing no action. Cabinet members and Senior... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 47414 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
11 Oct 2018 - 10:43

null Who is really in charge

Who is really calling the shots in your local council? Is it the leader of the council, the chief executive, the majority party, the cabinet, the officers ,the councillors, the trade unions ( no not these days) or non of these? Central government has always sort to control local government even whilst promoting devolution, localisation and elected mayors. It has always been a source of... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 51620 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
14 Aug 2018 - 13:12

null Like Russian Roulette

Being a director of children’s or adults social services in local government is like playing Russian Roulette with the addition that every so often the government puts another bullet in the chamber.  If you hold your nerve the odds are you will survive but with every spin of the chamber comes the fear that this time your luck may run out. The average tenure of a local authority chief... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 15770 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
13 Mar 2018 - 11:58

null Don’t blame the social worker

  It’s all about the context in which you deliver your professional skills. Social work is all about how you treat people. The professional values that underpin social work , independence, choice, dignity, respect, are about how social workers go about providing practical assistance and emotional support to vulnerable people. Social workers don’t threaten their clients.... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 8148 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
03 Jan 2018 - 23:30

null Top tips on the transition from practitioner to manager

    How to decide what to delegate and what to do yourself. How to make your team members feel valued. How to allocate work . How to prioritise. How to retain your professional values whilst owning senior management decisions. How to keep your team members motivated. How to develop team members . How to manage an underperforming member of the team . How to make the best use... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 3341 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
16 Dec 2017 - 08:33

null Simple things interview panels get wrong

        As an experienced recruiter and frequent chair of recruitment panels I am surprised there are not a lot more formal recruitment complaints from both internal and external candidates. From my experience panels are often inadequately prepared, don't allow sufficient time, think HR procedures are overly bureaucratic and so don't bother to make or... See more
null 2
null 0 Comments
null 3818 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
30 Nov 2017 - 22:53

null Too nice to succeed

The claim that nice mangers can't deliver in a period of prolonged austerity is an insidious one in local government. There are no shortage of examples to contradict this but the debate is pointless because managers can't help but be the way they are. If yours is not a relentlessly aggressive style them trying to make it so will be at the cost of the finesse which is so admired by... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 2453 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
16 Nov 2017 - 15:21

null Back when social work rocked

Back when social work Rocked Don't laughter but when I became a social worker it was seen as a Rock and Roll profession. Righting wrongs, fighting injustice, challenging the system, speaking up for people. We took on the housing department, the benefits agency and the juvenile court. Whether in court or in the head teacher's office we argued for a second ( or third) chance. When the... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 14384 Views
thumbnail
Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
13 Nov 2017 - 14:35

null A clash of cultures 

          In recent times it has become increasingly common for new leaders of LA's to have a business background. This is seen by many and by the leaders themselves as just what local councils need in a period of prolonged austerity, people who know how to keep costs down and maximise efficiency. But running a LA like a business can bring a leader... See more
null 0
null 0 Comments
null 20711 Views

Showing 1 to 20 of 120 entries.