Author Archives: lancingfarrell

96 – A corporate services productivity initiative. Are you sure?

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Posted by Colin Weatherby                                                                         360 words

lawn mower

How long is it since your corporate services team decided to make some improvements to their productivity? Maybe they had to take a budget cut o show some leadership when their Group Manager was asking everyone else to make cuts. Maybe they genuinely think they have produced the same or more value at less cost. Sometimes they aren’t seeking to improve productivity, they are simply complying with the recommendations of yet another internal audit and the opportunity has come up for what seems like greater efficiency. After all, isn’t being more efficient hard to argue with?

Whichever way it happens, the flow on effects are always the same. Someone downstream gets to do more work. Continue reading →

95 – Making high performance happen through value-led management.

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Posted by Lancing Farrell                                                                              850 words

tug of war

Some time ago I posted on Frank Ostroff and the barriers that he believes prevent change in government . Ostroff makes a lot of sense – formulate a vision, be mindful of your present situation, seek the support of stakeholders, set a clear path, understand the complexity in what you are doing, and hold people accountable. However, I have found that sometimes you need a simple tool to take those ideas into practice. I was once asked by a CEO.

‘How do you get people to fundamentally re-think what they are doing instead of making incremental improvements to optimise what they are currently doing?’

Maybe this is the answer. Continue reading →

94 – ‘An interview with Wanksy, Penis Doodler and Pothole Avenger’, The Atlantic CITYLAB, 1 May 2015.

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Posted by Colin Weatherby                                                                                         430 words

Wanksy image

Image from CITYLAB.

The sub title to this article says it all – ‘How an English construction worker is fighting for better road infrastructure by scribbling on the streets like a third-grader’. What is it that reduces people to this behavior? Why do they feel compelled to break the rules to get something done? There have been various articles on guerilla gardening, depaving and other aspects of DIY urbanism, but this is the first ‘guerilla maintenance’ article I have seen.

According to the article, Wanksy is a surveyor and professional artist who became fed up with the numerous potholes in his hometown, so he started drawing penises around them. And it seems to be working Continue reading →

93 – ‘Cost shifting’, or ‘State services paid for by rates’? It is our choice.

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Posted by Colin Weatherby                                                                         670 words

townhall 2

In local government in Victoria middle maangers are often asked to identify ‘cost shifting’ at budget time to identify the portion of the planned rate increase that is needed to cover additional costs in delivering services prescribed by the State government. A little bit of whinging usually goes along with it. Councils often feel as though they are victims being forced to do something against their will. I think it is a mindset problem.

What is really happening is that the State government is choosing to have its services delivered through local councils and for those services to be paid for by the people who receive them through their rates (property tax). Continue reading →

92 – Strategy execution – why do we make it so hard in local government?

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Posted by Whistler                                                                                                          570 words

laurel and hardy

Lancing Farrell’s posts have been interesting. Some good connections have been made with the research conducted by Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes and Charles Sull. I am sure that evidence of each of the myths would be available for local government, but are they the only reasons strategy failure is common?

There is no doubt that lack of cross-functional cooperation, sticking to infeasible plans, under-resourcing plans, ineffective communication, and disempowerment of the distributed leaders by top management are widespread. There is no doubt that they all contribute to failure to implement strategy in local government. But are these the only factors?

I think that failure begins with lack of clear strategy to implement. Continue reading →

91 – Phenomenology, cautery and augury. What relevance do they have for local government?

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Posted by Whistler                                                                                          500 words

bats flying

Phenomenology is the study of ‘that which appears’. It attempts to create ‘objective conditions for the study topics usually regarded as subjective’ (thanks Wikipedia). You can read quite a lot about it if you are interested. I came across the term listening to a comedian who said that his joke wasn’t in poor taste; it only became poor taste if you attached that meaning to it in your own mind. You create the offence to yourself. Yes, it did my head in a bit too. I guess he wasn’t intending to offend, just to confuse.

I am pretty sure that he was referring to the branch of phenomenology known as ‘intentionality’, which says that our ‘consciousness is always conscious of something’.   The object of our consciousness doesn’t have to be real – it can be a fantasy or memory. Apparently, it is a medieval idea. That somehow seems fitting. In the 1100’s the ‘scholastics’ used it to defend dogma.

You are probably wondering about the connection with local government today. Continue reading →

90 – Local government strategy implementation. Myth 5: Execution should be driven from the top.

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Posted by Lancing Farrell                                                                                              700 words

the Executive

This is the last post in a series of five. The first post discussed the myth that strategy execution equals alignment, the second post discussed the myth that strategy execution means sticking to the plan, the third post covered the myth that communication equals understanding, and the fourth post covered the myth that a performance culture drives strategy execution.

Sull, Homkes and Sull say that top-down strategy execution has a number of draw-backs, including ‘unravelling’ after the loss of a strong CEO. This is because strategy implementation in large, complex organisations ‘emerges from countless decisions and actions at all levels’. The leaders closest to the situation are best positioned to make the required decisions. Top-down implementation may boost performance in the short-term but it reduces the organisation’s capacity over the long-term. Continue reading →

89 – Local government strategy implementation. Myth 4: A performance culture drives execution.

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Posted by Lancing Farrell                                                                                              530 words

multiple targets

This is the fourth post in a series of five. The first post discussed the myth that strategy execution equals alignment, the second post discussed the myth that strategy execution means sticking to the plan, and the third post covered the myth that communication equals understanding.

Sull, Homkes and Sull disagree with executives who believe that a weak performance culture is the reason strategy isn’t translated into results. They say that the ‘official culture’ may not support execution, however, the organisation’s true values will reveal themselves when managers make hard choices from day to day, which usually have a focus on performance.

Two thirds of managers cited past performance as the performance most valued when promotion decisions are made. Underperformers are generally not dealt with well. The majority of organisations studied delay action (33%), deal with underperformance inconsistently (34%) or tolerate it (11%). Overall, the companies surveyed had a strong performance culture, yet they struggled to execute strategy.

The authors believe that the reason is that organisations that value execution must recognise and reward factors other than past performance. Continue reading →

88 – Classic paper – ‘Managing the public service institution’. Peter F. Drucker.

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Posted by Colin Weatherby                                                                         Long read 1900 words

Editors Note: This is the first of a new type of post – the long read. Rather than split long pieces or edit out important ideas they will be a run as a long read. It is only recommended for those scoring more than 7/10 in the local government reading test!

In this insightful paper published in 1973, Peter F Drucker looks at why public service organisations are less efficient than business enterprises. In it he reaffirms public services as being ‘load-bearing members of the main structure’ of modern society – a provider of services that are essential to society. Despite this importance, he says the performance of public service organisations is unimpressive. They have large budgets and require ‘ever-growing subsidies’ but are providing poorer service. Citizens are complaining about ‘bureaucracy and mismanagement’ in the institutions that are supposed to serve them.

Why was that the case in 1973 and is it still the case in local government today?

87- Local government strategy implementation. Myth 3: Communication equals understanding.

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Posted by Lancing Farrell                                                                              240 words

targets

This is the third post in a series of five. The first post discussed the myth that strategy execution equals alignment and the second post covered the myth that strategy execution means sticking to the plan.

Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes and Charles Sull say that many executives believe that ‘relentlessly communicating strategy is a key to success’. They suggest that checking whether staff are ‘clear on the organisation’s top priorities’ is less useful than asking them to describe the organisation’s strategy in their own words and to list the top five priorities.

This would be an interesting exercise in local government where the ‘strategy’ is not always clear.  Strategy can mean different things.  It can be the ‘strategic position’ taken by an organisation in response to customer or community service demands (i.e. its relationship to its market). It can also be the ‘strategic approach’ the organisation adopts in doing the work necessary to meet those service demands (i.e. thinking long term and holistically). And it can be a documented ‘strategic plan’ with actions to move from the current state to another preferred state (i.e. a roadmap). Often these definitions are used interchangeably.

An additional problem identified by the authors is that strategic priorities are not only poorly understood but they often ‘seem unrelated to one another and disconnected from the overall strategy’. This feeling is not uncommon in local government. They believe that part of the explanation is that communication is measured in terms of inputs (the number of times something has been communicated in different ways) instead of outcomes (how well do people understand what has been communicated). Again, this is not uncommon in local government either.  It is easier to measure inputs – ‘I told them about it!’ 

In the next post: Myth 4: A performance culture drives execution.

Sull, Donald, Homkes, Rebecca, and Sull, Charles 2015. ‘Why Strategy Execution Unravels – and What to Do About it’, Harvard Business Review, March.