Attended my first localgovcamp this weekend, (though it wasn’t my first unconference). These are my 10 takeaways – a clever format suggest by someone (possibly even Dan Slee) a little while ago: 1. Struck once again by how extraordinarily easy it is to enjoy the company of people who share a common passion and with…
Category: organisation design
Competing to be the most Business-Friendly Council
This post was originally published on http://www.localgovernmentmatters.co.uk. I recently participated in a workshop arranged by a council to bring together its staff, local businesses and other relevant stakeholders in a session which focused on envisioning a future economic strategy. It was an impressive piece of co-creation, and as is usual with these things the…
The Tale of the Town Hall Clock
I wrote this shortly after joining Local Government, in 2001…. The Tale of the Town Hall Clock Once upon a time there was a town hall clock. It was quite a famous clock because it kept very good time, and people for miles around liked to see it, and hear its chiming bells. Lots of…
Town Councils – 2
After my fictional blog looking back at the success of a Town Council from the vantage point of 2015 I was delighted recently when someone pointed out this – Frome Town Council’s strategic plan is written in a similar way to the blog. It would be nice to think that the blog was mildly influential in…
Guardian Public Service Summit 2011
Last year I blogged about the summit . Here are my thoughts from this year: What is the Summit and Who Goes? The Guardian Summit is held annually, lasts two days, and attracts a good range of speakers – examples this year included Nick Clegg, Katherine Kerswell (Kent CC), Peter Marks (CE of the Co-operative…
The Future of Local Organisational Structures
Recently published in the MJ Up to now the structure of authorities has been largely prescribed by statute or convention. Although there is more variety at District Level, top-tier authorities have remarkably common structures, often driven by the existence of certain statutory roles, not least the Director of Children’s Services. That is already beginning to…
Notes from the Guardian Public Services Summit 2010
Broad Themes Times are going to be very tough, and it will be a tough time to be a public sector leader … (but) There are tremendous opportunities to do things better, differently …(though) We will need to create space for risk-taking…. (and) Many solutions will rely on the more sophisticated use of the third sector and…
Why don’t more CEOs come out of HR?
I’ve frequently wondered why some professions or backgrounds are more strongly represented at Chief Executive level than others. Some of it may simply be that some professions offer a better grounding for that job. However it does seem to me that there may be other factors at work, I suspect that some professions are held…
Careers in and around Local Government
This is an extended and adapted version of a talk for alumni of the National Graduate Development Programme at their first conference 18-19 June 2009. We’re going to spend a bit of time talking about careers. If you look in the dictionary you’ll see a definition of career that’s about a purposeful work-based or professional…
Choosing an Organisation Structure for Local Governance
For as long as I’ve been associated with Local Government (coming up to a decade) the structure of local authorities has been pretty well determined by statute. Certainly the scope of what is in a local authority and what is elsewhere is pretty well set. And certain statutory roles like a Director of Children’s Services…
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