I am the other owner of Foden Grealy. It took us some time to come up with the name, obviously.
I have spent a good deal of my working life trying to help people in organisations do better. It is this passion that got me into the management consultancy field. I guess it is a values thing, but most of my work has been connected to the public sector, either helping from the inside or the outside. I have had quite a lot of experience of big change initiatives, and the various challenges that come with that. Here are my top three of the things that stand out for me:
Empowerment. I believe strongly in using the power of people within organisations to drive change. This happens to be in vogue, but new technology and opportunity bring a far better chance to make this work so long as we can adapt the managerial culture. I regularly refer to the cartoon of a senior civil servant towering over an intern, demanding to know “Why aren’t you working?” only to get the reply “Because I did not see you coming.”
Learning by doing. A lot of the resistance to change stems from the unknown. Approaches that focus on ensuring that people get to experience how it can be in a practical way appeal to me. This is why I also believe that building communities is so important.
Being incremental. Time and again we see big projects, and often big systems, fail through being too big, too ambitious or too difficult. Taking small steps to reach a clear and agreed vision is, in my opinion, a far more sensible approach. It is more achievable, enables the crucial opportunity to learn by doing and is more likely to bring the people with it.
The public sector is in for some pretty interesting times in the coming months. More than ever, affordable effectiveness will be the key, and it will likely not be easy. Smarter approaches are likely to be the ones that succeed; despite the challenging times, I am excited about the chance to help make some of them happen and what can be learned along the way. I am always happy to hear views. My email is here.
