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North East Councils Go for Continuous Improvement Case study in brief:
The Improvement Partnership for North East Local Government is led by the region’s 25 local authorities and four Fire and Rescue services, alongside other agencies with a shared goal of improvement in local government. The partnership provides opportunities for individual and organisational learning and development, in line with priorities set out by the local authorities in their North East Regional Improvement Strategy.
One key priority agreed within this Improvement Strategy is the development of the skills and capacity of the workforce, particularly middle managers who play a crucial role in a well functioning authority by acting as the conduit between the strategic and operational parts of the organisation. As a result, the North East Excellent Manager (NEEM) programme was initiated to invest in the development of these middle managers. Complexity in a short time frame The intention is that nearly 700 North East local authority managers (about one-third) will have completed the NEEM programme. However, a programme needed to be developed that would help the Improvement Partnership team to identify suitable candidates for such a large scale project within a short timescale.
The Improvement Partnership called on CPCR to help with the development phase of the programme, as it had a proven track record working with other authorities and was well thought of because of the practical approach it took to such complex projects. It’s expertise in organisational development was also a critical factor.
Emily Sweetman, programme manager for The Improvement Partnership, explains: “Organisational Development takes a view of everything across the whole organisation, giving a holistic view of how systems, cultures and people impact each other. It also considers quantifiable and qualitative factors across the entire organisation to improve performance. This approach is a core part of our local authorities’ strategies so, a key factor in our selection of CPCR was its track record in both local government but also its in depth knowledge of this approach.” Personal development NEEM is a personal development programme which aims to help managers to examine their leadership style. The programme helps them to develop new skills so that they are equipped to lead and deliver within the programme of transformation in systems and services throughout the North East. The NEEM programme aims to:
Engagement The total time commitment required for middle managers attending the NEEM programme is seven days. Participants are also required to do work outside the classroom, between modules, which requires an additional six days commitment to preparation and learning. CPCR, Emily and her team agreed that as such a substantial time commitment was required that it would be essential to engage the organisations involved and get their buy-in, as well as the target individuals, early on. Not only did this require a lot of time from both senior and middle managers, the programme also represented a substantial shift in approach to development and the positives needed to be communicated effectively to all those affected by it.
Sweetman continues: “Individual authorities needed to understand the positive, long term impact it could have for them and their staff. There is also a lot of change in Local Government at the moment and this ran the risk of being seen as yet another initiative that was a distraction from day-to-day business.
“We knew that encouraging managers to speak to a consultant would be a hurdle as their time is precious. But, once they had spent time with CPCR, the feedback from them was excellent and the overall view was that this exercise had been very valuable to both them and their organisations.” Two step approach As senior and middle managers play a vital role between the strategic and operational parts of an organisation, a ‘virtuous circle’ of feedback between senior and middle managers was seen as vital to the success of the programme.
The project was therefore undertaken in two stages, with CPCR speaking to both middle and senior managers to identify development needs and wider organisational issues.
CPCR worked with a focus group of middle managers to provide a valuable ‘reality check’ from the people on the ground. It also asked senior managers to identify the issues and blockages within their organisation, as well as the middle managers that they considered the most suitable candidates for the NEEM programme.
To do this CPCR took the Burke Litwin model approach, working with senior team representatives such as chief executives and HR directors. This focused on organisational change and performance, looking at how the external environment was driving change and impacting individuals and therefore organisational performance.
This two step approach helped to test if there was agreement between the key issues identified by senior and middle management. In some cases diagnosis of the two groups showed that there was a dichotomy of opinion. The X-factor From their work, CPCR produced a report that reviewed opinion about the NEEM programme from middle and senior managers across all organisations and how many places each authority had requested.
“The work we did with CPCR was essential preparation work for the launch of the NEEM programme and was a valuable experience for our senior and middle managers in its own right. It has helped us in several dimensions. Firstly, it has helped the individual organisations buy-in to the programme and understand the benefit to them so that they agree to release their managers. Secondly, it has achieved commitment from senior managers, getting them on board with a commitment to help their middle managers work round the time commitments required.
“As the project helped us to create this commitment and brand recognition of the NEEM name, we anticipate there being no issue with garnering interest for phase two – the recruitment of middle managers into the programme - as everyone appears to be enthusiastic about it,” concludes Sweetman
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