REGENT ST — My dad used to tell us that in Canada there was no obligatory military service, so everyone should work for the government for at least two years.

All of my siblings did.  My brother and I in federal politics and my sister in universities, for local government and running architecture associations in western [...]]]>

REGENT ST — My dad used to tell us that in Canada there was no obligatory military service, so everyone should work for the government for at least two years.

All of my siblings did.  My brother and I in federal politics and my sister in universities, for local government and running architecture associations in western Canada.  My brother was chief of staff to a Prime Minister.  I was less successful, but had an office in the Canadian Parliament Buildings that had been the entire Ministry of Finance at the time of Confederation.

If nothing else it gives you a better understanding of what public service is all about.  Why people do it and what difficulties there are in making it work.

I came to the conclusion that politicians need a rare and equal balance of:

1. optimistic desire that the world can be changed, and
2. egotism to believe that they can do it.

However, there are a myriad of ways that people can work in the public sector these days. And I am not sure we are taking advantage of that enough.  There are not enough people who really know what it is about.  And there are fewer still who think they will find pride and power in the public sector.

That’s wrong. 

There ought to be more people fighting for the fewer public sector jobs in our countries.

We need more, better bureaucrats.

Think about how well ‘less regulation’ has worked?  And the clear fact that governments will have to be smaller in the future, but better regulation is required.

Clearly good brains are needed.

/df

MY KITCHEN — Tonight when the three main party heads appear on TV for a ‘debate’, it will start a tradition in the UK. It’s a tradition that has been going on in Canada and the US for about 50 years.   At Able and How we train executives in leadership.  A lot of that is how [...]]]>

MY KITCHEN — Tonight when the three main party heads appear on TV for a ‘debate’, it will start a tradition in the UK. It’s a tradition that has been going on in Canada and the US for about 50 years.
 
At Able and How we train executives in leadership.  A lot of that is how to talk to people.  Not just the media, but real people.  Ronald Reagan used to say that he wanted to “talk over the heads of the media, directly to the American people”.  That’s what Clegg, Cameron and Brown will be trying to do today.
 
Here’s what you will be looking for, whether you know it or not:
 
COMPETENCE
This may seem obvious, but it’s really about whether or not the speaker seems to be someone you’d loan your bike to. Would they know how to run a dry cleaner? Isn’t that a silly standard to set?  Yes, but we make those decisions every day, and today is no different.  In fact, the numbers they cite don’t even have to be right, because we’re also looking for:
 
CONFIDENCE
Nobody wants to follow a football team whose manager says “we may not win this year, because our guys are not as good as the game requires…”  You need a balance between silent swagger (Sven) and violent assertiveness (Sir Alex).

EMPATHY
This is not about feeling sorry for people.  It’s just about a sense of connection with what real people feel.  Tony Blair had it. Bill (‘I feel your pain.’) Clinton had it.  George H W Bush didn’t — when he was in a supermarket looking at a bar-code scanner as if it was a Star Trek transporter, he lost all ability to relate.

So, why not watch without listening to the words and think about how they make you feel.  Whether you are working in a Kwik Fit in Basildon, or changing tires on Jenson Button’s car, that’s what most people will end up doing anyway. 

Good leaders know how to get across all of the things listed above.

But even if you don’t want to do that, the most important thing to do is: watch.

/df

DISTRICT LINE — The newly appointed Lord made a bit of a storm in Parliament with his maiden speech.  Perhaps any minimalism in grace and nuance will inadvertently help our regular politicians, by showing how hard it is to speak without edits, teleprompters and producers. 

Describing his views on small business he said:

“I have also seen [...]]]>

DISTRICT LINE — The newly appointed Lord made a bit of a storm in Parliament with his maiden speech.  Perhaps any minimalism in grace and nuance will inadvertently help our regular politicians, by showing how hard it is to speak without edits, teleprompters and producers. 

Describing his views on small business he said:

“I have also seen some poor examples of businesses that simply will not succeed, even in the best of times. The reality is that, however good the help provided by government, some businesses simply do not work. Government and banks cannot just write blank cheques to anyone who thinks that they have a good idea.”

And that’s the basis of the argument.  Essentially, if you don’t succeed it’s likely that your idea was rubbish.  And that winds me up a bit.  Because it sounds like the ‘American dream’ which is often translated as ‘if you work hard enough, you will succeed.’  And my experience, after working in government, in large businesses and in small business is that there are many things that government and large businesses do to keep small business down.

Which is why I like this second quote from Lord Sugar of Clapton:

“In Britain, small businesses have a lot to be proud of. They employ over 50 per cent in the private sector and they generate as much turnover as big business-in fact, 99 per cent of all businesses are SMEs. The credit crisis has pushed our SMEs to the limits. Some companies have struggled, not because of failure in business, but because of the tougher credit conditions.”

And in many ways it contradicts the quote above from the same speech.  I have not seen any real effort made to help small businesses in a coordinated or concerted way.  There’s lots of nice rhetoric, but the way that Lord Sugar describes small businesses is pretty much the way they feel treated: ‘Do this!  No, no sorry, do that! Woops, you screwed up.  Must be your fault.”

The fiscal, judicial, regulatory and bureaucratic systems are all stacked against smaller businesses.  Rules seem to be written for organisations with means, access to expertise and advisers, and an institutional history in doing this stuff.  Small businesses need to negotiate a maze of complexity that no regular business person has all the experience to master.

In analysing his own speech later, Sugar said:

“During the ceremony, I only got a mild ‘hear, hear’ – mostly from the Labour lot, but they’ll like me in the end.”

I will stand in front of the Palace of Westminster itself and give him a mighty round of ‘hear, hear’ myself if he can address the real, structural issues that are holding small business back. 

No one wants something for nothing.  A proper helping hand to succeed would be good enough.

/df

LAKE DISTRICT — I really like David MacLeod.  And I am very pleased that the Prime Minister is excited about the idea of employee engagement.  I like that he sees it as a possible source of competitive advantage for Britain.

(I am a bit disappointed that with so many delays they only issued it this week, deep [...]]]>

LAKE DISTRICT — I really like David MacLeod.  And I am very pleased that the Prime Minister is excited about the idea of employee engagement.  I like that he sees it as a possible source of competitive advantage for Britain.

(I am a bit disappointed that with so many delays they only issued it this week, deep in the heart of summer holidays.  And long after school has broken.)

And, because I think that engagement is something that we can and should spend more time, I am very reluctant to ask for more… but…

here I go…

Couldn’t we do this a bit faster?

If ever there was a time to galvanise industry into thinking and acting on engagement it is in this economy, in this time of change, in this moment.  Now.

We do know a lot about engagement.  There has been a lot of academic research.  It is all pointing in roughly the same direction.  But Mr MacLeod also sees the controversy over ‘what is engagement?’, and I think he has deferred the decision of trying to nail it down. 

My view is that there are a lot of people selling events, surveys, programmes, picnics and other things that they say will ‘drive engagement’.  And basically won’t.  And that audience is a scary one.

But we know what does drive engagement.  It’s things like perceptions of fairness at work.  (How have the last eight months fared on that level?!)  It’s line management leadership skills and an organisation’s ability to create some level of decisions participation.

But this stuff is harder than picnics and company values posters.

Unfortunately, all that the MacLeod Report has chosen to do now is kick the issue forward into the future.  “More study”, from my time in politics, was always code for “extra time to bury it.”  I know MacLeod is not like that.  But what about BIS (BERR) and maybe Number 10?

Engagement in UK industry and the public sector is a potential boon to us.  It even impacts on people’s quality of life.

Why wait?

I can’t see it.

/df

TCR — Here are a few things we’re thinking about today.

1. Our doorman sent a note around about the plan if protesters invade our office.  So far we haven’t even had a drunk wander in looking for a loo.

2. The COI published the Internal Communications and Change roster.  Now you can see why we chose the [...]]]>

TCR — Here are a few things we’re thinking about today.

1. Our doorman sent a note around about the plan if protesters invade our office.  So far we haven’t even had a drunk wander in looking for a loo.

2. The COI published the Internal Communications and Change roster.  Now you can see why we chose the name we did.

3. We all like people who like us.  The lovely Rachel has written a nice blog about the recent Able Round Table.  Thanks Rach.

4. If you download TweetDeck and type in G20 to the search bit you can follow it live.  It’s compulsive.

5. Asking a US President about football makes everyone seem silly.

A demain.

/df

HOME — One of the problems with recessions like the one we are in is that government spending takes place of regular commercial advertisements on TV.  Don’t get me wrong, we have reason to love government work.  And we hope to do more of it.

But the TV in the UK we are regularly assaulted with: - [...]]]>

HOME — One of the problems with recessions like the one we are in is that government spending takes place of regular commercial advertisements on TV.  Don’t get me wrong, we have reason to love government work.  And we hope to do more of it.

But the TV in the UK we are regularly assaulted with:
- Motorcycles crashing into our car: “Take longer to look for bikes.”
- A dead child that shows up in a man’s every line of vision: “Kill your speed, or live with it”
- A man watching a sports match who loses all brain capacity in a 30 second stroke/ commercial: “When stroke strikes, act F.A.S.T.”

It’s great that the government is filling the space in paid advertising.  And I know these things take a long time to put together… But I always thought that it would be better if the government ads were more joined up.  These commercials are useful at any time, no doubt about it.  But in times of economic uncertainty can’t we find other things to mix in?  These ones are monstrously depressing.

Here are some of the things that could be really usefully advertised (and that I’d rather watch):
- How to meet your mortgage payments (Like these guys)
- How to manage personal debt and the consequences of that (Like this)
- How to start and run your own business in difficult times… And support the recovery that way (Business Link, for example)
- What you can do to retrain people and treat them well (maybe look here…)
- What government benefits you might be due (Benefits advice)
And on it goes…

Although with all the financial uncertainty around there is likely to be more incidence of stroke and distracted drivers.  It seems more logical to me to deal with he issues that might be distracting people or causing hm stress.

/df

ON THE 14 — In today’s papers there’s a great quote from the British Prime Minister:

We could view the threats and challenges we face today as the difficult birth-pangs of a new global order.

Amazing, no?

Who talks like that?  It sounds a bit like a speech-writer gone mad with a thesaurus.

From a communication stand-point the government [...]]]>

ON THE 14 — In today’s papers there’s a great quote from the British Prime Minister:

We could view the threats and challenges we face today as the difficult birth-pangs of a new global order.

Amazing, no?

Who talks like that?  It sounds a bit like a speech-writer gone mad with a thesaurus.

From a communication stand-point the government needs to be doing a few basic things, repetitively.

1. Talk about what the future can and should be like in the UK.
2. Mention 2 (maximum 3) things that are being done to get there.
3. Express sympathy for what is going on and build some kind of solidarity.

Number four might be: stop saying silly things like the quote above.

/df

PICCADILLY — I have long said that I hold  UK public servants in high regard.  I think they are a class apart.  People with excellent levels of learning and dedication.

I don’t think they are always right, and I have other opinions about the administration [...]]]>

“It is easier to run a revolution than a government.”
Ferdinand Marcos, 1977

PICCADILLY — I have long said that I hold  UK public servants in high regard.  I think they are a class apart.  People with excellent levels of learning and dedication.

I don’t think they are always right, and I have other opinions about the administration of government, but the people are amazing.

And that’s convenient, isn’t it?  Because now they are going to have to run the revolution.  Most Britons seem to have spent 30 years cursing public servants… And now the whole country is in their hands.

The numbers today on projected unemployment are, frankly, a lot lower than I had expected.  But still those are people who rely on government for aid.  There are screaming headlines this morning about bonuses at Northern Rock… A bank owned and run by the government…  But who are we kidding?  Northern Rock is a relative success story in these days of gloomy news.  It’s the guys getting bonuses for multi-billion pound mis-management that I find distasteful.  Those men and women have left the Northern Rock buildings.

The public servants are going to look after us.  And we’re in good hands.

Let’s give them the support that they need.

/df