It is becoming increasingly obvious that the financial crisis will dramatically change the way the public sector looks in the future. Many outside the public sector and some inside consider that management structures built in the good times are bloated, unaffordable and unsustainable. Slimmer structures are predicated with fewer tiers and greater spans of responsibility. This will inevitably mean redundancies and redeployments. The survivors will be those who can demonstrate transferable skills, the ability to work across traditional service boundaries and the ability to manager without knowing the detail.
This will come as shock to some colleagues.
Recently a shoe shop manager was appointed to a management post in the Registrars service much to the disapproval of some colleagues who felt the individual’s lack of a professional back ground in the service should have disqualified them. “What will they know about the service and the procedures?” It was apparent that these colleagues did not give as much value to experience of, hitting income targets, managing a large staff group, operating a seven day a week service, dealing with customer complaints, and dealing with building maintenance and security as did the interview panel.
As a result of financial pressures many of us will find ourselves doing the work of two people. This will require us to look at how we are spending our time. Which meetings are essential? Am I doing this because of who’s asked me to do it, because I enjoy it or because it’s crucial to the business?
Fewer managers’ means greater spans of control, working across client groups and across service areas, being responsible for service you do not have a background in. It means knowing less about more and more since the more services you are responsible for the less you will be familiar with what going on in these services. You will be more reliant on your managers telling you what you need to know. You will worry more about what you don’t know which some will find stressful. Keeping yourself informed will require regular one to one’s. With twice as many managers directly reporting to you it will be essential to plan these one to one’s. Rather than saying your door is always open dates will need to be booked in diaries. The informal catch up will need to be replaced by a more structured approach with an agenda agreed in advance providing progress reports and alerting you to any emerging issues or politically sensitive situations. This means these meetings will need to take place at least four weekly if you are not to be inundated with back side covering emails and overwhelmed with “for information” briefing notes.
The traditional weekly team meeting will be seen as a luxury. In any case the team meeting will no longer be relevant as your managers represent such a diverse range of services there is little by way of a common agenda. Corporate briefs can be provided electronically.
Not so much a brave new world for managers as a scary new world. A world which focuses a lot more on management skills and a lot less on professional knowledge. A world where you are responsible for more but know less. A world where you need to empower managers because you haven’t the capacity to micro manage. A world where you need to encourage managers to be innovative in order to do more with less. All of which means you’re less in control- scary.
Blair McPherson is a senior manager for a large local authority and author of UnLearning management- short stories on modern management published by www.russellhoues.co.uk