Osiris Training

What a great title for a book. The book is sub titled a guide to developing services for black disabled people. It was published in 1995, only 48 pages but it must be hard to get hold of because I could only find one used copy available on Amazon and that was on sale for £88. A paper by the same author with the titled I’m Not Asking to Live Like the Queen (SCIE 2005) outlined the wishes of service users on the future of social care for adults. The author is Nasa Begum and in 2008 she appeared on the BBC programme Don’t Get Mad Get Dom with Dominic Little wood which showed British Airways refusing to let her on a flight from India because she was unaccompanied. She fought successfully for BA to recognise her right to travel independently. As a writer, researcher and campaigner Nasa was very clear that people who had a disability did not need help but equal opportunity.

Nasa Begum died on 24 May 2011

www.blairmcpherson.co.uk

Employees with natural ability can hold themselves back for various reasons. What does a good manager do to help them progress?

I take the view that managers have a responsibility for developing their staff which goes beyond simply sending them on training courses. In fact I would go as far as saying that a good manager helps their best staff to leave, that is encourages them to apply for promotion or move into management. Developing someone involves giving them opportunities to gain experience and new skills. This might involve asking them to represent you at meetings, putting them forward for a project or work group, sending them to a conference, fixing up some work placements or shadowing, suggesting some articles about innovative practise and discussing them in one to one sessions. It will involve delegating tasks to them not because you don’t fancy doing them but because it will help them learn new skills and increase their confidence. Of course you can’t just load all this on top of their existing work or else they will feel they are being exploited rather than developed. This will involve some redistribution of work within the team and may even mean you have to take on some tasks yourself to free them up. It will also requires you to demonstrate that development opportunities will be available to anyone in the team who shows an interest, does their current job well and wants to take on more responsibility.

Good managers can be greatly helped to develop their staff by organisations that identify and meet the needs of aspiring managers. Below is a case example of how one organisation went about doing this to the benefit of women and ethnic minority staff who were previously underrepresented in management posts.  

During the course of delivering a management development programme a group of staff were identified who aspired to be managers but either lacked the confidence to apply or had insufficient insight into the role to perform well in interview.  Many of these staff came from ethnic minority groups who were under-represented in management posts.  When some one-off workshops were opened up to aspiring managers significant numbers of women were also identified who were “thinking” about applying for management posts.  These aspiring managers were encouraged to access material on the intranet. This material in the form of 500 word discussion articles not only described the type of manager and management behaviour the organisation wished to promote but offered an insight into the type of people management issues managers had to deal with.

In response to the demand from aspiring managers an aspiring manager’s programme was developed based around half day workshops with topics such as performance management, equality and diversity, being customer focussed, how to do a good application and improving interview skills.  In addition a shadowing scheme was set up in order that any member of staff could shadow a senior manager for a half day to help them better understand the role of management..

This case study of how the needs of aspiring managers were incorporated into a management development programme in a large county council is detailed in Equipping managers for an uncertain future published by www.russellhouse.co.uk  

Blair McPherson author of An Elephant in the Room- an equality and diversity training manual and  People management in a harsh financial climate both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

In 2007 the charity Stonewall commissioned a poll which revealed 20 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual people expected to be treated less favourably than a straight person when applying for social housing. Have things changed? How would a Housing Association demonstrate progress?

Stonewall is a well respected campaigning organisation on behalf of the rights of gay, bi sexual and transsexual people. There is no reason to believe the situation they reported in 2007 is significantly different in 2011.

 Many organisations including HA’s work with Stonewall with the aim of making their organisation “gay friendly”. The aim is to ensure both staff and service users feel comfortable, able to be themselves and respected for who they are. This is more than following the letter of the law and having policy statements which state the organisation will treat people fairly and will not discriminate on the grounds of sexuality. You would expect staff and tenants in a gay friendly organisation to feel that they could be open about their sexuality without fear of less favourable treatment.

Experiencing any form of discrimination is distressing proving it is another matter.

As a senior manager in both a Local Authority and a Housing Association I was aware of the problem of homophobic bullying. This took the form of offensive and inappropriate comments or so called “jokes” about a person’s sexuality; it also included ostracising the individual and talking about them behind their backs. Where someone admitted to this type of behaviour or where there were witnesses then I took disciplinary action against those involved. In my view the correct response is to treat this behaviour the same way you would if it was a black person suffering racist abuse, you would not tolerate it from your staff or tenants.

So this is the test of how gay friendly a social housing organisation is. Do staff and tenants feel able to be open about their sexuality without feat of discrimination and do they feel confident that if they do suffer discrimination, prejudice or abuse the organisation will be sympathetic and take deceive action against the perpetrators?

Blair McPherson author of An Elephant in the Room –an equality and diversity training manual published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

No longer a senior manager I don’t have to worry about upsetting social workers. This doesn’t mean I don’t care what they think. In fact my motivation to write is because I do care what people think. I am just less bothered about what they think of me.

As a senior manager I was always keen to stimulate debate believing that open discussion was the best way to challenge attitudes and change behaviour. I also believed that speaking out openly was the most effective way of supporting staff who felt the organisation had good sounding polices but failed to back them up. I am referring to bullying, harassment and equal opportunities particularly around race and sexuality. These were the areas where staff and managers tended to shy away from making comments for fear of saying the wrong thing or opening up a can of worms.

A detailed descriptions of how this approach was used to promote equality and diversity and inform a major management development programme can be found in An Elephant in the Room –an equality and diversity training manual and Equipping managers for an uncertain future both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Bureaucracy has a bad name. Bureaucracy gets a bad press. Undeservedly so in my opinion. It is bureaucracy that ensures fairness and order as opposed to favouritism or the allocation of resources like housing on a whim. Bureaucracy ensures taxes are collected, rubbish bins empted and people get paid. Belgium has not had a Government for 12 months yet the country is not in chaos everything is running smoothly and normally. How come? Bureaucracy, Belgium has a well functioning bureaucracy.

Calling someone a bureaucrat is not a complement, it means they slavishly follow the rules. Bureaucracy is characterised by slowness, following procedures and policies, filling in forms and joining queues. It is not for us creative types. Not for innovative managers but necessary for some who might otherwise bypass the recruitment process and appoint family and friends or spend the budget on something more “interesting”. No, bureaucracy is defiantly a good thing for those managers who can’t be trusted. Not you and me .Well not me.

Blair McPherson author of People management in a harsh financial climate and Equipping managers for the unexpected both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

The sunniest day for weeks and instead of soaking it up in the garden we are in Out Patients. This is a follow up from Brenda’s operation to remove her gallstones. Should have been key hole surgery but there were complications, open surgery followed by an infection but six weeks later the scare has healed up nicely.

It’s a touch screen electronic registration- more efficient. Only the message comes up “ report to reception” – not so efficient then. Reception examines the letter from the consultant and informs us we are in the wrong place. You need to go to “Shaftsbury” end of corridor turn left. We see the signpost for Shaftsbury and the McMillan cancer information centre. We present the consultant’s letter and the receptionist checks are details and confirms she has Brenda’s medical notes. Take a seat and you will be called.

There is no one else this smartly furnished waiting area. There are neat racks of leaflets all of them about cancer! Why have they sent us here? If there was a problem with the post op test they would have informed our GP first, wouldn’t they? Brenda is convinced she has cancer, why else would they send us to the cancer out patients clinic? There was no mix up the receptionist has her notes and the date of birth and address are correct. I try and reassure her by saying there is no way they would let anyone find out they had cancer this way- but I am not convincing her or myself. There follows a very long ten minutes before we are invited to see the doctor. We are shown into a consulting room and informed by the nurse that the doctor will be along shortly. We take a sneaky look at the notes she has left they say refer to specialist-we fear the worst.

Hello how are you. Panicking I say, this is the cancer unit.

We get complaints about this all the time, it has been raised with the chief ex. This is the biggest out patients unit so when the others are busy we use these consulting rooms. You don’t have cancer. This is just a courtesy follow up because your op had complications.

If I hadn’t been so relieved and pleased I would have been looking to kick that chief ex in the balls.

Blair McPherson

It’s hard to believe now but this disillusioned cynic was once bursting with energy and ideas. Tipped to go far now just tipped to go. Some people make mistakes, some people go out of favour with the arrival of the new boss, some people get a reputation as lazy or difficult and some people stay too long. The people who matter stopped listening long before the ideas dried up. Then the ideas were replaced by criticism and cynicism. The slog of the mundane drained the energy and the enthusiasm was directed elsewhere .Apparently outside of work the creativity is still there but all colleagues see is someone who retired in the job-just sitting it out though there is 15 years to go.

 Trouble is they are your problem now thanks to the management restructuring. Such people were supposed to have been got rid of when posts were cut but they were too young for early retirement, not interested in voluntary redundancy and not bad enough to dismiss.

You can spend the next 2 years proving they are incompetent, you might make their life uncomfortable but they might just as easily make your life uncomfortable. You could try and get them seconded-give someone else the problem, you could reward their cynicism with an expensive place on a management course, you could ignore them after all that’s what the previous manager did! Or you could use your people management skills to solve the problem. Fresh start, chance to regain status and respect, utilise all that experience and provide opportunities to use that creativity. Chances are it won’t involve any more time and energy than fighting them.  

 Blair McPherson author of People management in a harsh financial climate published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Modern leadership is not about winning arguments but about influencing decisions.

The traditional view of leadership is a charismatic individual who by sheer force of personality and will drives through change and makes things happen, a furiously competitive individual with a macho management style and a Machiavellian reputation. This approach to leadership does not encourage partnership working and co-operation.  Yet increasingly it is recognised that transforming the Public Sector in a harsh financial climate requires collaboration and co operation.   Working with others through partnerships to co-ordinate efforts and pool resources requires a different type of leadership, one which views the role as to shape and influence not manipulate and dominate.This requires a different type of management development programme one that emphases developing people management skills and helping managers as leaders gain insight into how their behavior affects others. A case study of implementing such a programme in a large local authority can be found in Equipping managers for an uncertain future published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Blair McPherson author and commentator on management and leadership in the Public Sector 

Modern leadership is not about winning arguments but about influencing decisions.

The traditional view of leadership is a charismatic individual who by sheer force of personality and will drives through change and makes things happen, a furiously completive individual with a macho management style and a Machiavellian reputation. This approach to leadership does not encourage partnership working and co-operation.  Yet increasingly it is recognised that transforming the Public Sector in a harsh financial climate requires collaboration and co operation.   Working with others through partnerships to co-ordinate efforts and pool resources requires a different type of leadership, one which views the role as to shape and influence not manipulate and dominate.This requires a different type of management development programme one that emphases developing people management skills and helping managers as leaders gain insight into how their behavior affects others. A case study of implementing such a programme in a large local authority can be found in Equipping managers for an uncertain future published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Blair McPherson author and commentator on management and leadership in the Public Sector

How do you know what’s going on? I don’t mean the budget position or performance against targets or even staff moral I mean how do you know what it is like to use your services, to be a customer of your organisation. Those who deal with customers directly know but how do their managers get to know and how do those at the top of the organisation find out? Front line manager know because they are the ones who deal with complaints where as senior managers may rely on customer satisfaction surveys. Front line managers have the anecdotal evidence senior managers have the numbers. It wasn’t always so and it still isn’t in many parts of the public sector.

Since the introduction of stream lined back offices and call centres it has become very difficult to complain directly to someone at the top. There was a time when if you had a bad experience on a Virgin flight and weren’t happy with how your complaint was dealt with you could write to Richard Branson and get a reply from his personal office. I don’t suppose he read every single letter but you could cut through the layers of management and get a response from some one senior enough to be able to do more than simply quote back at you company policy or say sorry you had a bad experience but we deal with thousands of passengers every year and the vast majority are very satisfied.

In the post call centre era things are different. My wife’s recent experience appears typical. Having been incapacitated whilst waiting for an operation she spent a week in hospital and had a six week convalescence period in which she could not drive, walk the dogs or lift anything heavy. So she was not able to work out at the gym or attend classes. She thought that as she had not been able to use her membership for three months it would be worth asking if she could have an extension. Note she was not asking for a refund just that her current annual membership be extended. She raised the issue with the staff who referred her to the manager who said that it was not company policy to make refunds and she did not have the authority to make such a decision.

 At this point the problems started. My wife asked for the email address of the high profile celebrity whose name is on this chain of health centres. We don’t have an email address for him. Well what about the postal address for head office? We are not allowed to give that out. Well how do I take this up with someone in senior management?  Put your request in writing with supporting medical evidence and it would be forwarded. She did. No response. A search of the internet revealed a site set up by disgruntled members all with similar stories about how difficult it was to make a complaint if it could not be resolved by the local manager. My wife did eventually get a short letter saying how sorry they were to learn of her illness and how they hoped she was feeling better but pointing out that the contract she signed on becoming a member was quiet clear on their no refund policy. It was a similar story when my local bank manager was replaced by a personal account manager based in a national call centre. The arrangement seemed deliberately designed to make it as difficult as possible to directly contact those at the top of the organisation.

Contrast this experience with my own as a Director with in a large local authority. If an MP wrote direct to me on behalf of a constituent I asked the relevant manager to investigate and draft a response for me to sign. If a member of the public wrote to the Director dissatisfied with how their complaint had been dealt with by the front line manager I would ask the appropriate service head to organise a response and for the reply to go out in their name as the responsible senior manager. In this way the senior management team had a very good handle on the type of complaints we were receiving and as a result agreed actions to not only resolve the individual complaint by reduce the risk of similar complaints.

Our anecdotal evidence supplemented the statistics and helped us get a feel for what it was like to use our services. Our direct experience stopped us being complacent if the number of complaints had fallen or the satisfaction rates had risen. It would be a terrible mistake if local authorise in their enthusiasm to reduce costs introduced streamlined back offices and call centres which ended up denying senior mangers snap shots of real life.

Blair McPherson former Director of community services at Lancashire county council and author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future and People management in a harsh financial climate both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

The final of Britain’s Got Talent is over now the British public eagerly awaits The X Factor. These shows are certainly very popular and they do give an opportunity for absolutely any one to show they have talent and potential. Could this approach be applied to recruiting staff in the public sector?

I have always felt we put too much emphasis on experience and qualifications and not enough on enthusiasm and values.  When I was recruiting staff to work in large residential homes I was desperate to change the cultural.  I had good managers who were champions of independence, choice, dignity and respect but who struggled to defeat the staff room culture.  When they were on duty, walking around the building promoting and encouraging everything happened as it should but when they were on their days off, holiday or away from the building attending a meeting everything reverted back.  The majority of staff could be influenced by the manager or the staff room leaders.  Training resulted in people knowing what was expected but it did not stop them reverting to doing what was easiest when the manager was not about. 

When the opportunity arose to recruit new members of staff it was seen as a real chance to shift the staff room culture.  What was needed were people with enthusiasm, energy, creativity, a desire to make a difference and set of values compatible with improving the lives of people living in the home.  Person specifications were drawn up for the vacant posts which were as inclusive as possible, no requirement for experience in care work, no requirement for working with the client group, no requirement for qualifications.  The essential requirements were; a positive attitude to the client group, willingness to work shifts and willingness to undertake training.  The result was a large number of applicants and very little criteria to short list so we interviewed large numbers over several days.  A bit like the early rounds of Britain’s Got Talent.  We had to see a lot of no hopers to unearth a few gems.  The interview questions were all based around the ability to apply values like choice, dignity and privacy in relation to situations within the home .We were also looking for enthusiasm.

This may appear a bit hit and miss.  Someone states they would go to the laundry to find the dress a resident wanted to wear rather than persuade them to put something on that was in the wardrobe.  How do you know they are not just saying what they think you want to hear?  But isn’t that true of all interviews?  How do you determine if someone is enthusiastic and how do you score it in an interview?  It seems to work OK on Britain’s Got Talent both the panel and the audience seem to be able to identify those with potential and you know a positive and enthusiastic person when you meet one. 

This approach made some HR colleagues nervous and was certainly time consuming but the impact these new staff had on the staff room culture was dramatic.  Justification, I think, for giving more weighting in the interview process to enthusiasm and values over the traditional emphasis on experience and qualifications.

Blair McPherson author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future and An Elephant in the Room-an equality and diversity training manual both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk