Osiris Training

Who could be against choice? It would be like being against freedom or against justice. So I am not against choice. But I am against the idea that choice is always good, always beneficial, that it carries with it no disadvantages and therefore needs no safeguards. I am against the promotion of choice as a way of creating competition which is then assumed to ensure both efficiency and quality because this fly’s in the face of experience.

T.V.in the USA tells you a lot about life in America and if things keep going in the current direction what life will be like here. The USA is the land of choice where paradoxically there is very little variety. There may be 500 channels on cable tv but you will be hard pressed to find something to watch. So if tv doesn’t get better the more choice you have do other more important things like schools and hospitals?

The Public Sector doesn’t traditionally offer much in the way of choice so will the care of older people be better if there is a choice of Older Persons Homes and Home Help services? Wasn’t the real issue flexibility rather than choice? Local Authority Home Help services in the past were run to meet the convenience of staff rather than the needs of frail elderly customers. Home Helps were not available on evenings, weekends or bank holidays. But we’re talking 20 years ago, the job market was very different and most services were offered only during office hours. The take it or leave approach has long since gone as has the professional always knows best.  

The biggest area of complains in the average social service department is about home care providers. The in house home care service has been replaced by dozens of small to medium sized private sector providers and the customers are often unhappy. Staff turnover is higher, staff supervision is lower and staff training is not a priority. Service users biggest complaint is that their home help frequently changes this means their personal care, toileting, washing, feeding is undertaken by a succession of strangers. Minimum wage, anti social hours and the nature of the task means agencies find it hard to hang on to staff and are therefore reluctant to invest in their training. Service uses frequently claim that staff are too young, too inexperienced and too unreliable. The second biggest complaint is that staff don’t turn up at the agreed time and then they are in a rush to complete tasks. Imagine being rushed to eat your meal so you can be “toileted”, washed and put to bed. Having a choice of providers hasn’t improved the quality of care.

 In the past the argument has always been about the balance with in a mixed economy, some state, some private. Now the argument seems to be do we really need any state services as long as we have a choice of private services?

 But does this mean you won’t have a choice of going Public? Does it mean your local authority Social Service Department won’t run any Old People’s Homes or a Home Help service or Day Centres?  And all hospitals will be private but take state funded patients. If that’s what the politicians mean by choice I am against it.

Blair McPherson author of Equipping Managers for an Uncertain Future published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

When that major project was delivered on time within budget and to the required standard everyone involved was keen to stress their role in achieving success. When the auditors identified the true costs of setting up a call centre and entering a long term contact with an IT provider every one claimed to have counselled against the idea. When office accommodation costs were dramatically reduced by the introduction of hot desking, working from home and managers sharing offices, finance, human resources and IT all claimed credit. When staff threatened industrial action over the introduction of a new “fairer” pay structure the board asked senior management how they had contrived to upset so many people by doing something that was intended to be fairer? You see success has many parents but failure is an orphan. Put another way a success is a triumph for team work, cooperation and partnerships but a failure needs someone to blame. Everyone wants to be associated with success but if you fail you fail alone.  

It is a fact of life that your boss will get credit for your work. The most effective response is say how much you appreciated their support to which they will usually respond that they were happy to provide it but really the success was down to you. Getting credit is different to taking credit. In the latter your role is denied or minimised where as in the former credit is shared. Either way you should always write up your success stories. If you don’t tell people who will they know? It will be worth the effort. When it comes to applying for that promotion you will have all the material to support your application and back it up in the interview. Plus it will make you feel good.

Blair McPherson author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

 Long legs, short skirts and blond hair were the chief executives requirements. Admittedly he wasn’t briefing the head hunters for a vacancy on the senior management team but recruiting staff to work in the new restaurant. All part of the £800 million makeover of Gatwick airport by the new American owners. Never the less taken in the context of the rest of this documentary the chief executive’s comments said much about the management culture within the organisation. A management culture all too common in the UK according to a report by management consultants Deloitts. The report found that 20% of companies in the FTSE 100 had no women on their board. Most revealing in terms of the commitment to change is the fact that the proportion of women on boards has only increased from 5% to 9% in ten years.

This throw away comment was captured in the TV documentary Inside Gatwick. The documentary taken with the findings in the Deloitts report shines a light on the state of management in this country. I am not just referring to the treatment of women but the poor quality of people management. The documentary provides plenty of examples like the episode showing the work of the engineers who maintain the conveyor belts that transport passengers luggage around miles of underground networks. The conveyor belt breaks down causing chaos in the departure hall above. As the supervisor struggles to repair the antiquated equipment he is repeatedly interrupted by calls on his mobile phone from managers asking how long it will take to fix, why it is not fixed yet and does he realises the problems this failure to get the conveyor belt working is causing. We then cut to a talk direct to camera where the supervisor refers to the much feared 12 o’clock meetings. “Someone will get shouted at, you just hope it’s not you”. Cut to meeting. A small room is crowded with managers all standing up. There are no chairs because this will be a short meeting and senior managers don’t want people to be comfortable. In front of colleagues the senior manager picks who he thinks is to blame and demands to know what went wrong. Next we see the chief executive addressing a group of senior managers. “Passenger numbers are down we need to do better”. He says” we” but no one is in any doubt he means “you must do better”. Direct to camera individuals speak of five restructurings in six years, low morale and job insecurity.

Next is a presentation on how the South Koreans have developed a management model that improves efficiency, accountability and profitability. This is explained via sixty slides. Next cut to a team meeting with the engineers in which their manager says I need to share with you a presentation that has just been given to me and the other senior managers.” You will be pleased to know I will not be showing all 60 slides I have cut it down to 20”. After the presentation there is a pause for questions. There are no questions. The manager leaves and the engineers who have been stifling yarns and giggling at the management jargon make fun of their manager and confess to have not a clue about the presentation they have just sat through.

Cut to manager in his office who states to camera that he thought that went better than he expected.

Senior management are seen doing a walkabout and saying thing like” we need a big clock in this hall”. All the signage is being changed, new colours, new logo, to reflect the new ownership. This is costing millions of pounds!

 The head of marketing has been told that passengers aren’t spending enough money in the airport shops. His strategy is to go up market, more expensive shops. There is a sequence where the blokes who sell raffle tickets for Ferrari and Lamborghini sports cars are told they will in future also be selling tickets for designed handbags. Following the sudden departure of the head of marketing an interim specialist has been drafted in. He introduces himself to the management group by telling them things will have to change there is no room for failure and then proceeds to details their failings to date. He informs the audience that the previous strategy for increasing sales was completely wrong the new strategy is to go mid market not high end. The sales staff have become complacent because they sell more than their other branches outside the airport. The airport doesn’t rent the shop space to the retailers but takes a percentage of the profit so the airport marketing manager seems to think this gives him the right to tell them how to run their stores.

 Interestingly when the new head of marketing on walk about asks a passenger what needs improving and what would make the airport experience better the passenger doesn’t immediately say more shops he actually says more comfortable seating and better seating areas.

What I find most incredible about all this is that an organisation would agree to this scathing indictment of their culture being broadcast. Presumable they don’t see a problem.

 I can’t swear that I have got all the details correct I am doing this from memory and one viewing but the material here is shockingly familiar, frequent restructuring, a climate of fear and blame, senior managers over concerned with the detail, the use of management speak which only succeeds in confusing staff, major shifts in strategy, asking the customer but failing to listen, senior managers sudden departure and the drafting in interim managers.

Blair McPherson is a former director in a large local authority and author of People management in a harsh financial climate and Equipping managers for an uncertain future both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

You would not be surprised to be told that some people with mental health problems claim to hear voices and be possessed by demons. You might be a little surprised to be informed that the church still carries out exorcisms or “deliverance” (from evil) as they are now known. You probably would be surprise to learn the NHS uses exorcism as an alternative form of treatment for mental health problems. According  to an article in the Times news paper (1/11/11) the Church and the NHS are quietly working together on exorcism.

This is not some wacky cult but mainstream religion and not some unconventional lone psychiatrist but respected professionals. The Church of England has 44 exorcists appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In the article Dr Rob Walker consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at the University of Edinburgh referrers to medical support groups across the country include Church of England and Catholic exorcists and Imams’. Walker is quoted as saying that “Every consultant will see a handful of patients in their career requiring some kind of deliverance.”

Professor Robin M Murray head of Psychiatric Research at Kings Collage Institute of Psychiatry is more cautious about the role of exorcism in treating mental health patients saying he doesn’t know of any scientific evidence that exorcism works but acknowledges that not all psychiatric problems respond to conventional treatments. He goes on to say that he would have thought it reasonable for a hospital chaplain to carry this out.

The Royal College of Psychiatry has produced a set of guidelines on spirituality written by Professor Christopher Cook. The article in the Times quotes Professor Cook as saying”There is a spiritual dimension to all health related issues and exorcism may be appropriate in some cases”. 

You can see why mental health services might want to know if someone is telling their Priest or Imam that they have been hearing voices telling them to hurt people or themselves. You can see why the Church might want to have links with local psychiatric services for support when coming across a member of their congregation in distress. But what is being discussed here seems to go beyond this and view exorcism as an appropriate treatment for someone with a mental health problem. I didn’t even think the Church still believed in evil spirits anymore! I find the view that it can’t do any harm to try exorcism as an alternative treatment troubling since I would have thought colluding with the delusion that an individual is possessed by a demon could be very damaging.

Blair McPherson is a writer and commentator on the public sector. www.blairmcpherson.co.uk