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Management and Leadership CPD

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I was recently asked a question as part of a tendering process about how I manage my own CPD in relation to Management and Leadership.  What surprised me about my answer was how dependent my cpd now is on both Blog and Podcast subscriptions.

Membership of the Northern Leadership Academy provides me with some very good leadership CPD.  I recently attended the NLA Leadership Open Space Event and a one day workshop on Action Learning for Leadership.

Cipd membership and a very full reading programme and authoring the PMN blog also keeps the cpd going.

I am currently taking part in a Project with the University of York looking at Diversity Proofing Management and Leadership Training.

I also subscribe to:

  • Harvard Business Ideas Cast – Harvard Business School – The Harvard Business IdeaCast, from the publishers of HarvardBusiness.org, Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business Press, features breakthrough ideas and commentary from the leading thinkers in business and management.
  • Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders – The DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar (ETL) is a weekly seminar series on entrepreneurship, co-sponsored by BASES (a student entrepreneurship group), Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and the Department of Management Science and Engineering.
  • Management – Management podcast: interviews showcasing the latest thinking from business school professors and other experts – London Business School
  • Naked Strategy – Naked Strategy is a monthly x-ray for business leaders. Presented by Laurence Haughton and Max McKeown, the show shines the spotlight on the strategic issues that lurk behind the business news headlines.
  • Peter Days World of Business – Insights into the business world with Peter Day – featuring content from his Radio 4 In Business programme, and also Global Business from the BBC World Service.
  • SmallBizPod – SmallBizPod is the weekly podcast dedicated to small business, start-ups and entrepreneurs. News, views, interviews and practical advice.

Too much management in the NHS?

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Back to work after the bank holiday and another morning waking up to Radio 4’s Today Programme. This morning it was medical doctor (retired I believe) who caught my ears claiming the the problem with the NHS today was too much management. And I have a certain sympathy for his point of view. Peter Drucker once said,

“Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.”

and there does seem to be a fair bit of this in the NHS.

But how do we square this with the Healthcare commission report that found that fewer than 1 in 5 of staff in my local PCT or Acute Trust had received a performance review in the last 12 months that they found helpful? Personal development plans are poor and ineffective and staff engagement is weak.

The answer is obvious.

The problem is not too much management, but too much of the wrong kind of management. The kind that is obsessed about measuring ‘performance’ and then hectoring (in some cases bullying) staff to produce more – rather than engaging and developing staff in the challenge of providing ever improving healthcare.

What is required is not more of the ‘scientific’ management of the performance management consultants but more person centred management that helps staff to reconnect with their reasons for joining the NHS and helping to find satisfaction and fulfillment in a job well done.

(If you are interested in this topic then you must check out the post that Tom Peters has just written.)

Focus on Processes – NOT Medals

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It has been fascinating to listen to some of the Olympic athletes talking about the secrets of their success. Many of them report using mantras to trigger actions that have contributed significantly to their success. I am sure that some of these mantras might also produce results in your organisation.

Examples include:

  • ‘keeping it in the boat’
  • ‘focus on the processes and not the medals’ and
  • ‘the aggregation of marginal gains’

‘Keeping it in the boat’ relates very much to recognising those things that we can control that are likely to lead to great results. Focussing on what we can make happen and not worrying too much about what others are doing.’

‘Focus on the processes and not the medals’ is a mantra for at least some of the cyclists – especially the pursuiters. Forget about the medals and the glory – just focus on executing well those things that you know make for great performance.

‘The aggregation of marginal gains’ is another cycling mantra and refers to the significant difference that many small, practical changes can make to performance. While individually each of these changes seems to trivial to make a real difference the net effect leads to a significant improvement.

In some organisaitons you get the feeling that the domninant – if unstated – mantras are:

  • ‘Leave well enough alone’ or
  • ‘No-one ever got the sack for being mediocre’.

Please do share your favourite mantras – Olympic or otherwise.

We might even find a small prize for the best!

Imagine…

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An organisation where:

  • people on the frontline make operational decisions that help to better serve customers
  • pressure to perform comes from peers and a sense of shared purpose rather than from a boss
  • teams, not managers, decide who to recruit
  • everyone knows what everyone else earns – and what they do to earn it
  • where ‘top’ pay is limited to 20 times average salary (the norm in private sector if 400 times!)
  • employees think of it as a community on a mission to make a difference in the world, rather than a employer
  • mission matter as much as the bottom line – and BOTH matter a lot
  • every employee feels that they are running their own small business and takes day to day decisions accordingly

What could you do to make your organisation more like this?

Would the effort be rewarded?