Mary HughesMary Hughes

Workforce Development Director

Working together - Working together -

Delivering Beyond Delivering Beyond Boundaries - Boundaries -

Transforming PublicTransforming Public Services in WalesServices in Wales

My point?My point?

• First class workforce

• First class leadership

•A sense of common purpose

The rest is about liberating those three things

There has been relatively limited thinking about the Welsh public service workforce as a whole. Individual organisations have human resource (HR) policies and there are plans for the development of particular sections of the workforce, often focussed on individual professions. Yet there are many common issues...

Let’s work together...Let’s work together...

Making the Connections: Delivering Better Services for Wales

(October 2004.)

This [workforce planning] needs to change rapidly in the next five years with planning across delivery sectors to ensure a coherent approach to skills shortages and innovative ways of recruiting and training people. A skilled, motivated, energetic workforce: from refuse collectors to chief executives, from care assistants to consultants, from receptionists to radiologists is crucial to making public services in Wales among the best in the world.

Across boundaries...Across boundaries...

Beyond Boundaries: Citizen Centred Local Services for Wales

(June 2006)

…we will put in place a strategy for the continual improvement of local services in Wales aimed at embedding the imperatives of efficiency and citizen-centered services in the context of the Wales Spatial Plan. As part of this work, we will review the governance of public service bodies in Wales to ensure their alignment with this improvement agenda.

Transforming Wales...Transforming Wales...

One Wales (June 2007)

The imperatives!The imperatives!Make connections!

We are separate, but in the same place.

Connect beyond boundaries!

Learn and understand what each other does and why (because we are in the same place).

Become one country!

And this place is Wales, where our agenda is led by the citizen.

The Unique case of WalesThe Unique case of Wales

There is no Welsh Public Service Workforce

The Welsh Assembly Government owns the public policy agenda.

But it doesn’t own the workforce - there is no Ministerial portfolio that covers workforce/staff/people/human resource/human capital

Our iconoclastic response?Our iconoclastic response?

• Collaborate - work in partnership

• Lead beyond authority

As Wales has always done

Chartists

Hywel Dda

Owain Glyndwr

Aneurin Bevan

Ann Clwyd etc. etc.

We know about innovative, clever leadership and We know about innovative, clever leadership and totally engaged followers. Drivers: totally engaged followers. Drivers:

Good business - siloism leads to blindness

Fresh territory - being set free

The “quarter-life crisis” - when, exactly do we “prove” ourselves?

It’s stifling in here - boredom

Specialism can be stifling too - the nunnery

Personal development - learning!

To test yourself - am I up to it?

Your success depends on other people’s - are citizens getting what they need?

Making partnerships work - the “sublimation of loathing in pursuit of funding”?!

Anger - frustration can transform.

Strengthening democracy - it’s not apathy, it’s disengagement.

Making a difference - the pleasure of seeing your ideas become reality

With thanks to Julia Middleton (C.E. Common Purpose)

As a result, we have precious experience in working with As a result, we have precious experience in working with ambiguity and complexity that defeats so many othersambiguity and complexity that defeats so many others

Members’ perceptions of who else is a member vary

Member’s perceptions of each others’ status in the collaboration vary

Members are confused over the degree to which an individual representative is representing an organisation

Member’s are confused over which organisation, organisations or other constituency is being represented.

Ambiguity in membership, status and representativeness

There can be complex hierarchies of collaboration

Individuals and members are often members of multiple partnerships with overlapping membership

Departments of an organisation may become involved in partnerships independently of each other.

Collaborations often have complex structures involving partnership staff, executive committees, working groups and so on.

Complexity in structure

And we know all about the constancy of changeAnd we know all about the constancy of changeShifting membership

government policies and other forces cause demise and reforming of organisations

individual representatives come and go or change their role within their organisations

Shifting purpose

government policies and other forces lead to refocusing of collaborative purpose (and hence of membership)

mismatches in members’ agendas lead to continual negation of purpose (and hence membership)

learning from past activity and completing agenda items also leads to continual negotiation

The pace of change

changes can take place frequently, rapidly and sometimes imperceptibly

Managing to Collaborate: The theory and practice of collaborative advantage. Chris Huxham and Siv Vangen (2006)

The case of Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell

Time for a bit of reflection….

Led the whole British war fleet to destruction on the Scilly Isles in 1707

Was a paragon of new methods, respected and trusted to lead beyond authority was very successful (and had a great name) BUT

Because he did not have the information or engagement from his followers that he really, really needed

GoodGood leadership is essential leadership is essential but:but:

“…those who who would hope to understand and practice good leadership, simply cannot, certainly in this day and age, do so without simultaneously understanding and practicing good followership”

Barbara Kellerman in PSMW’s 2008 Spring edition of Catalyst.

Today’s Workforce is Willing but Wary

• 11% of employees are highly engaged.

• 22% are totally disengaged

• 67% are wary Towers Perrin HR Services

Workforce Engagement - Workforce Engagement -

the ultimate goalthe ultimate goal

But what is “wary”?

Increasing evidence that leaders Increasing evidence that leaders are ever more vulnerable to the are ever more vulnerable to the (increasingly critical) “wary”...(increasingly critical) “wary”...

Margaret Thatcher

Paul Wolfowitz

Pervez Musharaf

Conrad Black

Gordon Brown

…..et al

Engagement means also that the fleet won’t simply follow blindly on to the rocks these days, it may well try to save itself.

It may well also keep the knowledge and It may well also keep the knowledge and skills needed to keep off the rocks to skills needed to keep off the rocks to itself or worse, be so disinclined to look itself or worse, be so disinclined to look to innovative, creative solutions.to innovative, creative solutions.

But first it needs to be a fleet

For Wales

Going the same, informed and intelligent way

Together as social partners

Engaged and delivering because there is the trust upon which to build world-class quality services.

Focussing on the citizen

SoSo

This is about the freedom to be engaged and the way leadership liberates engagement because we all know where we are going,

why and how we propose to get there.

What does this liberation cost?

Invested in the Wales talent bank:

Partnership Collaboration

Change management Diversity

Information Knowledge

Creativity Happiness

Experience Social Responsibility

Innovation Respect

Humility Looking out for more... Confidence

(For example) Barclays Bank (with thanks to Grass Roots Ltd). -

A literal case of investment

Time to realise the investment - Time to realise the investment - set it free!set it free!

Then sustain it:

• Together

• Beyond Boundaries

• For public services thatprovides the bedrock for a flourishing Wales

As this document ends, we turn to the Wales which we will attempt to fashion over the next four years - a confident and out-going nation where we recognise the strength of our own identity and the part we can play in the world. We envisage a Wales which is increasingly known and recognised throughout the globe, and in which Wales is a country to which the world is increasingly welcomed.

One Wales 2007

One Wales - One Wales -

One Profession One Profession

andand

One IdentityOne Identity