Month: May 2010

LocalGovCamp Yorkshire and Humber

All Aboard the Great Yorkshire & Humber LocalGovCamp Train!

Departing from: The National Railway Museum in York (only 2hrs from London)

Departure date: Saturday 12 June 2010

For tickets and more information: www.localgovcamp-yh.co.uk

This first LocalGovCamp under the new Coalition Government will undoubtedly see some big issues debated, not least the future of local government itself.

The landscape has changed considerably since Dave organised the first event in Birmingham last June and our focus is now firmly on achieving more with less, or even less with less. So what of technology, social media, co-design and citizen participation? What about new ways of working enabled by technology and what of our digital future and vision?

If these questions are of interest, or you have some of your own, hop on the train and join in the debate in beautiful York. Bring an open mind, some passion and some ideas to share and explore. Bring a sense of fun too, it is a Saturday after all.

LocalGovCamp Yorkshire & Humber will also feature short parallel work streams for elected members on the use of social media, sessions being led by colleagues from Kirklees with input from Cllr Tim Cheetham (Barnsley), Cllr Simon Cooke (Bradford) and Ingrid Koehler (IDeA & Connected Councillor Programme).

If you work in local government perhaps you can ensure your Democratic Services colleagues inform your elected members of this opportunity.

The event is FREE for all to attend and as a bonus we’ll be having a World Cup themed after party to celebrate (we hope) victory for England in their first match!

You can book your tickets now: www.localgovcamp-yh.eventbrite.com

Twitter: @localgovcampYH and #LGCYH

UKGovCamp group: http://www.ukgovcamp.com/groups/yorkshire-and-the-humber-localgovcamp/

See you in York – WooooOOOoooWooooOOOooo!

Open Leadership

Open LeadershipAm reading an excellent book at the moment – Open Leadership by Charlene Li.

Fans of dead-tree web 2.0 reading will be familiar with Groundswell, which Li co-authored and was chock-full of interesting case studies – mostly from the US private sector – around how collaborative relationships with customers, often using the web as a platform, lead to success.

Here’s some of the blurb for Open Leadership:

Open Leadership reveals step-by-step, with illustrative case studies and examples from a wide-range of industries and countries, how to bring the precision of this new openness to both inside and outside the organization. The author includes suggestions that will help an organization determine an open strategy, weigh the benefits against the risk, and have a clear understanding of the implications of being open. The book also contains guidelines, policies, and procedures that successful companies have implemented to manage openness and ensure that business objectives are at the center of their openness strategy.

It’s a great read too. One of my favourite bits is where Li lists early on five new rules for leaders to bear in mind when managing relationships:

  1. Respect that your customers and employees have power
  2. Share constantly to build trust
  3. Nurture curiosity and humility
  4. Hold openness accountable
  5. Forgive failure

Hear, hear!

You can get a flavour of the book with this free snippet:

Hack Warwickshire

Warwickshire County Council‘s approach to open government and IT strategy is impressive. Check out their IT strategy blog, where they detail their use of the cloud, for example, and their open data site. Great stuff, and good to see it happening at a council where I used to work! I spent a year as a Business Analyst there, between 2005 and 2006.

On the open data blog, Warwickshire have announced a competition, called Hack Warwickshire:

After the recent launch of our Warwickshire Open Data web site, we are really keen to see the new and innovative uses that our information can be put to. Whatever your idea, whether it is an incisive data visualisation, a web mashup, an app for your mobile or a way of integrating with social networking – this competition is a way for you to get involved with the open data revolution, build something cool and possibly get your hands on a brand new iPad with which to show your winning entry off.

Sounds good to me. Well worth following what these guys are up to.

#lgworkforce – Sharing management successfully

Chris Elliott, Head of Transformation at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and High Peak Borough Council shows how to make the most of a joint chief executive, how to bring services together to save costs and how to best spread best practice.

  • Both excellent councils, semi-rural market town environment. Similar population, adjacent boundaries.
  • But different counties and government regions!
  • It ‘feels’ different. Everyone has to work differently. Greater emphasis on people. Challenging every activity.
  • Double the number of members!
  • Was considered a takeover at one stage but no longer
  • Cultural differences
  • Flexibility is key
  • More secure by the day
  • The role of management – the tiers of management – what should the be doing? Directors, Heads of Service, Service Managers. Strategic, transformational, operational
  • Enablers – IT, procurement, change. Also legal, HR and comms.
  • Methodology, toolsets and quick wins
  • Resource strategy alignment
  • Got external consultants to produce high level business case
  • Programme began quickly (be quick and be bold!)
  • Potential projects mapped in terms of difficulty and transformative impact
  • Member led initiative – concordat –  2 pager – and governance. Need for scrutiny and reality check
  • Sense of urgency driven by budget issues. Message to staff – support this or there may have to be compulsory redundancies.
  • Importance of engaging stakeholders
  • Situation now: joint CEO and Snr m’ment team, joint ICT, procurement and transformation teams, joint property services, joint environmental health team, joint grounds maintenance service.
  • Measures: VFM, customer service, public recognition and satisfaction, improved quality of life for residents
  • Observations:
    • exception processes everywhere
    • Measuring the wrong things
    • Make waste visible
    • Help people to let go
    • ICT is a barrier – or is it? – Now at 35% shared IT systems. 80% by next year
    • Management competency
    • Use lean leanly
    • Procurement = 50% of budgets
    • Simple is better
  • Service heads have to own transformation process
  • Don’t create IT wish list
  • Pain is inevitable
  • Two councils = easy benchmarking
  • Don’t forget the supply chain
  • People first
  • Think process not tech
  • Be ruthless with waste
  • Make status quo unacceptable
  • Kotter – 8 reasons transformation projects fail
  • Grow your own, be prepared to learn
  • It’s easy to complicate things
  • Know when to stop
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