Yes, but...... It was a well written blog, containing a lot of truth (though not much evidence to support the assertions, though perhaps that is allowable in a blog) and a rather apocalyptic vision of life in the public sector over the next few years. Basically, it is going to be bloody whichever party forms a government after the next election, you seem to be saying, it is simply a matter of different timing: earlier and sharper pain (and cuts) under Cameroonians, and longer-drawn out pain (and cuts) under Brown or Brown/Clegg. And, I guess, a variant of the foregoing under Cameron/Clegg, if that is feasible.

I think everyone in the public sector is bracing themselves for what is to come. It would be a very optimistic soul who thought that their organisation would be exempt, though some may think that they will be given some protection in comparison with others because of the nature of their work (e.g. the NHS). It remains to be seen if this is wishful thinking.

Are you right in your analysis of the failings of public sector managers and employee relations? It felt a little too glib and all-embracing to me, but let us accept that there are glaring weaknesses of the type you identify, and that they are widespread. The 600,000 job cuts will not, of themselves, improve anything (apart from the saving to the public purse) and are very likely to damage many public services in a way which most customers for them will find very regrettable (I won’t say “unacceptable” because most of them will be accepted, albeit reluctantly).

What I found most unsatisfactory about your piece was that, having identified the “root cause” of the under-performance of the public sector, you don’t offer any suggestions on how to address them. And, heaven knows, we will need them.

“Never waste a good crisis” was a quote from an Obama aide, I believe, and it seems very apposite in this context. So what can the many HR professionals in the public sector do to make best use of this opportunity? Where are the examples of good practice and leadership which ought to be widely known? Shouldn’t the profession, or at least some of its leading lights, be having a public debate about the best ways to ensure that, after the pain that is to come for many of our organisations, they come through better, stronger and more efficient? Isn’t this probably the most pressing and important issue facing public sector HR professionals at the moment? And, if so, what will CIPD do to help its members?
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Terry is absolutely right. Detail and practical solutions are key. My blog is based on an unpublished background report prepared for the CIPD’s public policy department. The CIPD will be publishing its considered ideas on public sector reform in the new year.
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Yes - and likewise from me a massive but....!
Albeit as Terry indicated it is a blog, but nevertheless if this is the quality of analysis and the best of suggestions that can be provided by a professor of economics and an advisor to the CIPD, then I despair of both economists and the CIPD to provide any possible answer to this conundrum!

If however, this was meant to be a stimulant for serious and ongoing discussion on this topic then I might concede it was very clever - except that from my experience of these contributions and the paucity of comments, this will fizzle out and nothing will change other than perhaps John feeling good about having got this one off his chest!

What is astonishing in the blog is the glib repetition of his "view" of the problem, the total lack of any evidence or data, the confusion between symptom and cause, the absence of true root cause analysis, and most surprising of all the complete absence of method for tackling the problem and seeking a solution - to quote W. Edwards Deming - by what method shall this be undertaken?

John, the problem is not managers, not trade unions, nor the employees, though professional producers (both within and outwith the organisation) might make a contribution to the problem. The true root cause of the problem lies in the system or design of the work - great people in a c**p system, the system always wins. Targets, lack of autonomy, the wrong measures, the wrong thinking are indeed the causes and not the symtoms of why the system isn't working. How do I know this, I've worked with employees and went to get knowledge, data and evidence that has been incontrovertable - the system is the problem!

Whilst some organisations in the public sector may not be performing well, I and others have considerable experience of many organisations in the private sector performing equally badly. So what does this prove? It proves that all sectors of the economy lack and have lacked for decades any real method to change thinking - it is an organisational and universal disease.

In HR we ignore Herzberg, Macgregor, Kohn and others, in management we ignore Deming and Ohno (of Toyota TPS fame) and we also ignore Systems Thinking methodologies such as the Vanguard Method. If you really want to see the difference this method makes, take a look at the success of Edinburgh City Council in last week's Guardian awards for the Public Sector - true transformation in service, reduced costs and imporved morale. Take a good look at the evidence, it can be done and in the public sector too.
If you want more evidence go to the Vanguard websites and why not speak to John Seddon directly:
http://www.systemsthinking.co.uk/home.asp
http://www.thesystemsthinkingreview.co.uk/

Andy
A systems thinker
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It is always flattering to be told one is right, but I'm not really reassured by John's response. It is good that his assertions have got evidence behind them, even though they are not yet published. So thinking at the CIPD is at least being devoted to this issue.

However, I would suggest that there is an urgency to this which doesn't really seem to have been factored into the plan. We are matter of a few months away from the General Election and (probably) a new government convinced of the need for immediate, drastic action which will focus on implementing public expenditure savings on a scale most of us have never seen before. If we don't plan now for how this might be done, we will be condemned to the 'slash and burn' methods which we would all want to avoid, because there will be no time to do anything else.

We have very little planning time now for even conventional alternatives. And if we are to support or propose something genuinely innovative (e.g. Andy's suggestions on systems) it will take much longer. So I would urge the CIPD to move quickly on this, or at least open a debate for public sector HR professionals on the challenge ahead. Something for some of the Forums to discuss, or a specially focused conference? There may be other, better, approaches (I rather hope that there are!). Otherwise the CIPD work will inhabit a parallel universe of theory while the rest of us will be focusing on damage limitation in the real, and very demoralised, world.

Terry
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The test for the CIPD’s message is ‘Will it work?’ The report’s final paragraph may hold the answer: ‘The recommendations have been made before – sadly all too often in critical reports following major service failures. There now needs to be a concerted effort to make them happen’. In other words, if only we push harder this time - the last refuge of the frustrated and unimaginative. You would have thought that someone might be screaming ‘you might be pushing at the wrong thing’. The CIPD is its own worst enemy. It needs a futures function - a thorn in its side – whose role is to think the unthinkable, and say the unsayable; not keep repeating itself. It could make a start by wondering why there is resistance to its message. Next would be to embrace systems thinkers, chaos theorists and Newtonian naysayers. Abandon the individualistic, hierarchical-enforcing, people-control agenda. Manage the organisation’s performance shortcomings and not individuals’ appraisals. Admit that you cannot turn an organisation on by turning the people on. If the fishtank is no longer the fine attraction it once was, clean up what surrounds the fish rather than polishing the fish in the same old dirty water. Sadly, ‘people management’ keeps taking our gaze back to the fish. If they are sluggish, management’s job is to improve their system and set their energies free.

Bill Tate
systemic-leadership.blogspot.com
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