Like many in our sector I was interested in the NAO
report on universal credit yesterday. It was pretty damning. But what I thought
was particularly interesting was its insights into leadership and what our CEOs
should learn from that.
The NAO identified a culture problem in DWP. As the NAO
said,
"The programme itself was allowed to develop a
fortress culture where only good news was circulated, and issues weren't really
identified."
And in response to the criticisms the Secretary of State
was perhaps too quick to identify civil servants at fault - which simply
reinforces a blame culture that inhibits proper analysis and debate internally.
No CEO can afford a culture where only good news is
transmitted upwards and where staff who identify problems get the blame or are discouraged.
Or just where the word around the place is “keep your head down".
We saw this problem in parts of the health service and
indeed part of the problem that the Care Quality Commission faced was its
attempt to suppress bad news and critical reports. It’s never a clever strategy
and often exacerbates the problem.
A good CEO will surround themselves with loyal people,
but people they trust. Trust to tell them unpalatable news. Its only when you
get a full picture of what is happening in your organisation; warts and all,
that you can take the necessary steps to make changes. Praise is good but you
need to know when things are going wrong.
One of the talents you must nurture in your organisation
is "upward management" There are good ways to impart bad news. And
bad ones. A good Director is one who is able to raise problems with a CEO and
get them discussed. But a CEO will need to have Directors who are loyal so that
you can trust them to be telling you problems so they can be sorted rather than
to stitch you up! And the way you react to bad news (do you "shoot the
messenger"?)will be telling.
Of course you can never assume that mistakes will not be
down to incompetence and that you will need to tackle that, sometimes with
staff having to leave. But that cannot be allowed to develop into a culture
where it is thought that if you raise a problem you will not be thanked, and
potentially blamed.
Early warnings from senior staff or those at the sharp
end should alert you to problems where you as the Leader will need to take
action. I'm afraid that politicians are far too often too quick to blame civil
servants and so inevitably civil servants keep their heads down. Let's learn from
this episode.
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