3 v 45: The three most important things I’ve learned about culture change
Over a 25 year career, Isabelle Trowler has worked within children and family services across local government, the civil service, the voluntary sector, and for her own organisation. The roles have taught her a great deal about resilience, remaining upbeat, and facing hard challenges.
Isabelle became the chief social worker for Children and Families in 2013. The title of her talk at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference—“3 versus 45”— refers to her general tendency to speak about 45 things. For this talk, Isabelle sought to condense the lessons she’s learned into three main points she thinks everyone should take on board.
Read the transcript and watch Isabelle’s full talk below.
Why you should give responsibility to frontline practitioners
Isabelle Trowler has been working within children and family services for 25 years, and it hasn’t always been easy. She’s had to consistently rail against the imposed procedures and rules that inhibit children’s social care workers.
In this four minute clip from the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference, Isabelle explains what happened when she started to delegate the decision-making as close to the frontline as possible.
Build a business, create a great culture, win awards and make a profit
Dominic Monkhouse knows life is short and he doesn’t want to waste it. Dom developed the UK divisions of the web-hosting businesses, Rackspace and Peer 1, and tried to make them exciting places to work by giving employees freedom within clear guidelines and heeding the “recruit for attitude, train for skill” precept.
Dom’s acutely aware of how little time we have to make a difference. In his talk at the 2017 Happy Workplaces CEO conference, Dom poses the question, “What are you going to make a difference in? Who with?”
Read the transcript and watch Dom’s full talk below.
Implementing Happy Principles in a Public Sector Mutual
Brendan O’Keefe was inspired by the Happy Manifesto and sought to implement its ideas at Epic CiC—an education support public mutual, which was founded in response to the changing landscape of public sector funding.
Brendan knew the organisation’s existing systems were hampering performance and inhibiting staff success. Speaking at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference, Brendan explains how, as managing director, he took a more active role in stimulating great results and growing a happy workplace.
Read the transcript and watch Brendan’s full talk below.
Doing Things Differently in Children’s Services
As Head of Children’s Services at Monmouthshire County Council, Tracy Jelfs faced the difficult task of improving KPIs, reining in spending and creating a happy, engaged work environment. This was all happening concurrently with the commitment to deliver quality services to vulnerable children and young people.
Speaking at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference, Tracy details her experiences tackling these twin challenges – a task she ranks as the hardest of her professional career.
Read the transcript and watch Tracy’s full talk below.
Building a Culture of Trust at the National Audit Office
The National Audit Office exists to inspect public expenditure on behalf of parliament. It does so by auditing accounts and analysing organisational efficiency in order to determine the extent to which the given organisation is getting value for money.
Susan Ronaldson is the NAO’s Director for Engagement and Change. She was joined by Steve Mirfin, Head of Skills and Talent, at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference to speak about the measures the NAO has taken to get the best out of its people.
Read the transcript and watch the full talk below.
The GDS ‘It’s OK’ List
The culture is all around you in the Government Delivery Service office, says Alex Segrove, and the organisation understands the importance of internal communication.
In this three minute clip from the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference, Alex outlines how GDS has established an agile workplace that’s highly responsive to the user, based on principles of trust and freedom.
How the Government Digital Service creates a happy, diverse workplace
Alex Segrove is the Delivery Lead for the Government Delivery Service (GDS) – the digital transformation unit within the Cabinet Office. The role requires Alex to work in partnership with developers, designers, product managers, quality assurance people and many more.
GDS are guided by 11 core principles, which Alex outlines in her talk at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector conference. Alex believes that, by adhering to these principles, GDS are doing the right thing.
Watch the full talk below.
Tips for Dealing with Difficult People
As a facilitator, I spend a lot of time trying not to describe people as difficult. I try to put a positive spin on it: it’s the behaviour, not the person; people are trying to do the best they can with what they have and who they are. But sometimes, I know that, when it happens to me, my response is that the person I find difficult is just difficult.
In this blog, Paul explains the cycle of conflict and gives some advice for dealing with ‘difficult’ people, both at home and at work.
Creating Happy, Engaged Workplaces in a Traditional Industry
Gemma Beadle, the HR Manager at Advanced Technology Services UK, has a passion for wellbeing in the workplace. Joined by ATS Site Manager, Damien O’Neill, Gemma spoke at the 2017 Happy Workplaces conference about ATS’s achievements in creating a happy workplace.
While there are various obstacles in the way of creating a happy workplace, Gemma says ATS are committed to doing so, believing “it’s the right thing to do for your people and your organisation.”
View Gemma and Damien’s full talk below.
