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Managing people by metrics doesn’t work
A Tweet brought me a link today to the HR Zone web site and an article called Does management by metrics work? It begins On the frame of my kitchen door are marks of the heights of my children, and...
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Bideford fiddles while Rome burns
It’s good to know the spirit of compromise is alive and well in the town council that serves the attractive town of Bideford in North Devon (mission – the exciting to deliver the information you need...
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The ‘Neverseconds’ blog – a modern fairy tale
Once upon a time, there was a wee girl who lived in a beautiful part of one of the most beautiful countries in the world. The school she went to was in a lovely new building that overlooked a sea loch...
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The civil service strikes again – another employee awards ceremony
I expressed scepticism recently about the UK government’s civil service reforms. I mentioned that the name of the new(ish) head of the civil service, Sir Robert Kerslake, was not surprisingly...
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Ed Balls and Zero-Based Budgeting
Not for the first time, a British politician has turned, without acknowledgement, to the good old US of A for an idea. In his speech to this year’s Labour party conference shadow chancellor Ed Balls...
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Government and the school of ‘kick ass’ management
If you’re what the GovLoop web site calls a ‘govvie’ (work it out) you could do worse than dip into their web site occasionally for a piece of cross-cultural enlightenment. They’re an American outfit...
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How quickly do things change? The big issues in local government
Three years ago I left the employ of the last council I worked for when I took their voluntary redundancy shilling, part of the first wave of post-recession downsizing. Time I thought on a trip away...
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All change at the top of the UK civil service
UK prime minister David Cameron’s reshuffle of his Conservative ministers this week was preceded, as these things are, by a swirl of rumour. One odd, in the circumstances, claim was that the head of...
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What can we do with the worst 10% of staff in the civil service?
I was intrigued by an article on Why performance rankings in the civil service are discriminatory that appeared on The Guardian’s web site yesterday, by Sue Ferns, director of communications and...
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Municipal follies
For a long time I’ve wanted an excuse as a (very) ex-town planner to write about completely useless additions to our public spaces. I came across one on the web today – a ‘black blob’ glass entrance to...
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