Strategy Survival Guide
Strategy Survival Guide
Strategy Survival Guide
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Analysing data - Organisational analysis<br />
In Practice: A Local Authority<br />
A workshop was held for three departments of a local authority to explore the cultural barriers to<br />
introducing a new strategy that was focused on the needs of local users. Each department was<br />
represented by 4-5 managers. The managers were divided into groups and given a blank cultural web<br />
diagram and asked to fill it in. The cultural web produced by those from the Technical Services<br />
Departments, showed that:<br />
• There was a strong commitment to producing a high quality service but that this was due to a<br />
focus on professional standards rather than satisfy users of the service.<br />
• Departments tended to be silos headed by chief officers who worked closely with the elected<br />
members of the local government.<br />
• There was a hierarchical and mechanistic approach to management with a strong emphasis on<br />
structuring and budgeting<br />
• The service was reactive rather than proactive<br />
• There was a blame culture. If something went wrong blame someone else.<br />
Stories<br />
• Leadership style<br />
•Characters<br />
• How things used to<br />
be<br />
Rituals and<br />
Routines<br />
• Committees<br />
• Formal induction<br />
• Deference<br />
• Blame someone<br />
Control<br />
Systems<br />
•Budgetary<br />
•Service Plan<br />
•Complaints<br />
•Contract<br />
compliance<br />
Paradigm<br />
• Good service<br />
• Professional<br />
standing<br />
• Problem solvers<br />
Symbols<br />
• Reserved Parking<br />
• Back door for<br />
staff<br />
•Dress code<br />
Power and<br />
structures<br />
•Chief Officer<br />
•Triumvirate<br />
• Committees<br />
•Elected Members<br />
Organisational<br />
Structures<br />
•Functional<br />
• Hierarchical<br />
•Autocratic<br />
• Devolved branches<br />
The workshop concluded that the "culture was managing the strategy". It was therefore very difficult to<br />
develop a strategy that focused on local issues that crossed departments. The Group then identified<br />
barriers to change, these included: firefighting, departmental barons, the formality of management, stories<br />
of the good old days and the blame culture. The group then re-mapped the cultural web with behaviours<br />
that would be needed to support a new strategy. The team then compared the two cultural webs,<br />
identified the changes that would be required, assessed how difficult it would be to manage those<br />
changes and identified those changes that would have a high impact.<br />
<strong>Strategy</strong> <strong>Survival</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> – <strong>Strategy</strong> Skills<br />
Page 145
Change language