NPIA leadership training. Thoughts from today

Today I chaired a panel and fed back to a range of presentations from officers and staff on the Senior leadership programme at Bramshill Police College

The task they had as part of their development programme, was to identify how to design a plan to remove 20% from an operational budget within a police force

The groups were made up of Superintendents and Staff equivalents and they worked in syndicates.

 

This is Training for Reality at it's best.

During the exercise delegates were able to use their own research and inputs from Unions and Federation to design a plan and present it to the panel.

Real life issues, real decisions for real leaders.

I won't go into the pros and cons of each presentation but here are some thoughts that I have gained from listening and feeding back to them

·         We cannot make these savings in isolation. Our staff, the community and their representatives should be engaged.

·         A communication strategy is not the same as a consultation strategy

·         Where we are removing people or departments we need to acknowledge the contribution they have made over time and be sensitive to their efforts in achieving the things they have been asked to do, albeit in different circumstances

·         We need to think wide in approaching the task, and think deep looking in detail at the impact and changes that will ensue from a substantial reduction in budgets

·         Every plan should be Impact Assessed to ensure that the resultant change is fair and proportionate and does not create an organisation we did not intend

·         A well created Equality Impact Assessment is not a box to tick, but part of the decision making process

·         We must never forget that every budget line, department or unit cost invariably has a person behind it

·         We need to be able to describe the organisation we are trying to create. Not just a smaller version of what we have now.

·         Collaboration is not a short term fix. The detail required to make it work can be very challenging, but if the effort is put in, the benefits will come out

·         No part of the organisation should be immune on its own merits, but because it meets critical priorities that have been agreed, and that staff are aware of the consequential increase in reduction elsewhere.

Overall some really valuable contributions and much learning for the delegates to take back to their workplace.

This is an impressive formula for developing leaders and one that the private sector should take notice of and borrow.

I am now charged up ready to help deliver the Leading Powerful Partnerships course next week. More of that later

Well done the leadership team at NPIA