East Midlands Councils

Notes of the Learning & Organisational Development Network

10thDecember 2013 10 am – 12.30pm

Attendees:

NAME / AUTHORITY
Julie Fish / Broxtowe Borough Council
June Haines (JH) / Harborough District Council
Moira Hunt / East Midlands Councils
John Day (JD) / Lincolnshire County Council
Lorraine Powney (LP) / Mansfield District Council
Lizi Thomas (LT) / Nottingham City Council
Helen Richardson (HR) / Nottinghamshire County Council
Steve Whiddett

Apologies:

Jenny Rodriguez / Bassetlaw District Council
Jo Glynn / Boston Borough Council
Kevin Brewin / Charnwood Borough Council
Lynn Smith / Charnwood Borough Council
Simon Hann / Derby City Council
Aileen Hammerton / Derbyshire County Council
Lisa Butterfill / East Midlands Councils
Aime Armstrong / East Northants District Council
Liz Holmes / Lincolnshire County Council
Christine Cooper / North Kesteven District Council
Carol Snell / Rutland County Council
Gavin McCann / Unison
Julie Barton / Wellingborough Council
Agenda Item / Information/Actions
1. / Welcome & Introductions / Information:
There were no matters arising from the last meeting.
Notes from the last meeting on 18th September 2013 / Following on from the presentation at the last network, EMC have arranged a one day 'taster' session facilitated by Shared Service Architects, to take place in February 2014, as an opportunity to find out more about the Collaborative Leadership Programme and to try out some of the tools available. The cost is £175 +VAT per person. For further details please contact Lisa Butterfill on
3 / Current and Future L&D & OD priorities
All / Broxtowe Borough Council:Recently signed up to Learning Pool. Busy with design & development of site and e-learning packages. Draft competency framework designed ready to be included in the learning pool platform.
Harborough District Council: Continuing to embed their values by introducing a Customer responsiveness session and are beginning the move into the building with an online induction for all staff and induction tour. The main focus for this year is on improving customer responsiveness through a continuation of culture change.
Lincolnshire County Council; Senior Leadership development programme commenced, programme for upper middle managers being developed to begin early 2014. Future Delivery of Support Services Programme (contract with Mouchel ends March '15), so consideration to be given as to where next. 'Unwritten Ground Rules' stocktake carried out, Champions leading work on developing local goals. 'GoMAD' (Go Make a Difference) training rolling out. Update of Terms & Conditions (incl. Performance-related increments, sickness absence, job evaluation scheme, allowances, total reward). Currently consulting with unions.
Mansfield/Ashfield District Councils; Have undertaking collaborative leadership programme with senior officers at Mansfield DC and Ashfield DC as a tester to ascertain as to whether to use it as part of the Leadership Programme. If it is used it will be done in house so it can be tailored to meet specific needs.
Nottingham City Council: Undertaken procurement exercise for external to internal providers (except where specialist expertise is required). Using 'Source Nottinghamshire' for procurement services. Doing more of e-learning and blended learning. Undertaking change management and business change management, so are doing 1:1 interviews with managers to find out what their needs are. Talent Management initiative – doing internal job matching to re-employ own staff who are at risk.
Nottinghamshire County Council: Undertaking leading change and managing change programmes in house - happy to share.
Action:
MH to resend the key priorities document
4 / High Performance:Making all our actions count
Steve Whiddett / Steve Whiddett, a business psychologist and consultant lead an interactive, practical session which explored examples from real work situations using a practical framework for analysing, developing and managing organisations, which can deliver high performance.
A lot of activity in organisations can be unproductive and some can be counterproductive. Not through ill intent but because work is planned and managed with a limited understanding of what shapes our actions. When this inefficiency goes unnoticed and unchallenged, it ensures that organisations achieve far less than they should be able to achieve with the staff and resources they invest in each day.
Areas of focus for the discussion to ensure that an organisation can be managed to make everyone’s actions count, included:
understanding the causes of issues in performance
paying appropriate attention to the symptoms of performance issues
using the symptoms of performance issues to find and deal with underlying causes
understanding how organisations contribute to many of the behaviours they want to avoid
assessing how effectively an organisation promotes actions needed to meet its objectives.
Below are some comments from of the network attendees:
“Steve’s presentation was really practical and informative and supported some of the areas that we have actually been working on in our council. It was really thought provoking in terms of change and behaviours in change, particularly around leading from the top.”
5 / Any other business / The next network meeting will focus on Learning Pool and IDOX Information Solutions. You will meet with Learning Pool to make progress on opportunities for regional collaboration and hear from IDOX about a complete suite of online funding portals that enable local authorities, business support organizations, educational institutions and community sector support bodies to provide a cost-effective funding information service in their area.
6 / Date of the next meeting for 2013/14 / 26th March 2014
10.00 – 14.00 @ EMC, Melton Mowbray
Lunch will be provided
Dates for meetings in 2014/15 are to be confirmed..