Last week I was invited to do a guest blog by Penelope Gibbs of Transform Justice. It is a national charity working for a fair, humane, open and effective justice system. Between 2012 and 2015 I was head of police custody for the Isle of Man, and in that time took the unit forward on a number of levels. But I’d always looked at it - as I tend to do with everything - as unfinished business. What else could be done? How could we make it better still? is the service we are providing today, however excellent, really going to be fit for purpose in five years time. Here’s a link to what I wrote.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/derek-flint-3881bb32_with-thanks-for-the-invitation-from-transform-activity-6697778268948455424-Og_V

I’ve been surprised at the positivity of the responses, and just how many people see the principles contained as a potentially good plan. I’m a disciple of George Bernard Shaw’s statement that ‘Progress depends on the unreasonable man’, and that disruptive and progressive thinking has to take place if the world is to go forward. But sometimes, just getting the conversations going can be the hardest part. To use another great quote from Churchill, ‘Now is a time for men of force and vision’ We live in the most unprecedented of times. This can work both in favour, and against change. On one hand, the collapse of some markets has simply resulted in people trying to claw back to that position, whereas in other cases the bare wasteland of the post apocalypse has seen creativity and innovation reign.

I used to be very vocal with my thinking in my former career, no matter how radical the proposal might have been. There were a very small number of similarly creative colleagues, who you could safely have the most deep ranging and thoroughly energising conversations with. On the flipside, there was the general conservatism of public service, where thinking was almost actively discouraged. I remember a particular instance during the 2008 crash, where we were all tasked with ‘saving money’. It was quite difficult in my own sector, where approaching 90% of our budget was wages, but there were certainly wins elsewhere. I’d done a fag packet calculation that emailing Government wage slips, instead of posting them, would save something like £38,000 a year. Now that is a lot of money today, as it was back then. Excitedly, I phoned someone at Treasury; “Hey, with a simple bit of organisation, we can save all this money!” The reply;

“We’ve not been tasked to look at that.”

Just read that again. “We’ve not been tasked to look at that.” To this day, I still cannot reconcile that response. And to this day, wage slips are still posted out. So that is nearly half a million quid of public money that has been unnecessarily spent since then. What else could that have been used for? The civil service is allowed to operate like this for some reason - after all, it’s not ‘real money’, is it? But in business, if you run with a culture which stifles creativity, then you might be lucky to survive. so what can we do to help?

Set the Scene

Regular buzz groups, where the floor is open for nothing other than improvement ideas. The best of these can be easily identified, and shouldn’t be confined to ‘saving money’. How can we make the working environment better, or the working day that bit more bearable. Try and find a ‘star facilitator’ who is really good at running these sessions, and motivating people to take ownership and create success.

A voice for the quiet ones

Introverts have great ideas too! But how can they have their voice heard? they might not even be comfortable with leading on a killer initiative either. Take time to have one to one’s with them, and where a great idea is bubbling, can you pair them up with someone who might me keener to take the lead?

Unconditional Positive Regard

There is nothing that stifles ideas more than them being flippantly dismissed, or ridiculed. People create on wildly different canvases, and what might look right on theirs, may not on yours at that stage. Some people put the colours on first, others the lines and it is important to understand that. If some thing really wild is suggested in an open session, inviting the contributor to perhaps do a little more development to bring it back to the group later, whilst valuing the effort they’ve made, can ensure they don’t feel unloved. Following up with a quick one to one, to coach the stuff in their head into a more audience friendly format is also time well spent. With some ideas, they are simply ahead of their time, and helping the creator to hold on to it for now means that it can be resurrected by them or you at a later date, making sure they are credited with the initiative.

Rewards

Money is tight in most organisations right now, but cold hard cash is still a great motivator! If someone makes a really good contribution, that perhaps saves money, isn’t it right they are rewarded with a piece of the action? Recognition in any form is a huge plus. It makes people feel included and valued, and when others see it being done, it can help to encourage them too.

So remember to keep the ideas pot topped up. Your people are your greatest asset, and are effectively a paid resource! Make the most of them.

Derek Flint Cert.Ed., MCIPR

As someone who gave a significant chunk of their life to public service in the office of constable, I’ve found myself reflecting on the tragic events that resulted in the death of George Floyd.

George Floyd is a martyr. The world changed that day -and needs to change. Whereas people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf, and it remains a fact of life that people will continue to fight with the cops, either for sport, or at the point of arrest in an attempt to evade custody, it therefore follows that the police will have to continue to confront such situations, and apply reasonable force to take control. On 25th May, 2020, that application was not ‘weighed to a nicety’. It rarely is. Having to fight with people who want to fight is an ugly business. But once control is established, the role of the state changes; to make sure the person is OK. That didn’t happen, it was wrong, and nobody will disagree with that. Sit quietly for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, and just how wrong that continued application of force was, becomes shocking in the extreme.

But what of the aftermath? That has caused me to shout at the telly in equal measure, as people shout equally as loudly to ‘Defund the police!’ Do they really understand what it actually means? It is such a clumsy concept, that to knee jerk, and take it at face value is likely to create more problems than it ever would solve. However, if we can all just take some time to think this through, there is a lot to learn.

The issue, first and foremost, is that too many societies have become over-reliant on the policing function. This manifests itself in many forms. Maybe it is to quell the insurrection of the masses in some tinpot dictatorship, or perhaps, as in the UK by virtue of the service’s own inability to resist mission creep and a desire to save the world on a daily basis. Neither is right; in the former, the function tends to be carried out by poorly paid, equipped and trained individuals with focus on the combative, rather than the soft skills. In the latter, the police become all things to all people, plugging the gaps in the shortcomings of other departments such as mental health, and social care, doing the best job they can, but equally so, nowhere near the job that a properly funded and supported dedicated professional could do.

So how does that parallel to your own organisation? Are you caught in a continuum of high staff turnover because its all about the numbers, or are your staff nowhere near as effective as they could be because they are jack of all trades, but master of none? In society, it leads to cases like George’s. In business, it can lead to significant failures, which hopefully would not be so tragic.

Lets look at that societal over-reliance again. I’d wager that if the UK police force was to vanish overnight, that lawlessness on the streets would actually be a very small part of the impact. It would be the effect on all the other areas that the service has crept into that would really be noticed. So much is picked up by them, just because they have never been able to say ‘no’. So how are things at your place? Have you built an over-reliance on particular departments, or even individuals, just because of their willingness and ability to suck up problems and challenges? If you have, its a problem waiting to have its day, and that won’t be pretty.

Defunding the police is actually about building a better balance in society to start to address its fundamental problems with more vigour. Policing costs a huge amount to service, but what if that budget was in fact better balanced? What if the police stopped having to go to routine calls for help from mental health sufferers, just because there was nobody else there to do it. What if a chunk of the budget therefore went towards properly funding the mental health service? And what about deprived inner city communities, where deprivation and lack of opportunity leads to an unbreakable spiral into criminality. When the police are active in those communities, they are too often seen as the enemy, as they simply try and stem the tsunami of recidivism that costs lives and blights society. Could the money spent doing that not be better spent on investment in the built environment, social care, education, and incentivising business to create jobs and opportunity, thus creating a better future for disadvantaged young people?

How does that compare to your own set up? Are you focussed on doing the right things, or is the organisation now moving so fast that it has developed a ‘being’ all of its own? It’s great being say, a successful mover of people around the globe, but if the way you treat people on the customer service side is the pits, customers aren’t going to hang around for long when something better comes along.

Now, here’s the bad news; Its not that simple, and this is nothing new! Back in the late 90’s, I was a faciltator for the introduction of something called ‘Problem Oriented Policing’. Its a great concept on the face of it, where the cops look at a ‘right first time’ approach. Solve the issue, rather than having to go back multiple times. Doesn’t that make business sense too? But we know that the problems that exist today are multiple times worse than they were three decades ago. They are so systemic and deep rooted that even if we started tomorrow, they may take one or two generations to resolve. And that is why you can’t just suddenly ‘Defund’ - you have to double-fund. You might not be surprised to know that in the UK, the much vaunted Problem-oriented approach didn’t really work. It is because you effectively need two police forces; one to start off down that worthy route, whilst the other stands ready to keep a lid on things whilst you are at it.

How often do we see this in business and other organisations? A new department is created, but the budget is cut from somewhere else to make the books balance. Then we are surprised when things veer off course, profits drop, or customer service ratings plummet. The reality is that in the short to medium term, there’s a need to double fund, rather than de-fund. Over time, the new functions will make the difference we desire, and the old ways can gradually be phased out. But this all takes money, and a massive capacity for strategy. Adjustments will always be needed along the way, but it will need steely resolve by the executive, a solid plan and the most brilliant communications ever devised. That applies equally, whether it is constructing a brave new society, or regaining control of a business that may have lost its way.

The world needs to change massively in its whole outlook, and how the state services the community. But business can have similar needs, and re-evaluating purpose and delivery can lead to betterment. In both cases, expecting it to happen overnight, without spending money, is folly in the extreme.

Derek Flint Cert. Ed., MCIPR

Yesterday I spent a few hours in the pleasant company of some former police colleagues, as we gathered to remember our departed brother Richie Lloyd. You may have read the blog I dedicated to him a few months ago ( https://www.kbotraining.com/blog/loss ) It was an eclectic mix of some long retired, and others still serving. And as usual, when such an event takes place, all that is wrong with ‘the job’ is put right. Or at least it is in our opinion!

One of the conversations I had was with one of the chaps who was on my Roads Policing team and it led me to reflect upon how crucial ‘purpose’ is. I still find it slightly unsettling when speaking to clients today about their organisation’s raison d’etre. So many just ‘haven’t got round’ to establishing a mission statement. They might be operating quite successfully, but when you try and drill things down there really is no actual focus on either where they are going, or what they are trying to achieve.

We had a simple one in the police force I was in; “Keeping people safe”. Why was that important? one of the big reasons was the rather unfortunate habit the police have of trying to be all things to all people. It really isn’t a sustainable business model and is quite a lot to do with why they end up in a pickle from time to time. Having a simple mission statement like that made things so much easier. Every time someone came up with a new initiative, the question was asked; “Will doing this ‘keep people safe?’” . If the answer was ‘yes’, the next question was “but how much will it keep people safe?” If the answer was “Lots!” then it was worth backing, and got done. Otherwise, it might fall down the list of priorities. But it helped keep things broadly in lane and helped avoid mission creep.

It is the same with clear strategy. In Roads Policing it was very simple; Improve standards, reduce casualties and deny criminals the use of the road. If anything you were doing sat outside of that, you weren’t doing your job. And it is the same in whatever role we carry out; we have to understand why we are here. The Sociologist Durkheim posited a theory of ‘Anomie’. He argued people had to see a connection with what they were doing. Does the worker putting a widget in a thingummybob ever get to see the finished machine that it is a key component in. Similarly, in an ever more fractured and disenfranchised society, citizens need that clear understanding of how they fit in.

Within our own organisations, it will be a key element of recruitment and more importantly retention. And for those working for us, critical in keeping them engaged, productive and on track. Having simple touchstones to keep people reminded of the purpose will be a big factor.

So if you have a wizard of an internal coach, who can facilitate such a project, now is the time to get it done. And if you haven’t, there are lots of us out in the freelance world that would love to help.

Derek Flint Cert. Ed., MCIPR

Last week’s blog was titled ‘Apres Moi, le deluge’ which is the motto of 617 squadron, which it took after it’s incredible dams raid on 17th May 1943. Having listened to a great podcast this week on Richard Rierson’s ‘A Dose of Leadership’ series, it set me thinking some more; At what age do we become effective leaders?

Richard was talking to a chap called Scott Miller, author of “Management Mess to Leadership Success”. I’ve not read the book, but it may well make it on to my reading list in the near future. Scott works for Franklin Covey. His boss, Dr Stephen Covey wrote the seminal ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Scott talks about being ‘lured into leadership’ as a young man and how, on reflection, it probably wasn’t a good idea! Even Richard, who was a Marine Corps pilot and had access to some of the best leadership training in the world recognised parallels in his own journey, reckoning it wasn’t until he was in his forties that he became a truly effective leader. It led me to reflect on my own leadership journey in comparison to these two guys from very different backgrounds, both recognising that at times, there was no doubt damage they inflicted on their way up the ladder, to people who were exposed to their ‘leadership’.

Mea culpa!

From a personal point of view, I was a bit of a basket case. I went to RAF College Cranwell as an Officer Cadet as a fresh-faced 19 year old who as it turned out was rather prone to tibia stress fractures. As a result I didn’t complete my commission training, and after some time in the wilderness I joined the police. (I do sometimes wonder if the RAF had started my deconstruction but the reconstruction was never completed?) The police service is a job where without realising it, you have to become a leader from day one, not necessarily of teams but certainly as a leader in your community. People will always look towards you for guidance on their worst day. The training at the time really didn’t equip you well for that, and certainly not for the next logical step of becoming a sergeant. For that role; you sat a couple of exams, and that was it; no coach, no mentor, no course. Here are some stripes - get on with it!

Learning by trial and error is fine, as long as the damage you can do is contained. And that damage can be to yourself as much as others. I was much the same when I was promoted to Inspector; some exams to sit, but no courses to speak of. I did have some coaching, but it was sporadic and on reflection, not much of it was actually great. I was a chaotically creative personality, who needed structures and frameworks. in the absence of effective and progressive learning and training, it was a very hard slog, especially as someone who was a bit different and didn’t always side with the status quo. Some stuff I did really well, but we tend to be better remembered for the plane crashes rather than the good landings. It was really only as I got older, with a fairly substantial library of mistakes to have learned from, that I got better at being a leader. I’m still not comfortable with the fact that it happened like that, and that others and myself had to suffer along the way. It is the main driver behind the coaching and training that I offer today; I genuinely want people to have an easier time than I did!

So where does this fit in with a tenuous link to the Dambusters?

Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar was just 24 years of age when he led one of the most daring, dangerous and audacious raids in the history of military aviation. during pilot training he was rated as average, but as a flying companion below average, due to his often rude and condescending manner. When you joined as a pilot back in those days, you would receive as little as 8 weeks initial officer training before progressing to flying schools for up to 2 years. You were either ‘the right stuff’ to be an officer, or you weren’t. Two of the nineteen aircraft despatched on the Dams Raid were actually flown by non-commissioned Flight Sergeants. But importantly, right at the front - first man in, was Gibson.

Even at that age, he was a hugely experienced bomber pilot. Wing Commanders at this age weren’t uncommon, often being referred to as ‘the old man’ behind their backs due to the withering attrition rate of crews lost in combat. He had done as much if not more than any of the men under his command, and could do it just as well, if not better. He was uncompromising, bombastic and in some ways a bit of a bully. Today, in whatever setting, be it the armed services or in civvy street, he would likely last about five minutes before being shown the door.

Does that mean that a 24 year old couldn’t step up to the bar today and run an operation of the magnitude of that raid? In the first instance, it’s unlikely that they would have to, with squadron and mission command being executed by much older officers in real terms. But that isn’t to say that they couldn’t. Commission training is now 24 weeks at Cranwell before moving on to branch training, and companies and organisations that are truly investing in being better are making sure that their people are far more equipped for the leadership role than they were in Gibson’s day. They would achieve the objective through a much different approach, still demonstrating technical proficiency but achieving results through taking their people with them in a much different context than ‘there’s a war on old boy!’

When we are faced with the exceptional, any one of us are capable of being exceptional. The rough edges are more acceptable in the context of the prevailing emergency, but for most of us, we aren’t thrust into that situational theatre. We must be in it for the long game, and that is why it is so vital, right now, for every organisation to make sure their developing leaders are invested in. For the modern world, it is better for everyone if the leader can step into the painful field refreshed, well equipped and with his people in the same frame as a result of the fruits of their development under them. That way, the journey through the tiers of being in charge are less stressful for both the leader and the led. That has to develop better people to fulfil the very highest level roles with a minimum of collateral damage on the journey.

We all reach our leadership prime at different stages. Organisations have a duty to help us reach it well!

Derek Flint Cert.Ed. MCIPR

https://www.doseofleadership.com/scott-miller/

The phrase in French, above is the motto of 617 Squadron, who you will recall took on a mission to breach several dams in Germany during the Second World War. It was an unbelievable feat of engineering, planning, logistics, skill and bravery against a backdrop of attempting to defeat an enemy of seemingly indomitable might. It was an article in this week’s Daily Telegraph that brought it once again to mind. (“Zombie Managers are sleepwalking into a rude awakening”. Matthew Lynn, D.T. Sat 27 Jun 2020).

Matthew Lynn writes about what I tend to refer to as ‘Non-Jobs’. ‘Time ninja’, ‘retail jedi’, ‘content hero’ are just some of the ones he cites. There has been massive growth in areas that we seemed to get on OK without before; Public relations jobs in the UK have gone up from 39,000 to 57,000 in the last decade, and according to Harvard Business Review, over $20bn a year is spent by organisations on ‘Corporate Social Responsibilty’. I say ‘organisations, because this isn’t just the private sector - it is prolific within public bodies too. This is what they are spending your taxes on!

After a couple of years in the police service in the early 1990’s, I developed a pretty clear sense of what was actually needed; It was all about the front line. That work which was being done at the ground level, in neighbourhoods was key to building good relationships with the public, and meeting the basic tenet of policing as set out by Robert Peel in 1829; its success is measured by the absence of crime and disorder. Sure, there’s a need for specialists who can detect better, and solve the really tricky stuff like fraud and abhorrent crimes against people, but there is still a good deal of ‘fluff’. I always wanted to set up a ““What the F*ck do you do?” Department, where a crack team went round and put people on the spot with that very question. If they couldn’t answer within a couple of sentences then they had to get their big hat and coat on and get back out on the beat! I reckon in my old force of 3500 officers, I could likely have put another 300 where it really mattered.

So lets thing of Coronavirus as the dams raid. The Ruhr and Mohne have been breached, and my goodness - here comes the deluge!

Organisations are watching their reservoirs run dry. They are going to be lucky if they survive - although of course the public sector always will. Even here on the Isle of Man, councils (yes, for a population of 85,000 we actually have 22 of them!) are hollering that without knackered companies paying their statutory rates, that it can’t afford to run itself! Well, I’ve got some news for them…

Companies are now realising that they can actually achieve just as much with less people. That might even mean the move to a much less salubrious Town Centre premises, leaving an empty building. That isn’t then providing a business rates income - so, the council is going to have to run the same exercise as the private sector, and start to cut its cloth accordingly.

This isn’t all bad news. People are going to be let go, without a doubt. But I believe a lot of the things that were done in house will move to an external provider. Marketing, HR, PR and accounts are all elements that could tip either way. Where the real issues arises is where the staffing review identifies a position that gets everyone looking at each other asking “What the hell were we thinking when we created that job?” It might be alright for Google to have an in-house dream imagineer, but there ain’t actually many companies where that is really OK! These people are going to have to reinvent themselves.

There is a deluge of decent, talented and enthusiastic people about to drain out of the doors of many organisations, and there are many more who may be kept on but are on borrowed time, until such as the private sector really has a word with itself about what it is there for, and what it really needs to provide. This is going to be difficult, on both a personal and societal level as people look for both a way to earn a living, and the fulfillment, affirmation and validation that having a job brings to them. So what can those of us left in the ‘fortunate pot’ do to help?

Personally, I tend to do more pro bono work than is probably healthy, but I can’t stop myself! I hate to see people on their uppers, and if I can do a little bit to help them get out of the traps then that is time well spent. I sometimes say to them “when you can, write me a cheque for what the help was worth to you!” Coaching conversations often help in those early days of despair, by providing that space, time and structure to start to map out the road ahead. I believe that organisations have this responsibility too, making sure that when people have to be let go they do as much as they can to help resettle them.But above all, it is critical that they have an effective organisational memory, and when they’ve rebuilt the dam wall it isn’t weakened with a plethora of non-jobs, where contribution, and ultimately professional fulfillment is desperately lacking. Coaching can help here too, focussing leadership teams on what the strategy is, and what resources are needed to prosecute it. It can be so easy to allow yourself to be blown off course, but can you really afford the risk these days?

Derek Flint Cert.Ed., MCIPR