Alan chats about performance.

New Video – Ross Brawn the man behind the team

Did you see the Brazilian F1 last Sunday? I know not everyone enjoys this sport, however it does have many great moments and one of these was Jenson Button winning the World Championship.This was a significant event for the man behind this fantastic accomplishment,  Ross Brawn. Why? well the story behind how this was all achieved is explained in our featured video on the home page Ross Brawn – the man behind the team. This is narrated by Alan and he explains how Ross Brawn can be regarded as the great all rounder when it comes to performance and strategy.

Ross Brawn the man behind the team.

A Trip To Brighton

Networking is one of the best ways to promote your business. It gives you the opportunity to speak with others about how their own businesses are doing within these tough times and what ideas they have to see themselves through.

Everyone I found to be very open about their business and apart from the odd one or two, nobody was to pushy.

There were business card everywhere and at the end of the event I felt like a kleptomaniac. I am sure I had more than I gave out ummm.

Both Alan and I can really see the advantages of attending these events, My guide would be to be picky about which ones you go to otherwise you will keep bumping into people you have seen before and they already have your card, so choose wisely.

U.S. debt. Don’t panic YET!!!!

Performance Landscape article.

In my article , ‘Public Services wealth warning’ I outlined why radical decisions are the only way that the public services will survive the new performance landscape. In this article, ‘Navigating across the new Performance Landscape’, I have explained why mature conversations need to take place between the public services and why this generation of middle and senior managers need to learn how to deal with the forthcoming cuts.

Alan’s presentation at Senior Special Constables Conference

Following the presentation to the ACPO Excellence In Policing Conference Alan was asked to do a similar presentation to the Special Constables Chief Officers conference in October. They have an excellent national strategy which was always intended to run from 2006 – 2010 and Alan’s input was to move the strategy on to its next phase, beyond 2010. This was well received and has resulted in tangible outcomes to be taken forward.

A recurring theme from these presentations, and from discussions with other clients, is that the impending cuts to public service budgets are new to this generation of the workforce. The reasons for this are explained in an article on our performance and strategy blog titled ‘Navigating across the new Performance Landscape’ and can be consolidated into two points:

• We have lived through a sustained period of growth

• The performance culture of the last ten to fifteen years has been focused on quantitative measures

The wise organisations are those planning the development and support for their managers, at all levels, to lead their staff through this financial drought.

Please let us know what you are doing to plan for this forthcoming change, so that we can share it with others – that’s how the best learning takes place.

Performance and Strategy and our Landscape…!!

Okay, it is finally here! Last week we launched our Performance Landscape programme at the Association of Chief Police Officers performance conference. We recognise that performance is a complex subject, so we have designed our programme to help you navigate around an ever changing environment. We use the analogy of animals of the Serengeti because their survival depends on their performance – and so does yours!

Our programme provides leaders, at all levels, with the practical knowledge and tools to maximise performance for themselves and their organisations. For the full picture go to www.performancelandscape.co.uk

I am now going to get my focus back on the blog and writing more about how organisations need to address the financial drought that is going to hit public services in the UK in 2011. Whilst this drought may be viewed negatively, it actually offers immense opportunities for the private and public sectors – if the leaders have the foresight to take them. The skill is going to be for the giraffes of the organisation to see the opportunity and then pass the responsibility for capturing it to those with the right competencies, which may be any of the other animals, such as the lion, the wildebeest, the zebra or even the crocodile. It’s how you use these skills that is going to decide how well you survive the changing landscape.