Strategy and Change in the Public Sector: The Internal and External Environment.

1. Strategy and Change in the Public Sector: The Internal and External Environment. Kevin Hinde

2. Organisational Highs, Lows and Themes Exercise • Brainstorm your Organisations Highs and Lows over the past x years. • Examples might include: budget issues, schools closure, loss of significant personnel, innovations, etc. • How high were the highs? How low were the lows? Put them on the following chart….

3. Organisational Highs, Lows and Themes Exercise 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Now Which of these were Opportunities and which were Threats? Highs What were your strengths In dealing with your Opportunities and threats? What were your weaknesses? Lows

4. Organisational Highs, Lows and Themes Exercise • What opportunities have we had? Which have we taken advantage of, which were we unable to take advantage of, and which have we ignored? • What threats have we had to deal with? Which have we handled successfully, which unsuccessfully, and which have we ignored? • What strengths have we relied upon to deal with the threats and to take advantage of the opportunities? Which have we ignored? • What weaknesses have we had in dealing with threats and opportunities? What have been done about them? • Can you see patterns or themes of SWOT over time? • How would you like to carry this forward?

5. The External Environment

6. Short term assessment of the external environment

7. PEST or STEP or PESTEL or STEEPLE

8. Activity • Consider the opportunities and threats that your organisation faces in the next few years. Can you divide them into • Social • Technological • Economic • Environmental • Political • Legal • Ethical • Now score each opportunity and threat within each category. Zero is low and 2 is high. Some will fall into a number of categories and you may wish to weight some opportunities and threats higher than others – I’ll leave you to decide this. • Where are the biggest opportunities and threats? Are they political, economic, or something else?

9. Strengths, Competences and Core Competences

10. Competences and Core Competences • Organisational strengths or Competences exist in activities • Resources are deployed to create strengths/competences • Only some competences are core. Many are generic. • Think about yourself. Your general features are common to nearly all humans but you have certain inherited characteristics and learned behaviours ( including your style of social relationships) that make you unique. • Our place in society can be determined by our uniqueness (though other factors such as chance and power are important). • We have some influence on our uniqueness through the relationships we develop and investments in assets such as training and education.

11. Competences and Core Competences • Core competences underpin organisational effectiveness • They are difficult for others to imitate and so are unique to the activity. To be of value they must be effectively deployed. • They may be found in people, teams, partnerships, networks, structures and systems. The sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts. • They may be used to reduce cost, add value (through innovation, quality enhancement, etc) and signify appropriate culture. • Core competences can be adopted to strategies and added to e.g. through the hire of individuals with qualities that add value to the service, through the effective re-training of staff, through developing partnerships/alliances, etc.

12. Activity. Core competences • What are your departments/organisations core competences? • Consider an activity and list the resources, people (they may be teams or partners) and skills associated with it. • Does it work well or not? • How do you know? • What underpins its effectiveness? • Can it be improved? • If so in what ways?

13. Competences from Partnerships

14. Types of partnership (i) • Cooperationusually describes an informal sharing relationship, such as two agencies providing referrals for each other or sharing information about learner needs. Agencies that cooperate ordinarily do not make joint decisions or provide services together, but they do communicate in order to limit duplication of services Padak and Sapin, Collaboration: Working TogetherTo Support Adult Learners available at http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Pubs/0400-11.pdf

15. Types of partnership (ii) • Coordinationrefers to a more highly developed association in which organizations or agencies have informal agreements about programme development and in-kind contributions but do not, as a rule, commit money and other resources to one another. Nevertheless, coordinated associations are generally more formal and better defined than cooperative arrangements.

16. Types of partnership (iii) • Collaborationis reserved for organisations that join together to create a new entity. Together these organizations work to accomplish a shared vision by building an interdependent system to address issues and opportunities. Ordinarily the agencies involved sign formal agreements that address determination of goals, problem -solving processes, areas of authority financing, and other issues related to the governance of the new entity.

17. Alnwick District Council Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough Council Blyth Valley Borough Council Business Link for Northumberland Castle Morpeth Borough Council Community Council of Northumberland Environment Agency Government Office for the North East Jobcentre Plus National Parks Association North East Chamber of Commerce Northern Trades Union Congress Northumberland Association of Local Councils Northumberland County Council Northumberland Care Trust Northumberland National Park Authority Learning & Skills Council Local Strategic Partnerships Northumbria Police One NorthEast (RDA) South East Northumberland North Tyneside Regeneration Initiative Tynedale District Council Wansbeck District Council Example:Northumberland Strategic Partners

18. NSP Structure http://www.nsp.org

19. Activity: Partnerships and competence. • Consider a partnership with which you are familiar. How did it develop? • What are it’s goals? • What factors promote the collaboration? • What factors hinder it? • Is it a success or failure? Why? What are the key strengths and weaknesses? Are your strengths complimentary?

20. Perception that the collaboration is needed Benefits outweigh the costs Positive attitudes Consensus between administrators and staff Players see each other as valuable sources/resources Ability to maintain program identity, prestige, and power Reward system for staff who reinforce the collaboration Accessibility to other organizations Positive evaluations of other organizations and their Staff Similarity or overlap in resources and goals Common commitment to clients Common definitions, ideologies, interests, and approaches Good history of relations Procedures have been standardized across organizations Occupational diversity of staff that is complementary Leaders favour the collaboration Chances exist for regular contact and exchange of information Existence of boundary-crossing roles Compatibility or similarity of organizations structures Factors promoting collaboration

21. Vested interest of program or other agencies Perception of threat, competition for resources or client Perception of loss of programme identity Perception of loss of prestige or role as “authority” Lower service effectiveness Alienation of some learners Inability to serve new learners who would be drawn to the programme Differing leadership styles Differing professional background of staff Disparities in staff training Difference in priorities, ideologies, outlooks, or goals for clients Lack of a common “language” Staff members don’t favour the collaboration Negative evaluations of other organizations Imperfect knowledge of other agencies in the community Poor history of relations Costs (resources, staff time) outweigh benefits Lack of communication among higher level staff Bureaucracies that inhibit internal, external communication Centralization of authority, “red tape” Little staff time devoted to boundary-crossing roles Differences in priorities, goals, tasks High staff turnover Other organizations have little to offer Factors hindering collaboration

22. Successful partnerships require.. • Communication • Adequate Resources • Proper Planning • Shared Values and Goals • Participation • Leadership • Flexibility • Trust and Respect

23. Remember • Collaboration is not an easy, quick, fix-all solution to societal problems. • Collaboration should not be a programmes ultimate goal but rather a tool used to serve clients. • Interagency collaboration is time-consuming and process-intensive and should only be attempted when the potential benefits are significant. • Institutions do not collaborate – people do. Time must be provided, and staff members must be rewarded for their participation and effort in the collaboration. • Collaboration must be engaged in holistically: creative, effective, and real solutions to shared problems will ensure the longevity of a partnership.

24. Activity. Partnerships/Teams • Use the following sheet to evaluate your team or external partnership that you are familiar with. • Score your answers to each statement on a 1 – 5 scale (5 = excellent, 4 = Good, 3 = Average, 2 = Room for Improvement, 1 = Poor)

27. Core Business

28. Introduction • Pressure on the public sector to perform more economically, efficiently and effectively. • Purchaser Provider split, contracting out • 4 Cs (Challenge, Compare, Compete, Consult), Best Value, CPA.

29. Questions • Why should the ownership of the organisation matter if society is faced with the inefficient and ineffective provision of public services? • What is it about present public provision that gives it the right to continue in that activity?

30. What is Core Business in Public services? • What functions should be carried out by Public services? • Can you identify activities that are core and peripheral within your own organisation? • Do your strengths/core competences reflect the core or peripheral activities?

31. Long Term Environmental Assessment

32. Futures Methods

33. 1 Choose a Panel of Experts 2 Phrase the questions or issues, or describe the possible futures on which an opinion has to be sought 1a Consult experts on questions, issues and possible futures to be considered 3 Panelists, individually and anonymously, express their views on the questions or issues, or on the likelihood of the different futures. 4 Results are collate and summarised. 6a Repeat steps 4, 5 and 6 if necessary to reach consensus. 6b If necessary, ask those who still hold extreme views to feed in, anonymously, the reasons for their views. 5 Results are fed back to the panelists. No individual views are capable of identification. 6 Panelists submit revised views The Delphi Technique Source: Smith (1994) p.67 7 Results are written up, conclusions drawn

34. The Long Term Scenario

35. Overview of scenarios • Assumptions: • The future is unlike the past and is shaped by human choice and action. • The future cannot be foreseen but exploring the future can inform present decisions • There are many possible futures, scenarios map a ‘possibility space’ • Scenario development involves rational analysis and subjective judgement.

36. Scenarios and Change Process Required Rationale For Scenario http://www.chforum.org/methods/scenario_taxonomy.html

37. The Scenario Development Process • Assess the readiness of the organisation. Analyse the threats and opportunities in the future. • Develop the drivers. A steeple Analysis • Assess the drivers. Review them and prioritise. • Carry out an Uncertainty/Dependency Review. Use those drivers that are both uncertain and dominant to form the basis of scenarios. • Develop the scenarios using plausible stories of the future. • Remember there is no ‘right’ scenario. They provide ways of thinking about uncertain futures in a turbulent world.

38. Scenario Development: An illustration

39. http://www.foresight.gov.uk/servlet/Controller/ver%3D850/DTI_FF_web.pdfhttp://www.foresight.gov.uk/servlet/Controller/ver%3D850/DTI_FF_web.pdf Foresight scenarios: 2010-2030 Interdependence World Markets Global Sustainability Conventional Development Community Individual Local Stewardship National Enterprise Autonomy

40. World markets • People aspire to personal independence, material wealth and mobility to the exclusion of wider social goals. Integrated global markets are presumed to be the best way to deliver this. Internationally coordinated policy sets framework conditions for the efficient functioning of markets. The provision of goods and services is privatised wherever possible under a principle of ‘minimal government’. Rights of individuals to personal freedoms are enshrined in law.

41. National Enterprise • People aspire to personal independence and material wealth within a nationally rooted cultural identity. Liberalised markets together with a commitment to build capabilities and resources to secure a high degree of national self-reliance and security are believed to best deliver these goals. Political and cultural institutions are strengthened to buttress national autonomy in a more fragmented world.

42. Global Responsibility • People aspire to high levels of welfare within communities with shared values, more equally distributed opportunities and a sound environment. There is a belief that these objectives are best achieved through active public policy and international cooperation within the EU and at a global level. Social objectives are met through pubic provision, increasingly at an international level. Markets are regulated to encourage competition among national players. Personal and social behaviour is shaped by commonly-held beliefs and assumptions.

43. Local Stewardship • People aspire to sustainable levels of welfare in federal and networked communities. Markets are subject to social regulation to ensure more equally distributed opportunities and a high quality local environment. Active public policy aims to promote economic activities that are small scale and regional in scope and acts to constrain large scale markets and technologies. Local communities are strengthened to ensure participative and transparent governance in a complex world.

44. Auditing the Future: Bryson (pps. 87- 89) • Social and organisational complexity. • Privatisation and the consequent interaction among public, private and non-profit organisations. • Continuation of technological change. • Limited public sector resources and Growth. • Diversity of of the Workforce, customer base, and citizenry. • Individualism, personal responsibility, and community involvement. • Quality of life and environmentalism. • Transitions with continuity, not revolution.

45. Public Services in 2015? TRENDS PERCEPTIONS SCENARIOS RESOURCE SCARCITY TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION DEMOGRAPHY ECONOMIC AWARENESS Re-emphasis on the nature of public service delivery Re-positioning of public service functions POLITICAL DYNAMIC NEW POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS EUROPE CONSUMERISM (ANTI-MONOPOLY) REGULATORY EXPANSION Scenarios for Public Services: Based on work by past students

46. Activity. Scenario Planning • Using the method described in ‘A Futurists Toolbox’ pps. 13-22 draw up some working scenarios for Northumberland County Council in 2018. • http://www.number-10.gov.uk/su/toolbox.pdf • http://www.number-10.gov.uk/su/understanding.pdf • http://www.strategy.gov.uk/output/Page696.asp