With the UK elections over, leaders of public service organisations up and down the country have drawn up plans for how they will achieve the radical savings needed without a breakdown of services. They are looking at new service delivery models, ‘e' enablement, and a host of ‘transformatory changes'.

The focus now turns to how these changes need to happen. It is one thing to demonstrate a convincing rationale, show the graphs and the numbers that justify the change, draw up the structures and win the mandate to make the changes. In our experience this is only half the job. The other, and perhaps the most challenging half, is implementing the new way of working without your best people leaving, morale crashing, and performance falling through the floor.

It isn't just your staff who has to change, of course. It's your leaders too. Without leaders who show the way by ‘being the change you wish to see', people cannot follow. Moreover, because the changes are so radical, it's almost certain you will need to involve politicians, partners, as well as service users. But do you have both the change capability and the capacity you need to realise the investment you are making?

Implementing change on this scale without an effective change capacity is like setting out to drive from London to Manchester with an empty tank and dodgy wheel bearing. You probably won't make it.

That's why we start our implementation discussions with a joint assessment of your change capability and capacity. Using a simple questionnaire we will give you a strategic insight on your fitness for the journey.

Without attention to your change capability you will fail to get the return. Our experience suggests the most common reasons for failure are: front line people are not sufficiently involved in designing the details of the change...the devil's in the detail; the change programme itself is not synchronised and integrated, with the result that critical gateways are missed; and most common of all, people see the change primarily as a structural one, not holistically and underpinned by a new mind set.

Changing the way people think and behave

Changing the way your people think and behave is, in our experience, often put in the ‘too difficult' box. It's surprising, for example, how often more attention seems to be paid to enabling the leavers to have a smooth exit than it is for the survivors to be helped to take on their new responsibilities. In the best examples we have seen, across all sectors, we have found that employers identify their best talent early on and give priority to a dialogue which motivates and supports the managers who will make or break the new structure. 

They also put in place the practical support that is needed in times of transition. Things like:

• Facilitation of sessions with staff, partners or users where the manager needs to hear and give difficult messages

• Personal and team coaching to help the manager stand back and focus on priorities as well as process what the changes mean for them personally

• Extra capacity for communication, engagement, and rapid problem solving so that difficulties don't become entrenched and everyone is active in solution finding

• Enabling effective decision making processes where assumptions get aired and differences heard

• Team development for new teams, where they take forward the best of the old culture and start to set norms for the new

• This is isn't rocket science, but it is highly skilled work. At Bath Consultancy Group we have a track record working with leadership teams and change teams to help you make these kinds of changes in your people and your working cultures.

Case Study

In the Department of Work and Pensions, we worked alongside the internal Organisational Change Centre of Excellence as partners on their change journey.

Building transformational change capacity post Capability Review

The first phase of the departmental Capability Reviews led to a programme of transformational change at DWP with the goals of improving customer experience, improving value for money for tax payers and improving staff engagement.

A team of consultants from Bath Consultancy Group (BCG) worked in the Department from March 07 - April 08. There were three aspects to the work (as summarised below) but these initiatives were integrated so that insights from each part of the programme served to inform work and learning in other areas. 

1. BCG provided "Team Coaching" to the DWP Executive Team and Board, adding value in four spaces - working together; working apart; managing the current business; and leading transformational change. We also linked the effectiveness of the Executive Team with the Change Agenda'?
   
   
2. BCG worked in partnership with the internal DWP team in Organisation and People Development (OPD) to enhance their capability to provide first class OD consultancy to the Department. This included working alongside them consulting on:
   
   
   • The structural review and re-organisation of Organisational Capability Centre of Expertise,
   • Arrangements for reducing headcount,
   • Advice on succession planning, transition support, talent management, and role assessments,
   • Coaching leaders to manage change in their teams
   • Assisting with transition support to the new Director of OPD
   • Delivering three Organisation Systems workshops to the Change Team (using the Barry Oshry Systems approach) and providing supporting methodology.
3. BCG provided OD coaching and consultancy to the DWP Change Directorate, particularly to those involved in the Culture Change workstream, working in partnership with internal OD consultants to change the culture and improve the customer experience and also worked with key leaders in the Change Directorate to help them recognise that how they personally led change would also model the new culture for the organisation. This included design and facilitation of key workshops, and Senior Civil Service (SCS) conferences.

Skills transfer was a key element here. BCG worked with the internal change team through an explicit ‘outside-inside' partnering on all pieces of work. At times, they were front of stage working directly with DWP leaders (e.g. designing and delivering a high impact and engaging Senior Civil Service conference) and in other circumstances, were coaching, co-ordinating and advising internal consultants to lead. This built the internal capacity to address change and identify cultural patterns blocking change. Feedback from the internal consultants about what they valued about the work included:

• "Seeing the whole system in all aspects of work, even in one to one transition coaching."

• "Diversity in the consultants, real people with different strengths and weaknesses, not clones."

• "Willingness to think together".

• "Strong relationships with the consulting team - of trust, respect and understanding - and commitment to see things through, however difficult they became"

Challenges and lessons learnt include the importance of working across the team boundary to improve the relationship between the Executive Team and its key stakeholders, in particular the Change team. The benefits of integrating different elements of the Bath Consultancy Group work and the wider programme were also clear.  Finally, in order to work effectively with DWP top management BCG needed to field highly credible consultants with technical, intellectual and inter-personal skills of the highest order, who had access to the top quality intellectual property of Bath Consultancy Group. 

The benefits realised from the assignment were tangible and appreciated by DWP.   At the annual and two-year Capability Review it was noted by the reviewers that the effectiveness of the Executive team had improved significantly.  Internal consultants became more capable and productive as a result, and were more effective as consultants to the Change Director of the multi-million pound Change Programme.

Jerry Arnott, Director, Organisation and People Development, DWP:

‘I was extremely impressed with the way in which Bath Consultancy Group consultants were able to slide alongside our senior leaders and create real positive impact so quickly. Their approach is testament to their expertise i.e. a fine balance of theoretical knowledge of organisational development and change coupled with quality skills in consulting and coaching. They helped lay the foundation for our ongoing transformation across DWP and, within my own functional area, ‘Organisation and People Development', provided a real benchmark of excellence in developing and embedding internal OD and Change consulting skills. Their pedigree is strong, as a group of practitioners who bring enormous experience from across numerous sectors, both in corporate and consulting roles.'