Beyond Management

The world in which we live is a rapid, changing place.

On a global level information exchange, technology, the speed of social and business transactions, and our knowledge and intimacy of places and people on the other side of the planet has compressed our World view.

More locally, as the deliverers of public sector services, accelerated pace means that the expectations of our customers and communities have become more demanding, more divergent and more personalised. This new paradigm requires a response from commissioners and providers that not only seeks to meet and exceed these expectations, but to do it quickly, effectively and to a high quality.

Our socialisation in the western world has become based on networks - such as virtual and real social networks, wider definitions of ‘family', holistic-delivery service hubs or working within partnership and consortia. Consequently the needs of workers have changed too with individuals wanting more control over how, when and where they work. This often includes networking both within and beyond employing organisations and outside the traditional parameters of line-management and defined responsibilities.

Suffice to say in the midst of the maelstrom many traditional ways that organisations and individuals operate have become anachronisms. A bureaucratic top-down hierarchal approach to control, decision-making and management is no long congruent to these reshaped demands. Pyramids are crumbling; networks, partnerships and cross-agency accountability for results are the new pillars of the public sectors delivery structures.

What is "Beyond Management"?

It's simply LEADING FOR RESULTS.

As an innovative responder, here at CPI we have developed a set of tools and approaches to support individuals, organisations and partnerships to instigate a change in their leadership philosophy to respond to this shift. We work with individual leaders, leadership cohorts and strategic groups to help them realign and refocus their energy and direction.

Our products support people to define and develop the elements within their own leadership domains and within their wider networks; and experiment with tactics to demonstrate better results. We underpin this with our years of experience of outcome logic so that we develop individuals who are leading for results, not simply managing delivery.

How we do it?

We encourage clients to commission design bespoke leadership products that best suit their organisation, partnership or the outcome domains in which they deliver. This means helping to identify who the leadership cohorts are, their parameters of influence and the support they need.

It can be a challenging shift for many. The public sector has traditionally been effective at promoting people to become managers but poor at creating leaders. So at CPI we can be both support and constructive challenge to leadership within organisations as well as a trainer and developer of new skills. In the past this has seen us offer a range of leadership options:

Leadership Module events for Partnership Managers

A modular approach with 3 x 2-day residentials supplemented by individual 1:1 coaching support. For example we have now successfully delivered this model for three consecutive years on behalf of the Home Office. It brings together a cohort of leaders from different local partnerships to learn, share and offer peer-support through a range of learning styles. Our purpose is to deliver better local results thorough strong leaders linking delivery and strategy.

"It is greatly affecting my work - I only have to mention I'm doing this course and people are reacting differently towards me. I have been tackling some highly sensitive and delicate partnership issues whilst attending this course and have applied a very different approach to how I might have done prior to attending. Recognising my leadership style and others has helped me view and interact differently" - Delegate 2007

Leadership Events with Executive Partnerships

One and two day programmes with strategic multi-agency partnership - such as Local Strategic Partnerships, CDRPs, Children's Trusts, and Joint Commissioning Groups. A programme of support with strategic groups to refocus and re-energise collective and individual leadership. We tie learning into legislative and local demands i.e. new legislation or alignment with LAA national indicators and support the partnership to confirm purpose, values, outcomes and a set of behaviours that they will adopt to demonstrate strong leadership while dispersing responsibility and innovation across those at the knowledgeable front-line

"Today has provided a really good stimulus and focused my mind on how to get the most out of the Partnership and the relationships we have" - One-Day event Delegate

Team development and facilitation

As well as bespoke courses we have lots of experience of facilitating strategic and team development. From a few hours to residentials we have worked with leadership teams across National, Regional and Local Government, in health, police and probation services and in the third sector. Independent, impartial facilitation is a way of getting better results from teams. Using challenge and encouragement we get the best out of people, taking leaders to places that they can often find difficult to go to get to the core of real issues and shaping the necessary responses and action s that will really improve results.

Coaching and Learning Networks

Coaching is a non-judgemental 1:1 approach to support leaders in developing their skills in response to the day to day practical and strategic challenges. Coaching is a series of conversations where the coach reflects, questions and pushes the leader to come up with their own solutions and strategies.

As well as offering experiences coaches, CPI also has experience of organising and facilitating Learning Networks. These can be within organisations or multi-organisational across cohorts of leaders with similar roles or responsibilities. The Learning Network is a regular opportunity to bring leaders together in a safe, confidential environment to share practice, learning and offer support to others to find solutions to seeming intransigent issues.

Strategic Mapping

Another successful CPI tool, strategic mapping is an alternative approach for leadership teams to develop their vision and strategic action plans. Unlike plans, maps create a visual path, beginning with a clear starting point (where you are now) and a clear destination. Maps show alternative routes and allow for tracking progress against distance and time. And when it comes to implementation, most of us are better at following a map rather than reading a plan because maps are more open to insight and opportunity than the planning exercise. In addition, their visual display of information generates more collaboration so that ownership of a plan becomes true joint ownership.

So What?

A key element of our approach is to enable individuals to:

Understand where leadership tasks remain your sole or shared realm as a leader, and where they can be dispersed elsewhere
Know how as a leader you appropriately symbolise what you are leading and hold its values and goals; and then how and when you galvanise others to share these key responsibilities to make these a reality
Learn how you verify and share achievement through outcomes that make a difference for service users and wider communities.

Being CPI, we live and breathe our own learning. Our company operates as a community interest with internal peer support networks, agreed leadership domains and dispersed strategic responsibilities so that we too individually and collectively lead the organisation and our partners to achieving high quality customer results.

The Centre for Public Innovation: Working Together, Delivering Change