Note to self

Stooging around the web this afternoon looking for nothing in particular I found this, which links to this site, which is a really useful idea and something I should do soon.  And so should you.  Now, excuse me while I go and sort out that hippo.

Mothers need not apply?

Odd that I missed this story about how important flexible working is to working mothers because it’s been on  my mind a lot recently.    I’m my own boss which means I can  manage my own hours and  can fit in a life with children as well as one with a briefcase, a blackberry and a business suit.  A few days ago, Iwas offered an opportunity which looked so great, at such a fantastic company, that it was impossible to pass on it just because it would mean taking a job and joining the rush hour rat race again.  I met them.  I liked them.  They liked me enough to ask me back for a second interview before I’d got home from the first one.  Then I started talking about the details of what what flexible working might look like in practice and suddenly there’s total silence from their end.  Now, I could be being  unfair.  Too impatient to do the deal and too ready to conclude that it’s not going to happen. I really hope so because it’s a great opportunity and I’d love to do it.   Or I could have just reinforced my sneaking suspicion that the only way to make sure that I can work and spend time with my children  is to run my own show.  This is easy enough for me thanks to the industry I work in.  How does everyone else manage?  No wonder the fastest growing sector in the economy over the past few years has been in women-owned small businesses.

Political reality and the NHS

The McKinsey NHS story might be an illustration of what a surprisingly tin ear many very smart people have when it comes to basic politics. Or it could just show how very simplistic political debate has become.  Cutting 10% of NHS staff  maybe an intellectually brilliant way of dealing with a funding problem in the health service (personally I don’t think it is, but let’s give McKinsey’s bright young things the benefit of the doubt).  However it would be so politically damaging, so completely devastating to any governing party’s claims to be trustworthy custodians of a public health service, as to be impossible to  enact.  The press coverage I’ve seen is all focused on this element of the report and the condemnation is pretty universal.  However, if you look at the Health Service Journal’s summary of the story, McKinsey recommend much more than just taking an axe to staff numbers.  A lot of what is being floated seems unpalatable but possibly unavoidable if the NHS is to survive – we should at least be talking about the options honestly.  Instead the government have instantly disowned the document ,  the opposition are scoring cheap  political points, and everyone gets to vent some rage about the use of consultants in the public sector.  Thanks chaps.

Intermission

Should probably have put this up before I went on holiday, but thought there should be SOMETHING  here while I catch up on email, other people’s blogs  and tweets, newspapers and other sources of infomation and get ready to start all over again.

Or possibly I’ll just ignore everything that happened whle I was away (very nice, thank you for asking).  If  it was important it will probably crop up again eventually.

Five ingredients of a perfect Friday

1. Kick off meeting (with doughnuts) at one of my favourite companies to work with,  on a fantastic new project which could keep us absorbed, challenged - and gainfully employed – until Christmas.

2. Children off to spend two weeks with their grandmother in Scotland.  No washing, wearing, chivvying, tidying, snapping, snipping, squabbling or Spongebob Squarepants UNTIL AUGUST 10.

3. Husband delivering children to Scotland and staying ’til Sunday.  London at my disposal for the weekend.  Control over the contents of the fridge and use of the remote absolute. Only fly in ointment is continuing need to care for cats, who have deposited a dead bird in the kitchen in protest at being abandoned to me.  With luck they will leave home…

4. Large pile of newly bought,  sweet-smelling books beckoning me from the side of the bed.

5. The sun is shining.  And I intend to make hay.

The secret to getting work?

Let people know you want it.  Be referable and ask for referrals.  Talk to people about yourself and your business.  For, as  Alan Clark   pointed out when asked how he had the nerve to make so many unwanted advances to young women – “how do you know an advance will be unwanted until you make it?”

Ask and ye shall receive as the good book has it.   Oh, and when you get the work?  Do a good job.

Press officers in an age of twitter

Great post here about whether (and if so, how) press officers within government should respond to stories/debates circulating among digital communities on blogs and via Twitter.  Inevitably there is real frustration about how slow press officers can be to react to the head of steam which can build up around key issues online before they hit the mainstream.  The argument that online inactivity damages departmental reputation must be right.  But it does misunderstand, I think, the key reality of a press officer’s life, which is that they must please their Minister.  On the whole Ministers still don’t get  this stuff and don’t believe that their constituents do either. Some of them blog, a couple are on Twitter (Ben Bradshaw and Harriet Harman, take a bow) But generally their key concern is tomorrow’s front page – in particular the front page of the Mail – or Newsnight, which is why so much actitivy is short term and reactive rather than designed to build relationships and alliances and deliver a long-term strategy.  Many press officers find this frustrating - although a frighteningly large number still don’t get it either. There’s a serious job to be done in some departments to educate press teams as well as policy leads on the possibilities.

Burn baby, burn

The bonfire of the qangos might not be such a popular rallying cry if the quangos themselves could  point to some hard evidence of their own achievement.  As David Cameron gets his matches ready, there’s a desperate need for NDPBs (and grant-funded voluntary sector bodies too) to be able to demonstrate that they represent value for money.  Sadly, in my experience, staff in bodies like this are happiest when they’re talking about the (undoubted) social need for their services and the benefits they were set up to deliver.  Mention of evaluation, demonstrating value for money, even – heaven forbid – the need to become self-supporting by selling commercial services, makes them come over giddy as a Victorian vicar accidentally catching sight of an uncovered table leg.  They should all be in a tearing hurry to get measures in place which demonstrate hard evidence of their usefulness.  If they can’t it’ll be hard to grieve too much when they start to smoulder.

Stakeholder Management – Lesson One, Not Like This

Government comms isn’t what it was in its Campbell prime; but even accepting that the control freakery of yesteryear is out of place now, the  performance over the Iraq inquiry has been even more dismal than usual.

Even if they don’t care about the democratic principles at stake (depressing enough in itself), have these people not learned anything about dealing with their stakeholders?  Do they not realise that making a major announcement without (seemingly) discussing it with anyone who might have an opinion on it is insane?  Having promised to increase openness to restore public faith in politics, did no-one  think that announcing a secret inquiry with a hand-picked chair   into the most controversial political decision of the past decade was risky?  Didn’t they think to line up some allies to come out in support? (And if they tried and couldn’t find any, shouldn’t that have set some alarm bells ringing?)  Isn’t rigging it so it won’t report until after the election a little, well, rubbish,  presentationally?  Especially as it now looks as though they are rowing back on what they’ve announced – another nail in the coffin of  basic government competence. 

When even the Lib Dems are credibly pointing out that the government is “weak and pathetic”  things look pretty bleak.  I  now support the Labour Party  the way my Dad supports West Brom – he’s been doing it a long time, it’s a  habit and a reliable family joke; but he didn’t really care when they were relegated.  At the moment I could seriously use some good reasons to get enthusiastic about Labour.

Eulalie

There is no point throwing eggs at Nick Griffin.  Just crack jokes over him.  He’s a ridiculous little man who should be allowed to prove how stupid he is  in debate.    

I’ve been wondering who he reminded me of and it suddenly dawned – he’s Roderick Spode minus the ladies underwear (I assume, although I suppose you never know…)

The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone. You hear them shouting “Heil, Spode!” and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: “Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?”