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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
14 Aug 2020 - 14:41

null Statistics don’t tell the whole story

  Statistics  may never lie, though everyone knows they can be economical with the truth. Everyone being managers and members. LA leaders and chief executives struggle to persuade the local media and a sceptical public that the authority should not be judged solely on it league position.   Using a football analogy helps explain how things may not be as simple as the league table would... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
13 Aug 2020 - 11:32

null The best organisation are like enthusiastic gardeners 

 If HR are were to adopt a gardening metaphor it would be weeds  are just flowers in the wrong place.  This is not what a manager who has been asked to consider someone on redeployment wants to hear. Nor is it the response a manager with an incompetent or “difficult” team member is hoping for. The implication in both cases is that the manager just needs to... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
15 Aug 2020 - 13:02

null Don’t Oversimplify 

     
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
08 Aug 2020 - 13:36

null Managing a budget is too often like dieting 

Following on from his successful book “The Food Myth” Tim Spector has written , “ Spoon-Feed: Almost Everything We’ve Been Told About Food Is Wrong”. On reading it I was struck by the similarities between dieting and budgeting. Between loosing lbs and losing £s. Between cutting down and cutting. Between crash diets and dramatic budget cuts. Between the the special diets promoted by... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
24 Jul 2020 - 12:23

null Out of touch managers

  In the years immediately after England won the World Cup the then manager  Alf Ramsey could do no wrong in the eyes of his players but as the winning team was replaced by a new generation the manager’s word was no longer law. At the start of an England training session Alf brought the new younger members of the squad together and suggested they get a hair cut. They just... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
22 Jul 2020 - 10:35

null A faint air of menace 2

We need to talk about how we talk about Black Lives Matter (BLM) in the work place because the subject still has a faint air of menace about it. If people are reluctant to talk about diversity for fear of saying the wrong thing then organisations will have a tick box approach to diversity which looks impressive but doesn't  change the culture. This all to common superficial approach... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
09 Jul 2020 - 11:32

null Alien Encounter 

If aliens from a distant and previously unknown planet landed seeking asylum and only to be allowed to integrate into society, HR would have no problem adapting equality and diversity policies to include Little Green Men. After all colour, race and sexuality are already covered.  From HR to all staff In view of recent “new arrivals” there maybe a need for some minor tweaks to... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
13 Aug 2020 - 05:56

null Heated arguments in the Team Meeting

To anyone observing it was a very heated argument. One member of the team was criticising another and not holding back. The other responded with a few well chosen remarks of their own. Voices were raised. It looked and sounded ugly. The boss did not intervene. So is this what is meant  by a dysfunctional management team? Not according to the boss.  According to the boss this type of... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
05 Jul 2020 - 19:06

null The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Time travel doesn’t require a time machine. You can’t go forwards into the future only backwards into the past. Time travel is not open to everyone but every generation has individuals who do. You can’t visit any period in history the way they do in the books and films. Each time traveller can only revisit their past. The way it works is you die then you are reborn on the same... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
01 Jul 2020 - 12:57

null Champions League 

Black Lives Matter is making us rethink our approach to Equality. Most organisations have management steering groups to monitor their equality strategies and action plans. But the agendas lack passion, fail to inspire and reflect the slow bureaucratic approach to change. Moreover, the groups tend to comprise of managers nominated as representatives of their departments rather than due... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
30 Jun 2020 - 20:08

null Hot Hand

An expression in basketball to describe a player on a hot scoring streak who feels and appears unable to miss. But for every up side there is a downside,  the top striker who just can’t score, the international  goal keeper who suddenly can’t be relied on to catch a cross. The pundits tell us it’s down to confidence and affects people at whatever level they play. What’s not clear is... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
27 Jun 2020 - 11:07

null Don’t look to football managers for best practice 

Is managing a football club so different to being a senior manager in a Local Authority?Both are challenged to motivate talented individuals. Both have a vision and a plan for the future whilst being required to deliver improved performance in the short term. In both cases recruitment  and retention will reflect and determine progress. The amount of money available and the priorities... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
26 Jun 2020 - 14:02

null I look to football managers for lessons in management 

Football managers like Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho and from a previous generation Alex  Ferguson and Brian Clough are stand out managers with impressive track records. They are extreme characters, neither heroes nor villains although to the partisan they are both. Their high profile and willingness speak their mind, their tendency to court controversy,  the level of scrutiny their... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
14 Jun 2020 - 15:26

null Playing up and Playing down 

Sometimes you have to play up and sometimes play down your abilities. The scene is a golf club, the context a new manager trying to break into a close knit group of colleagues , the method, pretending he is a novice golfer and letting the leader of the clique  give him tips on how to improve his game, with remarkable successful results!  Getting on and getting things done both... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
13 Jun 2020 - 20:57

null Big and Scary 

It’s big and it’s scary, it’s in the room and ignoring it won’t make it go away. An Elephant in the Room is an expression to describe a big topic everyone is ignoring, pretending it doesn’t exist because it is too scary or too difficult to deal with. Racism like sexism, ageism and homophobia-discrimination is a big, scary topic.  The killing of George Floyd and the subsequent... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
10 Jun 2020 - 10:04

null More than just a soft machine 

I WAS AT ONE TIME THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF RESOURCES IN A LARGE COMPLEX ORGANISATION. FINANCE, IT, PERSONNEL AND TRAINING FELL WITHIN MY REMIT. THIS LINE MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENT REFLECTED THE THINKING AT THAT TIME THAT THE PEOPLE WHO WORKED IN AN ORGANISATION WERE RESOURCES IN THE SAME WAY AS MONEY, EQUIPMENT, BUILDINGS AND INFORMATION. IN ONE SENSE THIS WAS POSITIVE AS IT PLACED A... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
09 Jun 2020 - 09:53

null It doesn’t help that people really don’t like HR.

  Human Resource staff make people behave and they don’t like it. They are the ones that tell you that even if you think the jokes are funny, you still can’t tell sexist, racist or homophobic  jokes. This is one function that goes all the way to the top. The HR people, the compliance people, are telling everybody how they have to treat each other and a lot people don’t like it,... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
09 Jun 2020 - 09:47

null Sometimes it takes a crisis

When this pandemic is over you will know a lot more about your staff/ managers . A crisis brings out the strength in some and the weaknesses in others. It will not necessarily have been the most experienced or knowledgable who remained calm and inspired confidence. It will not necessarily be those with the formal qualifications who showed themselves able to adapt quickly to the new... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
05 Jun 2020 - 10:44

null The Art of Winging It

Before you know what you are doing you’re expected to know what you are doing, so you have no choice but to wing it. It happened to me. As part of a cost cutting senior management restructuring I found my self with a new job title, an increased span of responsibility and a range of services I had no previous experience of. I was confident my people management and budget management... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
22 May 2020 - 14:23

null Management anyone can do it-not

The interesting thing about management is that pretty much everyone thinks they could do it and do it better. It’s not rocket science. That is why so many people think they understand it. But it’s not easy which is why so many don’t progress. There are lots of things to learn. The moment you stop learning you get left behind because of the pace of change. I started in management 30... See more
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