Entries with tag local authorities .

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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
10 Mar 2017 - 13:05

null F off

  I worked in an open plan office alongside my boss who was a lay preacher and pulled me up for swearing. As a senior manager I was not in the habit of colouring my language with swear words but I was sometimes very stressed and venting through expressing a few swear words out loud did make me feel better. I was not swearing at any one just in frustration and annoyance at the situation,... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
10 Mar 2017 - 10:53

null International Women's Day

  The Black Panthers, the Vietnam war, Bob Dylan and the woman's liberation movement, this is the New York scene in the Late 60's early 70's. The story is set in the open plan office of a weekly magazine, the editor, deputy editor and all the journalists are white males, all the researchers are female. It soon becomes clear that the women do all the leg work, come up with the most... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
01 Mar 2017 - 11:05

null Confrontational leadership

  A kick up the backside or arm round the shoulder. Delivered at the right time, in the right way both are recognised managerial responses. Some people respond better to one than the other. Managers may be predisposed to confrontational management or supportive management. Supportive management is presented as a good thing, although staff often complain there isn't much of it. Supporting... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
03 Mar 2017 - 01:04

null More people with a business background would be good for local government, Not

  Donald Trump US president is appointing people with a business background to key posts in his administration because he believes government would be better if it was run like a business and who better to do this than people who have run successful businesses. For a number of years management gurus have told us the public sector should learn from the private sector about how to be... See more
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Blair McPherson
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15 Dec 2016 - 14:24

null Funsultant

Has your LA engaged the services of a " funsultant" to advise on how to make the workforce more positive? Have you come across a job advert for the post of " happiness officer". If LA stood for Los Angeles rather than Local Authority then you undoubtably would be familiar with the typically wacky approach to job satisfaction and employee relations in California. Our approach may be more... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
16 Nov 2016 - 23:00

null What are managers and professionals getting over enthusiastic about this week?

What are managers and professionals getting over enthusiastic about this week? Education, housing, environment, leisure and social services there isn't a local authority service that isn't periodically subject to the claim that someone, somewhere has come up with a way of providing a better service more cheaply.    There are management fads and social work fads.... See more
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Blair McPherson
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18 Apr 2016 - 10:03

null Winter is coming

  There is a constant threat of decline and sense of wrongness in the world. There are kings and king makers, trial by combat, scheming and betrayal and a delicious habit of bumping of the biggest stars. This is not some medieval fantasy or an episode of Game of Thrones this is the modern day public sector in a time of prolonged austerity. Temporary alliances form and reform, local... See more
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Blair McPherson
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03 Mar 2016 - 15:47

null Does the managers professional background matter?

  Would you rather be managed by someone who has done your job all be it years ago or someone who had no experience of your work but was keen to learn? Do you think senior managers need a professional background in a service to run it properly or do you think management skills are transferable as long as managers are prepared to learn about the service and listen to experience... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
12 Feb 2016 - 16:14

null Bad Customers

  I can see it now one of those videos on the Internet by some American business guru entitled , " How to get rid of your bad customers". Serious articles in the Harvert Business review about how   studies of top US companies have revealed that they are good at "disensentivising" bad customers.  Now if by bad customers we mean those who are persistently or deliberately... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
19 Jan 2016 - 12:48

null How training as a social worker made me a better doctor

  My favourite opening sentence this week comes from the Guardian. " Sharon D Clarke studied to be a social worker before becoming a doctor..... on Holby City." At first I thought this was going to be an interesting angle on the integrating health and social care debate. How training as a social worker has made me a better doctor. But no. Sharon is an actor and Holby City is a tv hospital... See more
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Blair McPherson
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18 Aug 2015 - 09:26

null The last 30 years as seen through the eyes of a public professional

  This could be the story of an local government professional, a librarian, a housing officer, a policy officer ,a finance officer, a personnel officer or an admin officer.   Tim trained as a social worker in the 80s. He went on marches in support of the miners. You wouldn't catch Tim selling the Socialist Worker in town on a Saturday. He wasn't that type of radical social... See more
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Blair McPherson
wrote a new blog post
12 Jul 2014 - 15:39

null Public Health is safe with LA's. Is it ?

  So everything is ok now that Public Health comes under Local Authorities and Directors of Public Health now work in local government . Or so you might think reading the director of public health in Haringey as she writes in the HSJ. We don’t talk about it anymore but there was a time but there was a time when local authorities were ambitious for their populations and felt their... See more
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Showing 21 to 32 of 32 entries.