We know we need change in local government – that there is no cavalry coming to the rescue of council finances. And when we talk about ‘organisational change' we need to be clear that we can only be talking about people change.
Yes, we can deploy new software, reconfigure buildings and sign new contracts with suppliers.
But only if our people change what they do will there be any organisational change. And the only way for people to change is if they learn: to do, to think and to behave differently.
So if you are interested in organisational change, you need to be interested in how people learn.
The emerging field of learning neuroscience means we now know a lot more about how people learn (such as how they change) than we did even five years ago. We know more about our neurons (86 billion of them in the typical human brain) and more about the connections between them, our synapses (there's 100 trillion of those). And we are learning how neurotransmitters such as epinephrine and dopamine – the ‘wetware' that Artificial Intelligence cannot hope to replicate – set the conditions for learning, change, emotions and drive.
If you want change, then you need to create the conditions in which it can happen:
1. A sense of safety: If we are scared, evolution has taught us to stick with what we know (sure, there's a chance we may end up dying in the medium term, but the probability is we'll stay alive until tomorrow)
2. Attention and focus: Attention so we are alert and motivated to observe through our senses; and focus in order that instead of trying to observe everything, we are dedicating our senses and processing power to the thing that will make the difference
3. A growing ‘mental model' that provides meaning to our observations and lightens the ‘here and now' cognitive load – a framework for change
4. Uncomfortable mental gaps: Things we want to fix – without the motivation to fix these gaps there is no learning
5. A sense of progress and reward: Something that motivates us to keep the learning process going
6. Human connections: (a) Someone to guide us and (b) peers to support us as we go on this uncomfortable journey
7. Some self-understanding: This helps, but is not essential, at least not to begin with.
How do we create this delicate balance of conditions in our councils? In particular, how do we create the sense of safety required for learning while providing the motivation (and urgency) to do things differently? If the platform is burning, how do we best teach people to use fire extinguishers they – and we – may not have used before?
There are numerous forces pushing in the opposite direction of safety. The Office for National Statistics finds growing levels of anxiety about the cost of living, the state of the NHS, the economy and climate change. These concerns provide the context which our employees bring to the workplace.
Exhausted by the seemingly endless years of austerity, compounded by the pandemic and acute workforce shortages (often buffeted by local political challenges), who can blame our colleagues for collective exhaustion and falling back on the shibboleths of being ‘cut to the bone' or a reversion to comfort zones of various kinds? Who can blame them for preferring to disengage from their employer, working from home whenever possible?
Local leaders understand the continuing need for change and the formidable hurdles to bring along a workforce that isn't ready for what is being asked of it. Leadership of council workforces – not easy at any time – has become far more challenging in this context. Especially for recently appointed chief executives, freshly elected leaders and newly minted authorities these are difficult times to be charged with the leadership of change.
The key to achieving these conditions is the sixth of the conditions outlined above: other people, starting with us as leaders. Before we have a strategy, a plan or even a diagnosis of the ‘as is', we need to show our people we are there with them, and help them make meaningful connections with each other. Knowing that their leaders are humans like them, who they can know and begin to trust, and believing that colleagues are ‘in the same boat' – regardless of the department they are in – is the vital starting point.
Once this human connection, with leaders and with each other, is in place, it is possible to start to create the other conditions. You do not need the perfect framework (or even a very good one) if you are connected to your people and they are connected to each other.
If we want to change, we need to reconnect.
Paul Martin is an interim chief executive and consultant, and Ben Rowland is an expert in human learning and transformation
