attractorconsulting.com

Photo: dgray_xplane, Flickr

A number of systems thinkers suggest all projects seeking to improve services and costs through economies of scale the efficient management of business processes and doomed to failure and inherently wrong-headed. Their message is economies of scale are “a myth” – based on plausible theories which have little or no supporting empirical evidence.

Even amongst those engaged in providing such services, there is often acceptance that delivering “world-class” service can be extremely stretching and remains out of reach for many service providers and their clients.

While suggesting there is “no benefit” in scaling up services is an over-simplification, the systems thinkers’ criticisms are more fundamental.

In addition to the issues of service and organisational design which are explored below, the “command and control” management culture and inappropriate use of targets and measurement are also highlighted as major issues.

Taken as a whole, systems thinkers claim shared services solutions deliver no real benefit and will highlight a number of failed projects to support that view. There are so many cases where shared services or outsourcing projects are ill-conceived, poorly managed and badly delivered, the task of finding failures is all too easy.

However, there are areas where running bigger operations provides clear advantages but there are problems and challenges inherent in scale too. Taken as a whole the drivers of success and failure require far more careful attention than simply concentrating on scale. Too many projects seem to start with a poor appreciation of the challenges and an over-optimistic belief in suggestions benefits will be easily delivered and it is useful to understand both the benefits and drawbacks of scale before deciding whether shared services are worth pursuing.

Attractor has reviewed and summarised the positive benefits and the pitfalls below, attempting to draw attention to the issues that matter most.

Read the rest of this entry →

Photo: Siddhu 2020, Flickr

The well-respected Flip Chart Fairy Tales website has recently covered some important themes relating to the challenge of improving efficiency and productivity in the public sector. Rick points out the differences between manufacturing and service sectors and the lessons of systems thinking. The track record of UK industry in productivity improvement has, indeed, been gradual rather than dramatic and public services have to move far faster.

It seems, though, examples of public sector inefficiency are not hard to identify. In September 2010, an anonymously penned article in the the Guardian echoed the feedback from public servants working across the UK, describing a number of examples of waste in public services -

• poor recruitment and appointment decisions,
• poor management handling of lazy and inept staff,
• poor specification, deployment and use of contractors,
• waste, bad design and poor delivery of major IT projects,
• poor economy in travel and expense practice.

While, perhaps, indicative of a culture that values neither productivity nor efficiency, addressing all these issues would be insufficient to tackle the level of savings envisaged by the Coalition Government’s austerity measures.

In other respects however, the observer focuses on a far more important issue -

“… teams tend to blindly follow out-of-date procedures while others create new measures and protocols for the sake of it – and no one stops to question the need for so many reinventions of the wheel. Much of my present role has come about because of the need to redo work that was never completed to a remotely adequate standard.

The same thing happens whenever “efficiency savings” are called for: another big review gets under way, the same problems are discussed, committees are created … and then everyone carries on as before. Instead of waiting like martyrs for the axe to fall, the civil service could act. It could forget about further costly top-down examinations of recurring problems and instead ask everyone to take it upon themselves to do something about wastage.”

While this diagnosis may seem over-simple, it reveals an important truth. It is often within the outdated and ineffective working practices – which have accumulated over many years – that most of the inefficiencies remain deeply locked. To make effective change here, far more radical solutions are required and, in some places, shared services are seen as the answer. However, this response to inefficiency can be worse than the original problem. Read the rest of this entry →

Photo:Security, Anonymous, Flickr

In their Global Economic Survey 2009,  Price Waterhouse Coopers found fraud as one of the most problematic issues facing companies

Organisations commonly reported management attention being focused on business survival in the current recession.

PwC concluded this lack of focus, while understandable, could further increase fraud risk with cutbacks in resources being exploited by fraudsters.

Respondents to the PwC survey reported lower levels of resources were available for internal controls with limited investments meant internal audit doing more work with less staff. Read the rest of this entry →

Too many organisations respond to emerging challenges by re-organising departments, teams and jobs – hoping this will improve performance.

It can be hard to recognise when problems relate to deep systemic issues though easier to spot poor employee performance.

Changing structures seems, for some, an easier option than exploring and addressing business process change, which can be complex, or tackling known individual performance issues, which is often personally challenging. Read the rest of this entry →

Attractor has developed a reputation for building long-term effective working relationships with Directors and Senior Team members, based on strong subject matter expertise and industry experience.

Attractor’s effective consulting work will always support local strategy and direction with well-targeted, light-touch, expertise. Customers always retain control over what support they need and use.

Aiming to minimise dependence, Attractor’s interventions are complete as soon as the client team has matters back under local control and grow effective solutions confidently.

Attractor’s work generally comes through personal recommendations and referral so business relationships are important to us. Conversation often continues for months or years, between assignments this ongoing interaction is welcome.

Consulting work has generally focused on change and efficiency in back office functions – with structural and functional change linked to deploying new business models and workforce management solutions. Attractor has supported clients to –

• Clarify their vision for back-office functions and both front-line and support service workforce management arrangements – shaping and guiding service improvement, productivity, efficiency and organisational effectiveness,
• Convert a “vision” for Service Transformation into a tangible plan with transition activities, benefits delivery and tracking to ensure delivery towards strategic objectives,
• Re-design and reshape departments, teams and roles, optimising added value, making best use of workforce management systems, reducing back-office costs,
• Engage and communicate strategy and actions to key stakeholders, securing support and political influence supporting change and benefits actions, supporting work to embed new ways of working and deliver benefits,
• Create and monitor plans which address corporate and organisation-wide change – resourcing, skills and capability, plus redeployment and exit strategies – technical, risk and assurance issues for organisation-wide change programmes and smaller technical projects,
• Change management and facilitation for complex projects, with workshops and other activities to support business change and improvement.

Consulting work commonly builds on a formal proposal responding to client needs, and often involves basic fact-finding, strategy, options identification and appraisal, recommendations and, where needed, implementation support.

Photo:Jurvetson, Flickr

The Department of Transport’s shared services centre, covering human resources, payroll and financial functions, was designed for seven agencies with over 20,000 staff.

Its implementation was heavily criticised during 2008, by both National Audit Office (NAO) and Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

By the end of 2008, only two of the seven agencies were using the new service and experiences were far from positive. Read the rest of this entry →

Engaged on an 18 month consultancy contract to support implementation of the Electronic Staff Record within a special health authority, Attractor worked with a group of capable leaders and operational staff plus the McKesson Implementation Consultant to deliver a successful project. Read the rest of this entry →