Category Archives: Provokers

How HMRC costs us 90 hospitals through complexity

There’s a good article in the Guardian by Polly Toynbee today, illustrating the chaotic effects of politically influenced short term-ism on systems. The official estimate (i.e. lowest, most optimistic level) of missed revenue on tax collection is £35bn but it could range as high as £100bn. The entire HMRC costs £3.5bn to operate yet their system generates 10 times as much again in effective failure demand.

£35bn is about the cost to build 90 hospitals. It’s a third of the NHS Budget. We could give all 450,000 full time teachers in England a £12k raise to £50k (similar to average newly qualified accountants/solicitors) so they’re paid like the professionals de-facto developing the next generation should be – and still have enough leftover to give all 2.3 million unemployed a £5k grant to start a business.

Take one look at a self-assesment form and it’s no wonder the system is rife with potential for misery and manipulation, never mind what a corporate tax adviser can do with it.

I’m sure a big part of why taxes are so complex and high is the inevitable overhead in simply maintaining a system so horrifically complex and impenetrable. When the head of the National Audit Office says “Reducing running costs by £1.6 billion over four years is a big challenge for HMRC“, it seems like ripping out complexity would make that rather trivial.

Moral of the story: If it’s simple, it’s hard to game. It’s hard to get wrong, fake, cock-up, cover-up and miss mistakes that cost yet more in failure. If it’s simple, it’s easier to operate. It’s easier to teach, support, use, improve, scale, monitor and measure. Simple resists meddling. Simple is powerful.

Engineering Simple into a system isn’t easy, but it’s so powerful when you can achieve it : 90 hospitals powerful.

Ask a silly question, get a winning answer – how reframing unlocks insight

Questions. One of those deceptively simple words that punches way above it’s length or dry definition. One of my favourite coaches, the inimitable Terry Russell, calls words like these ‘fat words’ because they contain so much more possibility than their superficial delivery or appearance.

The W questions are great examples of how simple questions can quickly provide insight and help reframe activity.

  • What are we trying to do?
  • Why is it important/urgent?
  • Who is responsible for making this happen?
  • When do we need to have this done by?

Whatever W’s you employ, questioning is vital in any exercise to explore possibility because asking the ‘right’ question is a superb mechanism to unlock perspective, break down constrained thinking and challenge assumptions.

The ability of a simple question to reframe and inspire – to change how something is perceived, considered or evaluated makes it one of the most powerful tools in reframing strategy. Why are those three elements desirable in reframing ? Because they require people to engage in what’s possible, rather than remain blinkered in a world of closed options.

Reframing something through asking the right questions is fantastically valuable because it opens up perspective to consider challenges in a different light. Continue reading →

The culture manifestos and company handbooks you should read before your company dies

I’ll use this post to collate interesting slide decks on culture I come across, including the legendary Netflix culture presentation.

Hubspot

Netflix

Zappos

Spotify

Great 2 parter on Agile at scale and how Spotify approach their engineering culture

Spotify Engineering Culture – part 1 from Spotify Training & Development on Vimeo.

Spotify Engineering Culture – part 2 from Spotify Training & Development on Vimeo.

The culture change stats that prove two thirds of managers are getting it wrong

Culture Change Infographic

click for full PDF of the infographic

This infographic from Booz & Co (one of the oldest management consultancies around) is based on a 2013 survey of over 2000 managers and has some blinding stats in it on attitudes to culture change.

  • 84% of managers think corporate culture is “critical to business success”
  • 60% think culture is “more important than strategy or operating model”
  • 51% think a “major overhaul is needed”
  • Only 35% think their culture is “effectively managed”.

That means at least 8 out of 10 managers are toeing the party line that people count and working culture matters BUT only 3 out of 10 are confident enough to say they are delivering on that promise.

The 65% left over means two thirds of managers are unable to say their culture is effectively managed.

Something is both sad and fishy here. If practically the whole management team is violently agreeing that culture and people matter, how come 2/3rds of them aren’t delivering on what should be one of their primary functions?

Think about that for a minute. There’s either a hell of lot of hot air and lip service being paid to culture or about 2/3rds of managers are struggling to engage with a problem that, if solved, could deliver massive competitive advantage to them.

Sounds like a classic case of Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, Nobody:

  • Everybody knows there’s a problem.
  • Somebody should do something about it.
  • Anybody could start taking steps but Nobody does anything.

In the absence of a little brave thinking it’s easy to turn to the old faithfuls of new targets, new visions, new strategy to fix problems but most of the time all you’ll end up doing is teaching your team to work to different set of numbers – it’s just shuffling the same pieces around into slightly different configurations. That’s not culture change, that’s gaming the system.

If you’re serious about changing company culture, it doesn’t have to be grand and require massive upheaval or even cost anything. It just requires trust in your people and a little courage to discover and nuture your pockets of excellence. Improve the systems, nurture your culture and performance will happen.