The Council and a private company agreed to hold an annual rowing race between their teams. In the first year, the private company won by one mile. In response, the Council established a committee to analyze the situation and recommend solutions. The committee found that the private company team had seven rowers and one captain, while the Council team had seven captains and one rower. The Council then hired consultants to restructure the team, concluding they needed fewer captains and more rowers. They changed the team structure and offered improvements to better support the rower, but the private company still won the next race by two miles. The Council then dismissed the rower and paid bonuses to management for their leadership.
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Amusing look at local government
2. Once upon a time there was a Council rowing team
3. The Council and a company from the private sector
agreed to hold a race. Each boat would contain eight
men.
4. Both teams worked really hard to get into the best
shape. On the day of the race, both teams were in a
similar condition. The private company team won by
one mile.
6. The mood in the Council team was really close to freezing
point. The top management decided to win the race next
year. So they established a committee of analysts mostly
internal but with representation from each service, the
stakeholders and a memberoh, and some guy who knew
something about rowing (hed been on a boating lake when
at school). Their remit was to observe the situation, do a risk
analysis (ensuring each risk was marked red, amber or green)
and recommend an appropriate solution.
8. After several weeks of detailed analysis, the committee
found that the private company team had seven rowers
and only one captain.
12. Facing such a critical scenario the management showed
unexpected wisdom: they hired a consultancy to restructure
the Council team.
14. After several months the consultants came to the
conclusion that there were too many captains and too
few rowers in the Council team. A solution was proposed
based on this analysis: the structure of the Council team
had to change
15. as of today, there will be only four captains in the
team led by two Directors and a new Head. Besides
that, they suggested that the Council improve the
rowers working environment, ensure his work/life
balance is OK and offer a reward and recognition
scheme to incentivise high performance and
maximise impactfulnessisation (or any other new
word the Council can think up). There will be a 5-
day workshop for the rower.
19. The Council management dismissed the rower from the
team (following a long and drawn out competency and
capability procedure, followed by a voluntary severance
package), on the grounds of his unsatisfactory performance.
20. but a bonus was paid to the management team for the
strong leadership and motivation that the team had
showed during the preparation phase
贈
21. Performed by ROCE
The consulting company prepared a new analysis
which showed that the strategy was good, the
motivation was O.K, but the tool used was sub-
standard and had to be improved
22. Currently, a new Council out-of-focus group has
been formed and is having a new boat designed.
Human Remains (HR) have advertised nationally for
a new rower for the next race in June. Assessment
centres will take place in May.