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The Princess and the Library Book

14 November, 2013 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Children's Library

My youngest daughter is five She is enthusiastic in the way that only a five-year-old can be. She is also hopeless in the way that only a five-year-old can be. The other day I took her to the library, she loves books, particularly if they have lots of pictures of fairy princesses with long blonde […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: clarity, local government, purpose, service design

Is £500 a Lot of Money?

13 August, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

The BBC has reported that the  Department for Communities and Local Government is publishing all spending over £500.  It states that last year the department spent £310k on catering. That sounds like a big number until you look at the graph that is also published. Personally I would be a little more worried about the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: bureaucracy, cost saving, local government, political intervention

The Parking Ticket

12 June, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

I was running late. I nipped into the city centre in my wife’s company car. I found a parking space put money in the meter and ran. 20 minutes later I caught the yellow peril giving me a parking ticket. I was on a yellow line (just). I tried to sweet talk him, but I […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bureaucracy, capability, local government, poor service

Talking Rubbish

17 February, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

The local Government Association has released a list of 200 words and phrases which councils should avoid as they are unclear. Included on the list are the following terms and their recommended replacements: Actioned – Do Core message – Main Point Functionality – Use Outcome focused output – Result Potentialities – Chances Transformational – Change […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: bureaucracy, communication, jargon, local government

Off Target

3 January, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

If you were given a target and then had your bonus (or job security) tied to it what would you do? Sort out your processes so that it was possible to meet the target? What if it wasn’t within your control to meet the target?  Would you cheat? How much effort would you expend fudging […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: cheating, local government, poor service, tampering, targets, trust

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