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When he decided he needed to test the ability of his senior managers to handle transformation, chief executive, Daniel Zammit put his top three tiers on notice and instigated a rigorous testing process. I was starting to think about how we at Dacorum BC were going to meet the challenges of further reductions in funding and meeting increasing demands on our services as the recession began to bite. We had already restructured, services had improved, and we were more efficient, but we needed to do better. Some services weren't improving at the rate I wanted. Others seemed stuck, unable to improve. Something different had to be done. We had to make sure that any future organisation had to be both fit for purpose and ensure it delivered genuine transformational change. I explored ideas with those I knew and trusted, and decided that if we were to undertake fundamental change, we needed to transform ourselves. That meant avoiding a traditional, one-dimensional, cost-cutting approach. With more than £5m in savings and efficiencies under our belts in the last four years, we'd already been there and done that. So we asked members what they and their constituents wanted Dacorum to be. We dug deep to translate their ambitions into what the organisation – and more importantly, our senior and middle managers, were ready and able to deliver. We explored how we should organise and be led, including the probability of turning existing managers into future leaders and innovators. To improve to the required level, they had to go well beyond the status quo. They needed to collaborate, champion partnerships, and behave selflessly and empathetically. We involved staff and members in developing our values, which now frame our behavioural competencies. Only then did we draft structures and operating models. However, traditional restructures rarely delivered transformational change, and I knew, for example, that ‘slotting' wouldn't work. What would be the point of moving people from one post to another if they couldn't or wouldn't behave in the way we wanted or, deliver the changes needed? So, we had to find a fair, equitable and transparent way to test them all against the new behavioural competencies. All of the council's top three tiers were put on notice. This made sure that staff not only understood that we were serious but also, they would have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability and commitment to make the changes required of them. With this approach being such new territory, we knew we needed independent, expert help. I also thought it was not right for us to be making those judgments about our peers. That support had to assess every individual and deliver objective reports on each. They would need the experience and gravitas to brief members, give difficult messages with confidence, and win their trust. They also had to be able to deliver and defend difficult messages to long-serving and, in some cases, popular senior staff. We put together a tender and tested the market. And the returns surprised us. Some of the proposals treated our (transformation) exercise as a business-as-usual process. Few demonstrated they knew what effect this exercise would have on the organisation and the role they would needed to play in it. Many were purely transactional, failing to grasp, fully, the programme's context and complexities. We then selected the firm Attenti and, between us, developed a range of assessment methods, and systematically worked through each layer of management. The assessment tested behavioural competencies, and we were given recommendations about each individual. Those who met the competencies were then interviewed for the new roles. Attenti gave each individual face-to-face feedback, and continued to provide support to those who were unsuccessful and have since left Dacorum. Our new leadership team will soon be joined by a number of externally-appointed individuals who went through the same assessment process. As such, I'm entirely confident that they share our values and lead us successfully through a very uncertain future. The independence of the support proved vital in some of the difficult discussions with long-serving Dacorum staff. Ultimately, the assessments not only helped the selection process but also, provided unsuccessful staff with valuable personal insight. Daniel Zammit is chief executive of Dacorum BC

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WHITEHALL

Getting fit for a new approach

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