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New skills will be needed to survive the hairshirt era of public finances, especially the need to be seen sharing the pain equally, says Peter McCabe. You are being watched. Whether you know what's going to happen in your council or not, your staff, managers, and service-users will think you do. "Cleaner and greener' just won't cut it. ‘Aiming for excellence' won't get beleaguered staff out of bed, never mind out into the community selling the joys of downsizing. Merely surviving the downturn won't be enough." And, in the absence of information, they will believe that you are simply not telling them. Never before will so few gestures have been watched by so many. This is of great value, since one of your most important roles over the coming years will be to make people believe that everything will be fine. Your staff, managers, customers and citizens will look to you for support. They will hang on your every word. They will look for signs that you fully believe what you are saying. It will never again be so easy to get eager listeners. But the downside is that every off-message utterance will be amplified and spread around the building. As will every gesture and action. Going to conferences might have been the previous preserve of the powerful and well-paid. Now it will need a purpose. Turning up with a bagful of freebies and a clutch of reports which could have been downloaded from the Internet won't do much for hard-pressed staff pondering the possibility of getting their P45s. People will expect their pound of flesh. They will ask, What have you learned from Bournemouth that will make us safer, that will protect us from the scourge of budget cuts? And they will wait for your wisdom. As you enter difficult times, you will need stronger mantras. Never underestimate the power of rhetoric to inspire and motivate. ‘Cleaner and greener' just won't cut it. ‘Aiming for excellence' won't get beleaguered staff out of bed, never mind out into the community selling the joys of downsizing. Merely surviving the downturn won't be enough. ‘Emerging, stronger and fitter from the havoc wreaked upon us…' might just get you off the starting blocks. Dressing extravagantly in times of war was deemed unpatriotic. Expect no less now. Scrutinising payments will be the new paintballing. Every penny will be pored over. Every pound invested will have to be justified. Money spent on non-essentials will be deemed to be money wasted. Just as we are all in this together, so we will all have to share the pain. Life must be seen to be tough for every group – top to bottom. Remember, perceptions count. So, cut the lease car schemes now. Abandon first class travel. Rip out the chief executive's private loo. Put biscuits at meetings on hold. End the bottled water. Charge for staff parking. Search everyone for pencils, pads and paperclips as they leave the building. Every penny saved is a step towards a job protected. Expect a new patriotism to support the new austerity. Patriots turn up for work and put in a day-and-a-half of effort supporting the cause. People late into the building will start to be seen as treasonous. Those taking sickies will be traitors – the enemy within. We will need heroes. These will be the people who have, through a combination of ingenuity, hard-work, commitment and self-sacrifice, made life possible. You will need despatches from the frontline reports of those courageous souls who have cut budgets while protecting, as best as they can, frontline services. We already have villains – the bankers. But memories will fade. Pin-striped Financial Times readers will fade from view, and most of us don't encounter them anyway. New villains will emerge. These will be the wastrels, the feckless and the poor performers. Common enemies that will help bind a nation. Whatever you do, remember that one day, the books will balance. Former enemies will once again become colleagues. Any damage done today will need to be repaired tomorrow. Goodwill is the infrastructure of change. Whatever bridges you destroy, whatever roads you wreck, will have to be rebuilt. So plan your attacks carefully. And as for the heroes. Those brave managers slashing and burning their way through the next three years, you should know that one day you will become the new villains. Your bright ideas in the dark days will be tarnished, and you will be pushed out. So, store your pens, pads and paperclips. One day, you'll need them. And take comfort from knowing that one day, you will have a big future in change management consulting.

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WHITEHALL

How to survive the new age of austerity

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