Using a diagnostic approach to develop a new leadership structure

Organisational and system change Team effectiveness Leadership development

Situation

Tavistock Consulting was approached by the new CEO of a large local authority (LA), to work with us on how to approach the significant transformation required in the leadership structure.  The LA had a long history and strong reputation locally and nationally, but the leadership function no longer seemed to meet the needs of the organisation and there was evidence of significant operational difficulties that needed to be improved.  The outgoing CEO was well liked and had a strong presence and status in the local community.

The new CEO was keen to approach this transition carefully, mindful that staff were already worn-out following the pandemic and had endured other organisational difficulties, including moving offices following a flood.

Our approach in the diagnostic phase

We worked collaboratively with the CEO around how to design our engagement, both in terms of the anticipated timeframe for a restructure as well as within their budgetary constraints. A key element of our approach was to work in co-production and to ensure that we were working with leaders across different layers of the organisation and service function to hear as many perspectives as possible. 

We agreed on commencing with a piece of diagnostic work, meaning that we conducted individual and group interviews, meeting with all members of the senior leadership team, to hear directly from them about their experience in role as leaders, their experience of working at the local authority and their own thoughts and ideas about how things could be improved.  These interviews created a great deal of qualitative data from which to develop our thinking and hypothesis about how we might continue our work together.

This case study is based on the themes that were formed following the first phase of our work together and the overview of our approach in the second phase of work.

Themes

The local authority (LA) has responsibility to deliver essential public services including education, social care (including children’s safeguarding and adult social care), housing, planning and maintenance.

The first phase of our work highlighted acknowledged issues in authority, decision-making, and differing perceptions of purpose, leading to internal disputes. Overall, the LA was seen to be operating as a closed inward-looking system, meaning that it was not fulfilling its task to the community it served.  

• Boundaries – This covers all areas across the organisation, such as defined limits of organisational task, role, function and policies.   Throughout there were examples of boundaries either not known, understood, or not being adhered to.  For example, senior leaders not being able to say ‘no’, therefore extending the scope of role and task beyond its limits.  We might understand this as also related to the task within the LA, often in a caring role (for example social care). The consultancy team also noticed behaviours such as, back-to-back meetings, or overwhelm of information to digest prior to meetings, not enabling leaders to be able to be in a position to digest the information or make decisions. The impact of these ways of working led to high levels of frustration and poor productivity.

• Culture – through our work we felt that it was as if the current leadership structure invited silo working and avoidance of the more uncomfortable emotional experiences, with a tendency towards scapegoating and evading being together.  For example, the idea of positive or negative attributes related to particular leaders (at times voiced as if the previous CEO was idealised by some and denigrated by others).  There was also the consistently expressed experience of having been under attack from the outside (complaints from the general public) and evidence of feeling under attack inside the organisation from each other in relation to their different needs and competition around resources.  The consultancy team felt behaviour indicated a fear of working collaboratively together, given their experiences of fighting and competing for survival when they are together. These are all phenomena that we see in organisations that have undergone traumatic incidents or are under threat of survival.

• Authority – It was striking that across the senior leadership team, that taking up of authority seemed to be avoided, and it was as if the leaders want to be seen to be nice to each other at least in front of each other.  There was also evidence of a dependency dynamic in which there was an overreliance on the previous CEO to make decisions, with at times other senior leaders exhibiting more infantilising behaviour and not taken up their authority in role.  The incoming CEO was keen to shift this dynamic and empower the senior leadership team to take up their authority but had become aware of lack of skills and confidence to do so.

• Containment – There was expressed throughout a strong wish for what we describe as ‘containment’, both structural containment (putting the boundaries back in place) but also emotional containment, with a wish for the CEO to be contained in order that the senior leaders in the structure below are also contained. 

As a consulting team we too were often in touch with the overwhelming task that the CEO had come into.  We were able to notice and process our experiences and to make use of these, to focus on the pace of the work and speak to the dynamics that came up at times, whilst also ensuring that that we stayed on task.

There was also an expressed wish to see the new CEO role model a different kind of culture, as a container and approaching difficulties and challenges with new ways of working, for example one in which the leaders can learn from mistakes and actively taking time to pause and reflect.  This emerging shift in culture was also apparent when leaders spoke positively about how differently the new CEO led meetings, listened to the team and delegated authority to them for example.

Our approach following the diagnostic phase

As part of the diagnostic work, senior leaders were asked to give their recommendations of what a future structure could look like.  Following this, the new CEO consulted with CEOs of other local authorities, noting that there would be some expected roles as well as nuances depending on the size of the LA, the variety of services and income.

In this next phase, to integrate the thinking across the organisation we held focus groups to reflect on the experiences at different levels of leadership across the organisation, which included exploring the intersections of experiences in leadership with gender, ethnicity, class, disability, sexuality and age.

A working group was developed which included Heads of HR, Organisational Development, Finance and CEO developed, working with Tavistock Consulting to consider potential new leadership structure.  Additionally, we worked collaboratively to develop a suite of team coaching and individual coaching for senior leaders, to support the period from which the formal HR process of consultation began in the restructure. 

Impact

Hearing and making sense of different voices across the system

The most common feedback from leaders from our report was that

It was like holding up a mirror to my experiences

The approach in each phase of our work was to provide spaces to hear different experiences across the organisation and also make sense of these in the context of role as well as individual intersections and identity.

Collaborative working group to shape the new leadership structure

Our report following the diagnostic phase began to be used helpfully by the working group as a resource to understand what had come before them, their learning and how to approach the changes in both structure and culture that were needed.   There was an increasing sense of an ability to be reflective and curious, to take up a position in which there was learning from previous restructures, so that this new structure was approached collaboratively.

A key impact for this group following our initial diagnostics was to also commission a review and development of new Job descriptions, aligning them more clearly with the LA pay scales.  The organisational strategy document was also condensed into a clearer vision statement, before work could begin on the next longer term strategy.

Integrating a thoughtful transition plan for longer-term success

Whilst the process of change inevitably created anxiety in leaders, coaching provided opportunities for individual leaders to have a reflective space in role to consider their leadership journey and how they’d like to develop within the organisation further.

Summary

When a new CEO joins an organisation that is both publicly successful, whilst internally struggling, it is inevitable that changes will be required.  The incoming CEO took the intentional decision to approach the required restructure thoughtfully and with kindness, whilst holding onto what was working well in the organisation. As a result, the LA was able to continue to motivate and retain skilled leaders within the organisation through throughout the process.