I am currently compiling this guidance for younger civil servants moving into more responsible positions for the first time - and for those entering the Senior Civil Service from outside central government. It is an anthology of what I was told (or what I wish I had been told) (and what I learned from my mistakes) as my civil service career developed. It contains advice from a wide range of very experienced officials - though some of the advice is so frank that it could never be included in formal training material.
I hope that I will eventually be able to combine the nine parts so as to create one book. In the meantime, you might like to download six of the individual parts as PDFs.
Here are the contents:
Part 1 - Your Responsibilities
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter2 - Contents
Chapter 3 - Openness to Ideas
Chapter 4 - Relationships with Colleagues
Chapter 5 - In the Office
Chapter 6 - Feedback
Click here to download this part as a PDF.
Part 2 - Understanding Organisations
This module explains the culture of larger organisations (including the Civil Service itself) whose senior executives so often behave behave in unpredictable, illogical and unethical ways.
Chapter1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Principal-Agent Theory explains how large areas of organisations are often run in the interest of local employees, not their shareholders or other stakeholders.
Chapter 3 - The MacWhirr Syndrome (aka the Prevention Paradox) explains why front line staff will often neglect to make sensible, practical and achievable plans for fear of being criticised for displaying insufficient zeal, excessive caution and unnecessary delay.
Chapter 4 - An examination of organisational ethics notes that senior leaders are often allowed - or even expected - to have 'dirty hands'.
Chapter 5 - Herd behaviour, groupthink, shared information bias and cognitive dissonance are surprisingly common, and exacerbate the culture and tensions that are typical of most large organisations.
Chapter 6 - The legal environment - Fiduciary duty, company law, corporate social responsibility.
Click here to download this part as a PDF.
Part 3 - Speaking Truth to Power
This part explains why it is hard to get Ministers and senior officials to accept unwelcome advice, and offers advice on how to get them to listen to your advice and act on it.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - The Problem - Why is it so difficult to speak truth to power?
Chapter 3 - Is it easier to speak truth to power in the public or private sectors?
Chapter 4 - Nine tricks and techniques
Chapter 5 - What happens when truth is not told?
You can currently buy Part 3 - Speaking Truth to Power as an inexpensive paperback from Politicos, from Amazon or as a Kindle eBook.
Part 4 - Leadership and Management
Part 4 offers practical, real world leadership and management advice.
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Recruitment and Interviews
Chapter 3. Performance Management and Appraisal
inc. Bullying, Harassment & Performance Management
Chapter 4. Leadership
Chapter 5. Values
inc. the need for 'Chronic Unease'
Chapter 6. Management
Chapter 7. Strategy
Chapter 8. Aims, Objectives, Planning and Measurement
Chapter 9. Building Successful Teams
The following material has not yet been added.
Chapter 10. Negotiations
Chapter 11. Time Management
Chapter 12. Whose Problem Is It?
Chapter 13. Managing Difficult Relationships (Transactional Analysis)
Click here to download this part as a PDF.
Part 5 - Managing Crises
Part 5 describes what you should do when normal politics, and normal policy development, are no longer appropriate.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Plan and prepare - "Prepare for the worst and hope for the best" - and ensure you will have the necessary powers
Chapter 3 - The initial response. Natural disasters and other crises require rapid responses which involve making difficult judgements. Both ministers and civil servants are going to behave rather differently.
Chapter 4 - Then get organised. The pace of decision-making is going to be much faster than you have been used to; the mechanics of your relationship with each other are going to be rather different and, very importantly, you are going to have to take more decisions on less information than you have been used to.
Chapter 5 - ... and Consult
Chapter 6 - COBR(A)
Chapter 7 - This is not politics as normal. You do the best you can, but you may not be taking the right decision - and you are not going to know that as you take it. You have to live with that and just get on.
Chapter 8 - Communications
Chapter 9 - Further Reading
Click here to download this part as a PDF.
Part 6 - Consultation
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - The Law
Chapter 3 - How to Consult Effectively
Chapter 4 - Experts
Chapter 5 - Non-Experts May be Over-Confident
Chapter 6 - The 'Valley of Death' between Policy and Delivery
Chapter 7 - Consulting Organisations Outside Government
Chapter 8 - Consulting the Public
Chapter 9 - Research
Chapter 10 - Regulatory Decision Making
Chapter 11 - An Example from History
Click here to download this part as a PDF.
Part 7 - An Introduction to Regulation
Chapter 1 - Why Regulate?
Chapter 2 - How to Regulate, including
Independence & Accountability
Chapter 3 - Systems, including
Consumer Representation
Chapter 4 - Governance, including Regulatory Capture
Chapter 5 - Enforcement
Click here to download this part as a PDF.
Part 8 - Competition Policy
[This module is not yet available.]
Competition is a key driver of innovation, productivity and the efficient functioning of the modern economy. Governments therefore try to encourage competition - between businesses, between schools, between civil servants; and so on. But unrestrained competition can impose unacceptable costs on society, and in particular on the vulnerable. This module will explore this question and offers a beginners guide to competition law.
Chapter 1 - You can have too much competition
Chapter 2 - Mergers
Chapter 3 - Abuse of Dominance
Chapter 4 - Cartels
Chapter 5 - Utility Regulation
Chapter 6 - Market Investigations
Part 9 - Understanding the European Union
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Lobbying and Informal Contacts
Chapter 3 - Negotiating
Chapter 4 - 'Competence' - EU Impact on UK Policies
Chapter 5 - Institutions and Structure
Chapter 6 - EU Legislation
Chapter 7 - Comitology, Transposition & Key Dates
Click here to download this part as a PDF.
Spotted something wrong?
Please do drop me an email if you spot anything that is out-of-date, or any other errors, typos or faulty links.