How to Succeed in the Senior Civil Service

This is 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 may eventually be able to combine the nine chapters so as to create one book.  In the meantime, you might like to download most of the individual chapters as PDFs.  Chapter 3,  Speaking Truth to Power, is available as an inexpensive paperback.

Here are the contents:

1 - Your Responsibilities

Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter2 - Contents
Chapter 3 - Openness to Ideas
Chapter 4 - Relationships with Colleagues
Chapter 5 - In the Office

Click here to download this chapter as a PDF.

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 chapter as a PDF.

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 Chapter 3 - Speaking Truth to Power as an inexpensive paperback from Politicos, from Amazon or as a Kindle eBook. 

4 - Leadership and Management

Chapter 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 chapter as a PDF.

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 chapter as a PDF.

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 chapter as a PDF.

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 chapter as a PDF.

8 - Competition

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 - What is Market Power?
Chapter 3 - Abuse of Dominance
Chapter 4 - Cartels
Chapter 5 - Mergers
Chapter 6 - Utility Regulation
Chapter 7 - Private Actions
Chapter 8 - Market Investigations
Chapter 9 - State Aids etc.

Click here to download this chapter as a PDF.

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 chapter as a PDF.

 

Martin Stanley