Earlier this week the IDeA and PPMA ran a conference on the topical issue of organisational design, at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Birmingham. At the conference delegates heard from a number of organisations on the approaches they had taken to redesigning their organisations in a bid to create sustainable structure and efficiency savings.

The conference topic was obviously contemporary, as the event was sold out. Further events are now planned across the region and a follow-up online conference is being held. Further details can be found on the IDeA website.

Interviews with some of the key speakers were recorded at the event and in this first clip, Gillian Hibberd, describes the approach taken in Buckinghamshire County Council as part of their wider transformation programme.

Here are the other video interviews from the event.

You might be interested to know that the last Leadership & OD Network meeting marked the first of a series of debates that we’re likely to hold on the topical issues of leadership and OD within the public sector.

Our first debate was on Changing The Way We Work (download a pdf of the notes from the meeting here) when we were joined by David Robinson from Herts County Council, Lucille Thirlby from Unison and John Atkinson from the Leadership Centre for Local Government. The work that Herts CC is undertaking on change is impressive and the debate allowed us to really get underneath the process being followed there and the people issues that surround it. There will be more on this topic in due course!

Watch this space and the PPMA website, for the next debate is likely to be on the thorny subject of the leadership and OD implications of LGR. We also want to link this to the experiences of other sectors, including the private sector in terms of acquisitions, mergers, divestments, joint ventures etc.

Richard Crouch - PPMA Lead Officer for OD & Leadership and Head of HR & OD, Somerset County Council