Delivering strategy by bringing values to life

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Delivering strategy by bringing values to
life BEST Raffaela Goodby Richard
Billingham John Bruce-Jones
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What is BEST?

• Employee engagement programme built around
  bringing to life Birminghams values of
• Belief Excellence Success Trust
• Led by change agents called BEST leaders bottom
  up approach
• Based on taking multiple small local actions to
  lead change
• Strong leadership from both CX Cabinet Member
• The BEST programme is 2 years into its journey

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Birmingham City Council

• Birmingham has 60,000 employees
• Based at 600 locations in Birmingham
• Largest Local Authority in Europe
• 2006 Employee Census identified commitment
• and trust as an issue
• Employees did not feel change was
• well managed
• New Chief Executive in 2006
• Embarking on business transformation programme
  large financial investment

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• How culture change was seen in 2006
• Changing processes and modern IT wont deliver on
  their own
• It calls for change in the attitudes and
  behaviours of leaders, teams and individuals
  right across the Council
• Has to start from the top
• We need to trust each other to deliver, but take
  responsibility

• From
• Avoiding responsibility
• Focusing on activities
• Letting bureaucracy slow things down
• Waiting for instructions from above
• Working in silos
• Looking inward

• To
• Taking responsibility
• Focusing on outcomes
• Working at pace and driving out waste
• Taking initiative and feeling empowered
• Working across the Council
• Looking outward to customers and stakeholders

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The core of BEST

• Workshop (c 3 hours)
• Working teams
• Run by a team member BEST Leader
• Values and behaviours tool
• Self-assessment and scoring
• Actions impactful
• Follow up
• Every team in the Council
• Strong and imaginative programme management to
  transfer learning and benefits

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Success of the programme to date

• Over 2,500 BEST leaders trained (1,800 in first 2
  months)
• Over 25,000 staff engaged in BEST workshops
• Over 6,000 committed actions in 2008 alone
• Unlocked creativity, energy innovation across
  the organisation

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What do people say
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Results
56 agree that I have never experienced anything
like the BEST programme during my career
Improved staff morale and engagement
Change in behaviour a culture of innovation
Improved services in Birmingham
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Improved staff morale and engagement

• Staff feeling motivated in their current job
  increased from 56 in 2006 to 83 in 2008
• Staff agreeing I feel proud to work for
  Birmingham City Council increased from 50 in
  2006 to 84 in 2008
• Staff saying that Birmingham City Council was
  all the way there or within sight of
  embedding the BEST values increased from 42 in
  2006 to 65 in 2008
• Staff saying I feel confident in the way that
  the senior management team is leading my
  directorate has increased from 29 in 2006 to
  62 in 2008
• 76 of employees are now strongly and frequently
  engaged (CIPD Kingston Business School
  assessment)

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Change in behaviour a culture of innovation

• BEST teams implemented an average of 2.7
  initiatives that successfully improved the
  service provided by the council
• 41 agree that BEST has improved the service
  delivered by my team to customers
• 60 believe that BEST has improved teamwork
  with the proportion of those satisfied with
  levels of teamwork increasing from 62 to 87
• Leadership skills have been built at all levels
  of the organisation

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Improved services in Birmingham

• About 135,000 Birmingham residents have benefited
  directly from these initiatives . For example
• a Christmas event for 200 Polish single parent
  families
• a sensory garden open to 60 disabled children,
• 120 rest home residents given a full library tour
  after enduring refurbishment noise
• BEST Managers reported that BEST improved
  productivity by an average of 20.5
• 66 of people in Birmingham agreed that the
  Council was well run, compared to 53 before BEST
  (MORI Residents Tracker Survey)

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Mini BEST workshop Excellence
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• Learning

1. Bottom up approach to change - Purpose
2. Energy and stickiness - Passion
3. Innovation - Performance
4. Senior leadership commitment
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What next for engagement in our
organisations? What next for BEST?
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Living It! Chamberlain Awards
Facebook Youtube Open Space
Generation BEST
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Dragons Den