Live at Earl's Court

Today I was speaking with my Audit Commission colleague David Pottruff at an LGC conference on transforming performance management in district councils at Earl's Court. It's a big venue and a number of other events were going on or being advertised - they all seemed to include the description "Live" - as if they might have otherwise been pre-recorded or dead? Actually, they all were described as LIVE except for our conference and one other exhibition that actually did feature dead folks (warning - gruesome link), so I guess maybe the distinction was handy.



It was good to do the conference. David and I haven't done a two-hander on the PMMI project for quite a while, and since the project has now officially finished we may not get another chance for a while. I think it went pretty well, no one threw any rotten fruit anyway. But David had to suffer through a few jibes at the Audit Commission. He's used to it. I guess it's understandable, in a way - the Commission has come to personify the burden of regulation - even if that's not entirely accurate or fair. When I worked for the Audit Commission, I got used to the jibes, too. Sometimes I experienced downright hostility at conferences. Since I've been working at the IDeA, though, I usually get a nice, warm welcome and the chance to laugh at David when he just has to take it.

It enjoyed the conference overall. In terms of partnership topics, there was a fantastic presentation from Nigel Riglar, Strategic Director at Stroud District Council. David and I had been speaking about performance management culture - and Nigel did too - about the relationships and the attitudes that can make partnerships really deliver.

Nigel said that he had read some American research about the characteristics of effective partnerships - and that it had mentioned the concept of "good finders". These are people who always work with the system - or despite it. People who are able to make the best of what's available - the performance management systems, the relationships, etc - and make something that's bigger than the sum of its parts. These are the talent finders, the enthusiasts and the doers. I couldn't find the reference in a quick search of the Internet. Perhaps someone else has seen it?

There was also a presentation from Tesco's Katherine Edwards. She spoke about their approach to performance management - which was fascinating. Katherine carries out consultation with local communities as part of Tesco's planning application for new stores. They seem to be listening. Tesco have now added a "community" aspect to their performance management balanced scorecard.

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