Apres Moi - Le Deluge

The phrase in French, above is the motto of 617 Squadron, who you will recall took on a mission to breach several dams in Germany during the Second World War. It was an unbelievable feat of engineering, planning, logistics, skill and bravery against a backdrop of attempting to defeat an enemy of seemingly indomitable might. It was an article in this week’s Daily Telegraph that brought it once again to mind. (“Zombie Managers are sleepwalking into a rude awakening”. Matthew Lynn, D.T. Sat 27 Jun 2020).

Matthew Lynn writes about what I tend to refer to as ‘Non-Jobs’. ‘Time ninja’, ‘retail jedi’, ‘content hero’ are just some of the ones he cites. There has been massive growth in areas that we seemed to get on OK without before; Public relations jobs in the UK have gone up from 39,000 to 57,000 in the last decade, and according to Harvard Business Review, over $20bn a year is spent by organisations on ‘Corporate Social Responsibilty’. I say ‘organisations, because this isn’t just the private sector - it is prolific within public bodies too. This is what they are spending your taxes on!

After a couple of years in the police service in the early 1990’s, I developed a pretty clear sense of what was actually needed; It was all about the front line. That work which was being done at the ground level, in neighbourhoods was key to building good relationships with the public, and meeting the basic tenet of policing as set out by Robert Peel in 1829; its success is measured by the absence of crime and disorder. Sure, there’s a need for specialists who can detect better, and solve the really tricky stuff like fraud and abhorrent crimes against people, but there is still a good deal of ‘fluff’. I always wanted to set up a ““What the F*ck do you do?” Department, where a crack team went round and put people on the spot with that very question. If they couldn’t answer within a couple of sentences then they had to get their big hat and coat on and get back out on the beat! I reckon in my old force of 3500 officers, I could likely have put another 300 where it really mattered.

So lets thing of Coronavirus as the dams raid. The Ruhr and Mohne have been breached, and my goodness - here comes the deluge!

Organisations are watching their reservoirs run dry. They are going to be lucky if they survive - although of course the public sector always will. Even here on the Isle of Man, councils (yes, for a population of 85,000 we actually have 22 of them!) are hollering that without knackered companies paying their statutory rates, that it can’t afford to run itself! Well, I’ve got some news for them…

Companies are now realising that they can actually achieve just as much with less people. That might even mean the move to a much less salubrious Town Centre premises, leaving an empty building. That isn’t then providing a business rates income - so, the council is going to have to run the same exercise as the private sector, and start to cut its cloth accordingly.

This isn’t all bad news. People are going to be let go, without a doubt. But I believe a lot of the things that were done in house will move to an external provider. Marketing, HR, PR and accounts are all elements that could tip either way. Where the real issues arises is where the staffing review identifies a position that gets everyone looking at each other asking “What the hell were we thinking when we created that job?” It might be alright for Google to have an in-house dream imagineer, but there ain’t actually many companies where that is really OK! These people are going to have to reinvent themselves.

There is a deluge of decent, talented and enthusiastic people about to drain out of the doors of many organisations, and there are many more who may be kept on but are on borrowed time, until such as the private sector really has a word with itself about what it is there for, and what it really needs to provide. This is going to be difficult, on both a personal and societal level as people look for both a way to earn a living, and the fulfillment, affirmation and validation that having a job brings to them. So what can those of us left in the ‘fortunate pot’ do to help?

Personally, I tend to do more pro bono work than is probably healthy, but I can’t stop myself! I hate to see people on their uppers, and if I can do a little bit to help them get out of the traps then that is time well spent. I sometimes say to them “when you can, write me a cheque for what the help was worth to you!” Coaching conversations often help in those early days of despair, by providing that space, time and structure to start to map out the road ahead. I believe that organisations have this responsibility too, making sure that when people have to be let go they do as much as they can to help resettle them.But above all, it is critical that they have an effective organisational memory, and when they’ve rebuilt the dam wall it isn’t weakened with a plethora of non-jobs, where contribution, and ultimately professional fulfillment is desperately lacking. Coaching can help here too, focussing leadership teams on what the strategy is, and what resources are needed to prosecute it. It can be so easy to allow yourself to be blown off course, but can you really afford the risk these days?

Derek Flint Cert.Ed., MCIPR