I'm doing a lot of work on culture, at Somerset County Council. I'll post a couple of old articles, just to get things started on the blog, and then aim to keep things up-to-date


Cultured Club

I sent an invitation to colleagues in August and September last year, to join me in looking at culture at Somerset County Council. The response was great and resulted in a number of lively workshops across the county.

We covered a number of subjects, defining what we think culture is, what determines it, culture at Somerset County Council and what great culture looks and feels like. Conversation was open, humorous but serious and there was a real sense of caring for colleagues and services. One person admitted in later feedback, “If I’m honest I was dreading it…”, but ended up by exclaiming that it had been “a joy to be part of.” And no, that wasn’t when someone else substituted for me.

Participants were asked to take this work back to their teams, using a shorter presentation, and through them we got conversations happening in areas across the council. Colleagues were asked to make ‘pledges’, so something they could achieve that would have a positive impact on culture.

We’re now ready for round two of the workshops and you don’t need to have attended the first round to take part. I’ll present back on the themes that came out of the first sessions, so showing what’s important to colleagues and areas that you’d like to see developed. There will be some feedback on the pledges that people made, to see how you’ve found them and where we’ve got with things. I’ll also present a piece of work called the 21st Century Public Servant. Finally, we’ll look at something called ‘Culture Hacks’, which will focus on bringing teams together to make real improvements in areas that they are interested in.

I’m looking for a new People Strategy coming out of this work, to clearly establish the link between the work that we all do and how this improves lives for the citizens of Somerset.

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