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Managing Change - A CPD event for CIPFA and ACCA members held at the Institute for Public Administration on 15 March 2006
Programme
The event was co-presented by Management Specialists from the IPA. The focus of the event was not on technical proficiency but aimed to explore the personal skills required in the roles played by finance managers in implementing organisational change. The elements of the event programme were:
• The Nature of Change
• The People Factor and Change
• The Implementation and Strategy of Change.
The first half of the event involved the completion and interpretation, in terms of managing change, of a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator self-reporting questionnaire. The purpose of this exercise was to enhance our understanding of ourselves and to appreciate important differences between people and understand how different types can work together in a complementary way.
The second half of the event covered the implementation of change, specifically:
• Environmental Analysis using the PESTEL methodology
• The Change Model and its impact on culture
• The Pace of Change
• Resistance to Change and Methods for Overcoming
• Force Field Analysis.
The Event concluded with a question and answer session.
Outcome/Review
The event was very well attended by people from a diversity of backgrounds. The location/facilities and materials provided were top class as were the event presenters. The high degree of interaction and ‘audience participation’ was a very successful feature of the event.
The event succeeded in all it set out to do. The core message that to successfully manage change it is necessary to enhance your understanding of others, the important differences between them, their motivations and expectations, their natural and most comfortable preferences and their potential areas for growth, was received loud and clear. The discussions outside the formal presentations with people from different backgrounds and experiences was also very enlightening and useful.
The event should be used as a template for other topics in future.
Billy Carrie CPFA
Forthcoming Events
The Branch are intending to hold meetings this year in Cork and Portlaois. Further details will be added here as soon as they become available.
CIPFA/IPA Conference, Croke Park Conference Centre
1st December 2005 on the theme: Governance and Performance - 'Getting the Balance Right'
The extent to which governance and accountability arrangements support or impair the delivery and achievement of high performance is a very relevant and timely issue for public service organisations, publicly-funded, implementation agencies and state bodies. This was the central theme of the 2005 IPA/CIPFA conference in Croke Park held on 1st December, where high profile and authoritative contributors provided their own unique perspectives on this important question.
Poor governance and accountability regimes may undermine confidence and trust in organisations and individuals' excessive governance and accountability requirements may stifle creativity and re-enforce a risk-averse culture, at a time when a modern, responsive and effective public service requires sensible opportunities to be grasped.
Speaker Contributions
Sean O Riordain, General Secretary, Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants in looking at Governance and Performance post Travers and Decentralisation suggested there are serious problems to be grappled with by Government. Among the issues he highlighted the need for Board Structures at central government level and protocols on ministerial decision-making, assessment of special advisors and their impact!! And his reservations on the Travers report which marks a watershed in the accountability arrangements between politicians and public servants. He also looked at the 'churning' which will happen as a result of decentralisation and how this will impact on the provision of quality public services.
Tom Boland, Chief Executive Higher Education Authority, asserted that in the context of Governance and performance of third level institutions that we need effective, innovative, flexible and well governed higher education institutions if we are to successfully create a knowledge based economy and society. We can also be sure that we will not have such institutions if we pursue a route of heavy handed regulation, focus on inputs and excessive bureaucracy and compliance burdens.
Gerry Kearney, Secretary General, Dept of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, suggested that you cannot have a one size fits all governance system and that there has been a failure to anchor performance of measurement and reporting within the Governance infrastructure of public bodies generally.
John Treacy Irish Sports Council, emphasised the need for much greater performance scrutiny and accountability as funding for sports increases and the dilemma of reconciling increasing professionalism and strong volunteerism.
John Cregan, Health Services Executive identified that key factors affecting the performance of the HSE are VESTED INTERESTS and the BLAME CULTURE which pervades many aspects of modern Irish Society. He suggested that there is a danger of service priorities being sidetracked and innovation and risk taking stifled.
Bill Connell, IFAC, discussed how organisational conformance, or corporate governance arrangements may impair organisational performance if there is not an appreciation of the balancing both requirements.
Ray Dolan, Branch Chair, thanked all those who attended and the presenters, who contributed to the very lively debate throughout the day on 'Getting the Balance Right'. He concluded by thanking the Organising Committee and the IPA for doing a great job of organising the Conference.
2005 AGM
The Annual General Meeting of the Branch took place in the IPA on 4 April 2005 during an afternoon of activities organised by the Branch. The Meeting was attended by CIPFA President Mike Barnes and Steve Freer, the Chief Executive.
The afternoon included a presentation by Eileen Cummins of CIPFA on the subject of mandatory Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and, appropriately enough, a CPD presentation by Ian Drennan (CEO, Irish Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority) on the likely structures for the statutory regulation of the accountancy and audit profession in Ireland.
The evening was concluded with the Branch Dinner held in the Berkeley Court Hotel and attended by An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD.