I’ve worked in, around and on the civil service for 25 years, and a lot has changed. In fact, its defining features include constant evolution and a determination to adapt to shifting circumstances – no matter how volatile or tough the environment. But one thing has remained constant, frozen in time like a fossilised diplodocus: hierarchy.
The image of a dinosaur is deliberate, because if there’s one cultural artefact still to be killed off, one norm that needs to de-normalised, it is hierarchy. For many senior civil servants, it’s easy to forget what life is like lower down the system: how little trust is afforded to people who are more junior, and the multiple levels of approval that have to be navigated to get the simplest of things done. But hierarchy – and its deadening companion, deference – create a huge drag on our civil service.
This was illustrated to me when I was with the National Audit Office (NAO), costing the procurement process for routine, low-value items in a particular department. The average administrative cost of buying each of tens of thousands of low-value purchases was £79; imagine the total bill! It was following this NAO report that the Government Procurement Card was introduced, sensibly replacing expensive multiple layers of approval with greater personal trust and greater transparency of purchasing. The financial savings alone have been enormous.
This requirement for deference is not confined to processes and procedures; it’s a widely-experienced cultural norm that finds its way into a host of areas and activities – from the costly and time-consuming re-drafting and ‘wordsmithing’ of letters as they climb the rungs of the hierarchy, to the way in which internal advice is shaped and fitted to secure the approval of people further up the line.
One particular expression of deference that constrains organisational change is the ‘Consent & Evade’ phenomenon. The boss stands in front of the organisation or team, and announces a big strategic change. Employees smile and nod as if consenting; but when they return to their workspaces with their questions unanswered, they privately evade the call to arms. This lack of authentic support is difficult to detect, at least initially, and leaders may mistakenly believe that all is on course.
The problems don’t end here. There is nothing more certain to strangle innovative ideas at birth than cultures of deference. As the writer Victoria Holtz put it: “The best way to kill creativity in a team is by letting the boss speak first.” To be agile – as civil service bodies must be – organisations need to encourage frank, fearless, and unfettered dialogue about the changing environment and internal culture. Harvard’s Professor Heifetz enjoys asking his students: “What are the realities that we are not currently facing?” Too often, we let the ‘elephant in the room’ wander around, knocking over furniture while being resolutely ignored. Former cabinet secretary Lord O’ Donnell often reminded colleagues that they should “ask for forgiveness and not for permission” – but while this was exactly the right sentiment, everything else in the culture was telling them the exact opposite. We should hasten the death of deference in the civil service, and remove layers of hierarchy. But how to trigger a change of this magnitude, and what should replace them?
First, the symbols of deference – such as large executive offices, the senior team’s inaccessibility, frequent references to grade, and overly formal meeting protocols – must be dismantled. There are no shortages of symbols and conventions that signify departments’ attitudes towards deference, and addressing these should be a priority.
Second, leaders should turn the volume up on junior staff’s contributions, allowing ideas to flow freely through the system and facilitating better engagement between different levels. This will go some way to tackling the ‘Consent & Evade’ phenomenon and the tendency to allow the unsayable to remain unsaid.
Third, senior civil servants should build capabilities at more junior levels, so they can confidently hand down executive power – empowering people who are closer to the issues at hand. Better management information and more frequent strategic discussions between people at different levels can encourage managers to make these changes – but it also requires a different kind of leadership. For years, our notion of leadership has revolved around a command-and-control, hierarchical model. Glimpses of a new form of leadership have been seen through the employee engagement lens, but we need a much bolder and more fulsome set of changes to how leadership is conceived and delivered.
Finally, we should value the positive tension introduced by innovations such as the Freedom of Information Act, whistleblowing procedures, and the arrival of non-executive directors. These developments may seem onerous and, at times, bothersome, but they’re important mechanisms for making challenge, transparency and inclusive dialogue a natural part of civil service culture. It’s very difficult for an organisation to be both hierarchical and agile; or for a civil servant to be both deferential and innovative. So let’s equip the civil service to succeed: let’s flatten the pointy pyramid!
Robin Ryde is a former head of the National School of Government, and now runs a management consultancy. He is also a management author, with four published books.