Working with West Lancashire Council to break away from ‘business as usual’ and develop a sustainable target operating model – RedQuadrant

• Lead Member RedQuadrant
• Categories Community, Strategy

Facing a budget gap of around £1.9m and difficulties around policy options to balance the budget, the Council began working with RedQuadrant on a ‘Sustainable Organisation Review’. The council made the change from ‘business as usual’ in order to identify organisational arrangements to deliver the Council’s key priorities, maintain service provision and secure a balanced budget position.

The new model would need to address historical working practices and focus on service improvements. The Council would need to take advantage of the opportunities presented by deploying digitally enabled services, more efficient processes, collaborative working both internally and externally with key partners alongside a new customer focused and entrepreneurial staff culture would be key building blocks.

We worked alongside West Lancashire staff, engaging deeply with staff at all levels of the organisation to obtain a deep understanding of the issues faced by the organisation. This was supported by applying our overarching five worlds methodology. Shown in the diagram, it is particularly useful when looking at whole-organisation structures and operations, because it is based on a systems approach and therefore considers the total picture.

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