Working together – Winning Answer
“There was a ministerial mandate to improve Management Information (MI) across Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) and the department was considered ‘Red-Amber’ with its Cabinet Office reporting.
As an analytical head of profession, I was happy to take on an MI champion role and took the initiative to set up a group of MI users in various parts of the office. In agreement with the members and the finance director, I devised and established terms of reference for the group. I used our meetings to keep everyone in the wider strategic picture, gain their feedback, improve our quality and keep progress on track. Where others were the subject matter experts, I encouraged them to take a leading role and supported with my analytical expertise. I also made time and effort to work very closely alongside the Cabinet Office, Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) and others. I reached out to them and built a collaborative relationship, rather than just waiting and responding to requests. I knew when to harness the leverage of more senior colleagues and took the initiative to get a cabinet office exec to come and meet our chief operating officer, and ensured we followed up. I kept our minister of state apprised of progress in bimonthly oral briefs before his efficiency and reform meetings (my team also coordinates all correspondence and departmental responses on this area). Through my leadership and the team’s actions, the department has moved up to ‘Green’ in the department performance tables, which will be reflected in the appraisal and in the department annual report.”
The STAR model has been used perfectly here. The actions taken are clearly described, and the emphasis is given to the collaborative work across departments and with their team.
