Comments on: Thoughts on Portsmouth’s Facebook ban

By: A few thoughts on the Facebook ‘fluffle « Policy and Performance

A few thoughts on the Facebook ‘fluffle « Policy and Performance — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:57:52 +0000

[...] thought Sharon O’Dea outlined some of the issues neatly: Firstly, the statistic isn’t a sound one; _____shire admit they can’t differentiate between [...]

By: paul canning

paul canning — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:48:43 +0000

What is ironic about this whole episode is that if you go to the website of the local paper who did the FOI that created this story you will find the vast majority of local residents commenting saying that the ban is a bad thing!

By: For the last time…stop blocking! | DavePress

For the last time…stop blocking! | DavePress — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:27:46 +0000

[...] Sharon has written a good account of this on her blog, and Shel has picked it up in the States. [...]

By: Dave Briggs

Dave Briggs — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:48:57 +0000

Sensible stuff, Sharon. Shame others in LocalGov are so enlightened!

By: sharonodea

sharonodea — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:09:13 +0000

That’s an interesting point, Rob. As the Work Foundation report says, decisions like Portsmouth’s have an impact on the way we view organisational culture. An organisation that characterises itself as one which doesn’t trust employees will struggle to attract those interested in bringing new ideas and innovation – all things the local government sector needs more of.

By: Mike Chitty

Mike Chitty — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:07:05 +0000

Get a feel for Mr Pink here: http://progmanager.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/autonomy-mastery-and-purpose-the-pmn-way/
18 minute video.

By: sharonodea

sharonodea — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:01:48 +0000

I haven’t read any of Dan Pink’s work – but I will do.

A simple ban is headline-grabbing (“council cuts down on dreadful waste”), but fails to consider what the true impacts are. Flexibility works both ways: treat your employees like adults and they’ll repay you by being flexible, working a little later if needed, being more engaged with the organisation, etc – all of which is worth far more to the organisation and the taxpayer than the five or six minutes a month “waste”.

How many employees have worked more than six minutes overtime this month in return for their employer’s flexibility?

By: Rob Styles

Rob Styles — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:49:46 +0000

Interesting piece, a nice summary of the issues involved.

I was talking with a council IT manager recently, I shan’t name him. He was talking about how heavily filtered web access was and felt it was perfectly reasonable. Non-web protocols such as IRC were completely blocked and non-work sites, including Facebook et al, were blocked – much like Portsmouth.

You mention the effect on employee engagement and empowerment. I wonder what effect it has on recruiting talented staff? Given the choice between higher pay, more trust and unfettered internet access in a private company and lower pay, filtered web access and less trust in local government I wonder how many truly talented technical staff are being turned away?

That’s not to imply there aren’t great technical staff working in local government, I know there are from events like localgovcamp – but could there be more with more trust?

rob

By: Mike Chitty

Mike Chitty — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:30:32 +0000

Excellent, well written piece. I could not agree more about the quality of management and supervisions and the importance of engagement. In my experience many councils handle this poorly!
Add in some of Dan Pink’s thinking on Purpose, Mastery and Autonomy and I think you get a further endorsement of a more ‘enlightened’ approach.

However my best guess is that this has more to do with ‘How it will go down with the voters’ rather than ‘How it will contribute to a culture of performance and engagement in the council’.

Which is a shame.