Please do not circulate these notes or quote from them directly during the
QA week
1. Some orientating questions about the persons role, new responsibility, change
Under the roll out of the new structure I created a new role, to move away from PM role, I’ve
made an offer to Paul and Chandra, a new role around oracle implementation, graduate
mentoring, rollout of our promise to Paul and Chandra (ultimate place to work) we did in Leeds.
There are a lot of add ons that are taking a hell of a lot of time to do, when Clinton left, I said to
Colin what do you want me to do, because I cant do it all
Chandra got back to me already and said thanks.
Changes to my role, I am more involved, since Alex been more of a mentor, his team look to me
for leadership, that’s to be expected, if someone goes to do something different, its been good
though, thoroughly enjoyed you guys working here, I have gotten a lot out of it. People are
actually more open now. People are less scared to say thing outright. We used to do things
because Paul never focused up here at all, he had his own part of the business to run, Reading
was his job and Perth was an inconvenience, you can see how the teams have been set up, he
was more aware of what was happening on his own patch, if anything happened up here, his
attitude was that we would manage.
2. What are the main focus of change you have seen since DPCR4
People are actually more open to discuss things and bring them to the front, they are not scared
to talk, it’s very refreshing, it’s a great attitude to have and long may it continue.
The ROM and the IR and the leadership thing have been fantastic keeps people on common goal,
Vision has knocked down walls, given people more ownership and responsibility, more
empowerment to do things.
3. What are the main improvements you have seen in your role?
Relationship between IM and PM , Dave joy for example was always left on a limb, he is a
specialist but a team player, he was always left, since the first ROM he was really surprised, he
was trying five years to get something done and in one ROM it was addressed, I was so pleased
for him, that eventually he could see some daylight at the end of the tunnel, and he had been
like that for a long time, that’s been happening for a lot of people, things are getting through
that they never thought would get through, like maybe the cheapest solution is not the best, and
that’s being addressed now.
It’s not always the Rolls Royce option that
Procurement has really come on board as well, not just looking at cheaper options, value for
money is different from costs, and that helps the PM role immensely, it helps everyone, it’s so
more satisfying to do a job well than to do it half arsed.
4. What are the frustrations you still have with your role?
None in principle, but the concerns that everyone has is that it gets back to the bad old days, but
nobody can predict the future, we can only accept it as it is at the moment, and at the moment
it’s very very good. I don’t think it will be allowed to go back, there will be too much pressure
form the likes of OFGEM, because ultimately that’s the customer, its not Ian merchant its
OFGEM, the general public that’s who we have to satisfy
5. What NEW frustrations, gaps, and difficulty you see?
The structure was badly communicated, I think everyone can put it down to that, Paul should
have done it in front of everyone at a meeting, the way it was emailed, was five to five on last
day of the promise and everyone got the wrong idea, that just shows the power of
communication and you have to think about the way things will be received.
Communications is something some people are just good at and some are not, sometimes
people who think about it too much should think to themselves, if I send this email, if I got it,
what would it say to me, email is a dangerous thing, once its sent its gone.
6. What is the main value you see derived from this new process?
I think the mood is better, people are more happy in their work, they are getting a wee bit more
appreciated, and getting spoken to, have more access to senior managers, they are not scared to
do that, its broken down a lot of barriers. Before the process started id been here five year and
Mark Mathieson had never said hello to me, now he speaks to me, he knows who I am. You
always have to think never ever ignore the people below you, because they support you, once
you show them support you must, its like a pyramid and you will me left in a heap if you keep
kicking out blocks from underneath you.
The thing id like to see getting developed is a way of rewarding people for work, I don’t know how,
but there are some great ideas and motivation out there, move away from the culture of kicking
people when they make a mistake, people tend to cover up mistakes if they know they are going to
get a kicking for it, you will do your best to hide it, if people are encouraged to come forward with
experience, to let people learn from experience, otherwise nobody learns from it. We are still very
bad at valuing and respecting and rewarding people as well but that’s a cultural thing, that might not
be SSE that may be society, the Scots are very very self depreciating, expect to get beaten in
everything, if we win it’s a bonus. We need to accept the fact that people make mistakes, and use
the mistakes to learn from, not criticise.