by Tim Dickson | Sep 1, 2026 | Articles, Eighth Edition
Building resilience for a new reality At a friend’s birthday party some years ago, guests had to sing for their supper by declaring, then justifying in a 60-second ‘presentation’, their favourite word in the English language. Mine wasn’t, and still isn’t,... 
by Tim Dickson | May 27, 2026 | Articles, Seventh Edition
History’s lessons There are several surprising and provocative insights in the recent Heywood Quarterly podcast on public sector leadership, which took as its starting point a fascinating study on failing schools in England. One that stood out to me is that the... 
by Tim Dickson | Mar 3, 2026 | Articles, Sixth Edition
Time to deliver It’s almost a quarter of a century since the Downing Street Delivery Unit was set up under New Labour, based on a proposal drafted before the 2001 election by Michael Barber, Jonathan Powell (Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff) and Jeremy Heywood (then... 
by Tim Dickson | Nov 18, 2025 | Articles, Fifth Edition
The State of trust Sixteen months ago Keir Starmer said the fight for trust would be “the battle that defines our age.” The uphill challenge facing him and everyone working in the public sector was laid bare a year earlier in the 2023 OECD Trust in Government Survey,... 
by Tim Dickson | Jul 3, 2025 | Articles, Fourth Edition
Opportunities to adapt – and to improve lives In the private sector, ‘transformation’ consultants and chief executives of beleaguered companies often talk about ‘burning platforms’, dire situations they can turn to advantage by requiring obstructive employees and...
