Many leaders in public sector organisations are now talking about ways to create a more commercially driven mindset across their teams. Budget cuts and shrinking resources faced by local authorities have led to a greater need for income generation and creating efficiencies across services.

So how do you turn your public sector team into a commercially-minded team, when their passion and goal is to service their citizens, no matter what it takes?

Typically, those who work in the local authorities enter public sector life because they have strong values linked to servicing their communities and supporting the citizens in their cities, towns and villages.  A shift in mindset to become more commercially aware is a tricky business and requires a programme of culture change.

‘We’re here to serve the citizens of our city and are not beholding to shareholders’ a colleague recently stated.

‘My job isn’t about thinking about how we can generate income, it’s about keeping the parks looking good’ said another.

How do you get a group of people whose primary purpose is to provide a great service to the citizens of their towns and cities, then ask them to become more commercially focused?

So here’s the 8 steps we go through with our clients at Brightstone to instigate a culture change by including and utilising teams – working with them rather than against them.

• Create an honest picture about where you are as an organisation right now and explore the various realities of what could happen in the future.
• Start honest discussions, and give dynamic and convincing reasons to get people talking and thinking.
• Request support from customers, outside stakeholders and industry experts to strengthen your argument and case for change

Ensure you engage key players within your services and ensure that all relevant points of view are represented. People need to make informed decisions so all opinions need to be transparent.

The team that is leading and driving the change should be seen and respected by members of the organisation so that communications are taken seriously.

• Imaginable – a clear picture of what the future will look like
• Desirable, appealing to the long-term interest of employees, customers and others who have a stake in the change
• Feasible and containing realistic and attainable goals
• Focused and clear enough to provide guidance in decision making
• Flexible, allowing individual initiative and alternative responses
• Communicable and easy to explain

• Communicate the vision simply and vividly, (a verbal picture is worth a thousand words).
• Ensure that the vision is repeatable, the ideas should be able to spread by anyone, to anyone
• Allow two-way communication, this is always more powerful than one-way communication.
• Think about how many times you need to communicate it before it is clear and shareable.

• Identify change leaders whose main roles are to deliver the change
• Recognise and reward people for making change happen
• Identify people who are resisting the change, and support them

• Look for sure-fire projects that you can implement without help from any strong critics of the change
• Don’t choose early targets that are expensive. You want to be able to justify the investment in each project
• Thoroughly analyse the potential pros and cons of your targets. If you don’t succeed with an early goal, it can hurt your entire change initiative
• Reward the people who help you meet the targets

• After every win, analyse what went right and what needs improving
• Set goals to continue building on the momentum you’ve achieved
• Keep ideas fresh by bringing in new change agents and leaders for your change team

• Talk about progress every chance you get. Tell success stories about the change process, and repeat other stories that you hear
• Include the change ideals and values when hiring and training new staff
• Publicly recognise key members of your original change coalition, and make sure the rest of the staff – new and old – remembers their contributions
• Create plans to replace key leaders of change as they move on. This will help ensure that their legacy is not lost or forgotten