It’s been a whole year since Jenny joined the council. Her anniversary was recognised at the monthly team meeting (Rochelle made cupcakes); however, Jenny didn’t feel like celebrating.
Over the year, some progress was made regarding the new Contract Management Policy. Still, most of the time, Jenny was being pulled in too many directions (including acting in the role of CFO for ten weeks during Terry’s long service leave) to be able to focus effectively. These additional duties and side projects were exceedingly demanding and often distracted Jenny from delivering on the initial vision she had described during her interview.
Pushing for change
Jenny didn’t feel that the Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) was giving enough focus (or allocating enough resources) to mitigate the risks highlighted by the contract dispute that led to her role being created a year ago.
Jenny had been asked to present to the SLT how changes to contract management had improved over the past 12 months. She decided that she wasn’t going to sugarcoat it but tell it like it is; not much had changed at all. Council MUST make a cultural shift regarding contract management.
Jenny’s presentation highlighted that:
- Contracts were still being managed inconsistently or not at all.
- Audit recommendations were still not addressed.
- The Contract Management Framework was seen as an unnecessary red tape by staff.
- Staff were taking the ‘path of least resistance’ to establish contracts.
- Her role had little or no authority, so many simply ignored her advice.
- The SLT was unwilling to ‘see this through’ and support her strategy.