EVERY MAN (AND WOMAN) FOR THEMSELVES? Data Driven Insights and the PMSA
“The consequences of our actions take hold of us, quite indifferent to our claim that meanwhile we have 'improved’.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
RE-LIVING THE PMSA’S GREATEST “HITS”
A couple of Blogs and an “instructional” video ago, we briefly discussed something very very important that we think is missing from the candy-coated “business - resurrection fantasy” that the PMSA likes to term its “governance reform” process.
We commented that the PMSA had never undertaken the most fundamental and necessary step that is required to fix EVERY organisational failing. If you haven’t done so already, put aside the PMSA’s snazzy and expensive “drone” filled “strategic” videos and please read some of the their announcements via the AICD Statement of Work, the wafer thin Governance Reforms Paper and it’s last couple of equally thin governance reform “updates”. (If you need a refresher, you can conveniently access some of them them here:
1.0 Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association Statement of Work: AICD Governance Review (See: https://pmsa-schools.edu.au/files/AICD_Statement_Of_Work.pdf)
2.0 Governance Reforms Paper – 14 September 2018 (See: https://pmsa-schools.edu.au/files/PMSA_Governance_Reform.pdf)
3.0 PMSA Community Letter – 17 November 2017 (See: [See: Letter to PMSA School Community 17/11/2017)
Notice anything missing from ALL of these documents (especially the last one which seems to have been mysteriously “removed” from the PMSA website along with any other evidence of mafia styled “hits” on a rightly hurt and outraged community)? Read them very carefully. Yes, the PMSA haven’t identified ANY failings in their organisation. Yes, you heard right. We have all simply received discussion papers that don’t identify or admit to ANY failings at all.
They have spoken about “improvement”, and in some later more nebulous statements about “doing better”– but they haven’t specifically identified “PROBLEMS” that give rise to the need for the “reforms” that they are undertaking and WHY their proposed reforms will FIX them. Really?
By design, the PMSA offer no form of objective benchmark against which success or failure can be measured. And when you offer up a “solution” that is not linked to an actual problem or failing – well….your solution can’t fail !
Wait, is that how it’s supposed to work ?? Yes, it’s perfect…if you’re NOT operating as a trustworthy and accountable organisation and you think the community of “customers” is stupid and unworthy of respect. (Thank goodness for the sanctuary of Letters Patent, we hear the PMSA say?)
SAYING ‘I LOVE YOU’ SOUNDS MUCH BETTER COMING FROM THE INSIDE OF A LEOPARD TANK…??
And while we’re at it, let’s go back to the PMSA’s letter to the community of 17 November 2017 that we referred to above - (yes, the one that conveniently doesn’t “exist” at all anymore except on our online platform). There is not even a hint of a recognition within it that the PMSA has problems. (There is certainly no apology for the PMSA’s behaviour or an admission of wrongdoing). In fact in the most abnoxious and insulting manner possible, the letter blatantly ATTACKS the community and accuses all of YOU of being the PROBLEM. The letter lays out a long list of the PMSA’s grievances against YOU. That’s right – YOU’RE the problem, not the PMSA!
And bear in mind that this was all before the PMSA delivered a 19 month late apology to Flo Kearney admitting (albeit in a very circuitous, evasive and non-specific fashion) that THEY actually had done wrong. So not only have the PMSA wronged YOU in the first place (and not apologised for it), they ACCUSED YOU of being the problem for standing up and demanding change and reform.
A Forbes article referred to in one of our most recent blog posts summed it up perfectly when talking about mistakes and brand damage. It stated:
"There are valuable lessons to be learned [from these PR crises]. A key takeaway for brands is that it’s necessary to apologize immediately after an offensive mistake has been made, especially in the current age of social media, when minor missteps are amplified into major crises within a matter of minutes. Refusing to acknowledge a mistake or apologize will create additional negative attention, and the longer you wait, the worse it will be. The general public will be using social media to voice their expectations of what you should do while they anticipate your response. In a crisis, consumers deserve an apology, and they expect it to be immediate, sincere and devoid of corporate jargon."
In our situation, it was hardly a “minor mistake”, - it was many HUGE mistakes, (some would argue much more than just “mistakes” at that). But if the PMSA won’t apologise to the community for it’s clearly abnoxious and false accusations (and the tone of their Submission on the Letters Patent Application speaks volumes about its continuing “attitude” to us all (see our blog: https://www.beyondpmsa.com/single-post/2019/05/06/The-Smartest-Guys-in-the-Room)), then why has the November 2017 letter “disappeared” from the pages of electronic history all of a sudden ??? If PMSA still stand behind their statements and their accusations – put it back up !
Yes, what better way to say “I love you” to the community than through aggressive lawyers and consultants. Cause saying I love you sounds much more sincere coming from the inside of a leopard tank….
THE CENTRAL THEME OF CHRISTIANITY (LIKE BUDDHISM) ISN’T “EVERY PERSON FOR THEMSELVES”
The PMSA still doesn’t know how to put the lawyers in the back of the Ute and truly connect with its community. We can all see that from the nature of their engagement, because it seems to many that what is being offered by the PMSA and the Churches is more about protecting the entrenched positions and vested interests of some who want history to treat them kindly rather than something that will truly “heal hearts”. Are we the only ones who think that it’s strange for a Church backed organisation to adopt that sort of confronting posture? Well, we need to clear something up here – the last time we checked, the central theme of Christianity wasn’t “every man (and woman) for themselves”. The refusal to admit to (and identify) failings, coupled with the above behaviours demonstrates precisely how the PMSA has decided to approach this debate.
And what of the Churches? Schools are an essential ecosystem for Churches to nurture if they are to stay relevant in 21st Century Australia and have a community of committed followers for the future. If that is a key part of their strategy for relevance (and it should be) then why are they not taking a more public “hands on” role in the debacle that is the PMSA? The PMSA continues to be a risk to the growth and health of that ecosystem. The Churches response (to date) has been to INCREASE trust in the PMSA. This has confounded the community because the reality is that the PMSA is a control FAILURE which has, and continues, to create significant reputational damage for both churches and PMSA Schools.
The PMSA and the Churches clearly view all of this as an “us” and “them” scenario, and they’re hanging onto all the life preservers while the ship that we are all on is listing badly. That’s not how to build a community. That’s not how to build a Church. And it’s’ certainly NOT how you HEAL HEARTS and rebuild TRUST.
The PMSA never had a handle on community sentiment and true community perceptions about the problems within the culture of their organisation back in 2017, and they still don’t in 2019. A clear absence of any interest in obtaining and authentically acting upon objective DATA DRIVEN INSIGHTS is a key part of their problem.
ONLY DATA DRIVEN INSIGHTS WILL COUNTERACT THE WEIRD “COOLADE”
And so to the main point of this Blog – this thing called “Data”.
In our Blog entitled “Drawing a Picture of Big Governance” on 14 May 2019 (see: https://www.beyondpmsa.com/single-post/2019/05/14/Drawing-a-Picture-of-BIG-Governance), we stated that the PMSA didn’t have a handle on community sentiment and true community perceptions about the problems within the PMSA. We said:
“The PMSA really does need to get a better handle on the true depth of community sentiment than it presently has. It is in a bubble. Our schools can’t survive and thrive as a community of “us and them”. “Open Days”, “strategic videos” and the occasional “governance update” won’t change that. It’s fluff.
If the PMSA don’t believe Beyond PMSA, then a genuinely transparent community survey, designed and analysed independently (with disclosure of un-redacted results) might be an informative place to start and “build” from. IBM said it best once when they stated that “56% of executives said their companies lacked the capabilities to deliver data driven insights”. Perhaps the PMSA’s problem is not that it doesn’t have the capabilities – it just refuses to gain insight because it refuses to gather and take on board the data at all. For the benefit of the schools, the PMSA needs to get over their very apparent fear of what those results might show and just get on with it. It needs to happen.”
Oh, if the PMSA would just take that idea onboard and get a genuine clue about why it needs to undertake proper structural reform and how it should be delivered.
They wont. And unfortunately, even if they do decide to move down the path of “getting a clue” through genuine data driven analysis, then we all know that they will most likely do what they have always done:
1. They will be loud about the fact that they are (presumably) employing some industry leading consultant to advise them and give them “credibility by association” on this new and wonderful journey called “data driven insights” – (like they are really interested in finding out what you think about them);
2. They will then be “selective” about the advice that they take from those poor qualified and well regarded professionals;
3. As a consequence they will miss the point entirely and DESIGN the questions in order to deliver them all of the answers that they LIKE – not the answers that they NEED; and last but not least
4. As usual, you – the long suffering community - won’t be given un-redacted and transparent feedback about what they find.
Simply put, they will spike our collective bucket of coolade once again with popular management “speak” to give the illusion that they are “in tune with their environment” and operating in the 21st century.
So if that’s the case, then maybe the PMSA could just look back to the ONLY statement from their 17 November 2017 letter that Beyond PMSA DO agree with, and which seemed to understand community sentiment about their function perfectly. They stated: “Our intention is to operate within a lean environment to ensure PMSA resources are geared to its educational mission of the schools rather than sustaining an expensive bureaucracy.” They then said in closing (about its governance review) that “It is in no way, shape or form a centralisation strategy”. YES. THEY ACTUALLY SAID THAT – AND ARE NOW DOING PRECISELY THE OPPOSITE AS A PERCEIVED SURVIVAL RESPONSE. Oh how the environment, “intentions” (and consultants) have changed.
KEEP IT SIMPLE TO BEGIN WITH !
So we have an overly optimistic idea about one really simple data driven insight that the PMSA can start with to “ease” them into the whole thing. How about going out with a survey to the entire community (including those who were part of the community in 2017) asking:
Do you, as a member of the community, believe that you deserve an apology for the PMSA actions in 2017; and
Do you consider that the community has received an authentic apology from the PMSA?
Two pretty simple questions, that can each be answered by a one word response (to protect the PMSA against more revealing and amplified angry responses). There’s no margin for error in the data with that approach! Perhaps then the PMSA might get an accurate picture of precisely how “in tune” it is with broader community sentiment. But that’s their true nightmare, so we doubt that they will do it. For that reason….
We are not going away.
Beyond PMSA
