BEING one of the facilitators of the national development project that has gone on to become Unionlearn, the TUC’s training arm, enabled insights to management in a range of organisations.

Ninety per cent of organisations had flaws ranging from minor to serious. The national Management Services Centre recently gave the figure as 80 per cent.

Management often lacks knowledge of what is happening at ground level. They expect instructions to be obeyed and workers are pressured to do so.

Organisations where all levels met and explored procedures had senior managers saying: “I thought I knew my organisation.

I do now.” In large organisations, these kinds of meetings are difficult to arrange and require independent facilitators.

Tony Hayward recognised this problem when he was head of exploration and production at BP. In 2008, he told staff in the US, where BP’s reputation has been hit by a series of problems, that the top brass was out of touch. “We have a leadership style that probably is too directive and doesn’t listen sufficiently well to what the bottom of the organisation is saying,” he reportedly said.

Broad recognition and change is required in this type of situation through across-the-structure discussion facilitated by an independent person.

Bill Morehead, Darlington.