Why conduct a review?

• Address performance or other problems.
• Counter the lack of market forces to drive change in not-for-profit organisations.
• Respond to rapid external change.
• Provide an input to strategy development.
• Retain external legitimacy.
• Cut across functional boundaries and tackle the risk of silo mentality.
• Drive improvement when there is no embedded continuous improvement process or culture.

What you might review

• The performance of the whole organisation.
• Individual business processes.
• Individual functions.
• Organisational capability. (The first four Capability Reviews of government Departments have now reported see the summary of what they found.)

or complete an enquiry form and find out how we can help you with an organisational review.

Experience

Northern Ireland Local Government Association - Strategic review.

Inland Revenue – Review of customer contact by post

Local Government Association  - Quinquennial Review of the Local Authorities’ Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS). 

Department of Work and Pensions - Review of inspection, monitoring and support (in relation to Local Authority administration of Housing Benefit).

HM Revenue & Customs – Support organisation review

Key Lessons

• Independent reviews are more likely to produce radical solutions, but are also more likely to be resisted.
  
  Genuine involvement of the area under review is crucial. Do the review with them rather than to them so far as possible.
• Reviews can sometimes fix today’s problems but fail to anticipate tomorrow’s needs. A thorough scan of the environment always pays dividends.
• Review teams are often comprised of the organisation’s best and brightest, but there is always a learning curve and sometimes the result is amateurish.
  
  A review team needs a clear mental model of what it is trying to do and may need expert external support.
• The least impactful reports are those that rely only on the review team’s opinions, the most impactful are those which have unearthed unanswerable "killer facts" which can drive change. Take a data-based, evidence-led approach.
• Review reports often do not lead to action, and simply become "shelf-ware". Define the acceptance and decision making arrangements early on.
  
  Always produce Emerging Findings and have dialogue about them with those who must implement the outcome.