Working with the grain
Political acumen and influence.
A half day on political acumen and influence: the councillor's role, reading the political system, political leadership, member-officer relationships, power and negotiation.
- Level
- Explore
- Learning time
- 4 hours 30 minutes
- Where
- Serving the public
- Price
- £129
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Council officers and managers who work with elected members and need to influence across a changing political landscape
Overview
Officers work every day in a political environment, and when the organisation changes, so does the landscape of members, groups and relationships. This half day begins with the councillor's role, the many hats members wear and the Seven Principles of Public Life. It reads the political system through stakeholders, Mendelow's power-interest matrix, political groups and the owl, fox, donkey or sheep model, then explores political leadership and the Cabinet Team, and member-officer relationships through transactional analysis. It closes with power and influence, from French and Raven's six bases and Weber's authority to Fisher and Ury's principled negotiation.
Aims
The aim is to develop officers with the political acumen to work well with elected members and to influence with integrity, whatever shape the authority takes. It is for officers and managers who want to read the political system clearly and build relationships with members that serve residents well.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Describe the councillor's role and the Seven Principles of Public Life, and read the political system around a decision using stakeholder and power-interest mapping.
- Build effective member-officer relationships by distinguishing political from managerial leadership and using transactional analysis to understand how words land.
- Influence with integrity, using the bases of power and principled negotiation to reach agreements that last.
What you'll develop
Across this Explore, you will develop the ability to:
- Describe the four dimensions of a councillor's role, representative, decision maker, community leader and case worker, and explain why they pull in different directions.
- Use Mendelow's power-interest matrix to map the stakeholders around a decision and decide who to brief first, and how.
- Distinguish discretionary from prescribed activity, and transactional from transformational leadership, and explain how members and officers sit differently on each.
- Distinguish political from managerial leadership and explain where the two legitimately overlap.
- Distinguish influence, power and authority, and identify which of French and Raven's six bases of power you and others are drawing on.
- Distinguish positions from interests and apply Fisher and Ury's four principles of principled negotiation.
Built from 6 modules.
4 hours 30 minutes of learning.
- 01Foundations: The Councillor's Lifecycle and the Many Hats They WearWorking in a Political Environment42 min
- 02Reading the Political SystemWorking in a Political Environment43 min
- 03Political LeadershipWorking in a Political Environment45 min
- 04Member-Officer RelationshipsWorking in a Political Environment41 min
- 05Foundations: Power, Authority and the Anatomy of InfluenceInfluence, Persuasion and Negotiation54 min
- 06Negotiation Foundations: From Positions to InterestsInfluence, Persuasion and Negotiation45 min
