Devolution is the talk of the talk of the town just now. Andy Burnham is the new UK PM and will set up an office in Manchester. He is talking of further devolved politics and increased power for the regional mayors. He is talking of a major departure from the top-down power politics of the past.

Top down CSOs

Coincidentally, many CSOs still have top down decision-making structures. They are heavily centralised with huge staff at the head of the pyramid. Is that appropriate, or is it something that now needs to change? Do CSOs need to devolve too?

For an example of top-down decision-making, take the appointment of a new district lead for a CSO. The district is a vast rural place with tens of local groups. The district lead manages the lot. In the hierarchy, groups report to districts. And districts report to regions. Regions are headed by a regional lead, supported by their entourage. Regions report to a chief at the national headquarters. So as an example, who makes the decision about who to appoint as district lead when that vacancy arises? Who decides on the next manager in the middle of this hierarchy?

Contrasting the CSO situation with a large firm or local government organisation, and under a top down structure, the answer would be simple. The senior manager at the regional level decides everything below. There’s no democracy. There’s no devolution. Those regional and national managers may even be involved in appraisals and disciple of district and group level staff. Bizarre. There is no way under such a traditional management structure that anyone at the district or group level of a firm will be involved.

So is this sort of top-down appointment right?

Is it right that the local managers, local trustees, and the like should have no say?

Simply, no. The reasons why it’s wrong to ignore the local managers and local trustees are simple.

The reasons

Those managers several hundred miles away in the region or in the capital headquarters are unlikely to understand the district. Most will never have worked there. Most will be steeped in their own environment. Every management environment is different. District and group have their own idiosyncrasies. Managing locally requires contextual performance - performance in the local context. That contextual performance requires contextual competencies. And many of those those necessary competencies are unique to the locale.

And then there’s the critical issue of acceptance and ownership of the decision. In CSOs running volunteers, managers up the hierarchy must tread lightly. They mustn’t parachute their pick in for lead volunteer into a district without transparent reference to the local folk. We have all experienced this and it grates. And picking a local volunteer just because they are local is no solution. It’s the imposition of rule that grates. Rule from the top. Subsequently, the regionally appointed lead will have a hard time managing. No-one locally will accept the appointment and no one locally will own the decision for better or worse. The result will be a breakdown in local volunteer commitment.

So what’s the answer?

Decide locally

There is a saying, an adage, a maxim in management that, ‘decisions should be made at the lowest possible level in the hierarchy’. Decisions should be truly devolved. In a firm, the person in the field working with the customer makes pertinent local decisions. They just need to be appropriately trained. And the senior managers at the top just have to accept those decisions. Senior managers might practice, ‘trust but verify’, but trust in deputies is prime.

And so it should be in CSOs. National managers, regional leads or whatever are there to make decisions at national and regional level - on strategy for example. That does not include appointment of staff in the district - even appointment of the district lead. They may have an opinion. And they may want to be sure that the local decision-makers have the right competencies to make the decision. But it’s not their decision to make.

In the end, the district lead is accountable to the district trustees and group leads. The regional lead might think in terms of power as they sit atop their fiefdom, but the local folk think in terms of group operations and beneficiary achievements. Those local objectives trump all. So local decisions should be made at the local level. CSO decision-making should be fully devolved.

Illustration by Alghozy on Unsplash