Taxing times

It's been an interesting few days in the UK - the saga of the missing tax data rumbles on although the media seem to have gone quiet for a few days...

If you've missed it - the brief story is that a junior official at the UK Tax authority sent a couple of CD's containing personal and banking data of 25 million people to another government aganecy through an internal post system. 

And the discs got lost. 

And the data wasn't encrypted. 

And now we're all meant to be panicing that some master criminal is hacking into our bank accounts right now...

Now, the thing that interests me is that politicians have to find a way of pinning the balme for this seemingly simple error on the most senior politicians in the government. 

You could just point out that its all bad luck.  It all happened because a junior member of staff was trying to cut some corners to get the job done.  And the six other discs that have got lost in the recent past?  Well I bet few organisations of the size of the UK tax people can claim that they don't loose stuff either.

Yet politicians have to find a way of connecting the bloke in the post-room in Newcastle with the minister in charge of the department.  If you can put a smoking address label in the hands of the Prime Minister himself - even better.

The circumstantial case is looking quite good.  Morale at the department has fallen a little and the trade union hasn't been slow when it comes to fingerpointing.  A massive change program which includes job losses and new working practice is always going to throw up people making the connection between what could be a simple slip-up and the pressure to reform the organisation.

However, there is a point here.  Even if the political name-calling doesn't generate much insight it is worth asking a few questions about whether you can have such a thing as  "systemic failures" or "institutional incompetence".  In recent years allegations of deepseated problems have been pointed at organisations as diverse as BP, the Metropolitan Police Service and Cadbury's chocolate. 

Is there very much that internal communcators can do?

You'd probably say that we should provide a conduit for listening to the complaints and concerns of employees.  And I can certainly think of one situation where a focus group I ran once predicted with frightening accuracy a disaster that came to pass 10 years later.

But, if we're honest - how realistic is it that we'd make a difference?  If Senior Management are ignoring the feedback through normal channels or have created a climate where people won't speak out - do we honestly think IC would make the difference?.  Then there is the issue of how you judge when feedback is important insight or just the natural noise that a change programme will generate.

There's a role in making sure people internally are reassured (always hard when politicians are desperately trying to make local leaders the scapegoats at any cost).  And that's about it apart for helping the organisation return to business as ususal as soon as possible.

Yet - you can bet we'll be one of the parties that is blamed if it all goes wrong.

So that all makes me wonder.  PR teams have been running scenario planning for years to sharpen up their crisis plans.  I wonder if IC people should invest a bit of time now and again to think through how they would handle a crisis - how they might predict it and how they might advise senior leaders to cope with it...and how they define their role in preventing

Liam

Comments

[Sue]

Lee Smith has a good post about this http://talkingic.typepad.com/foureightys_lee_smith_tal/2007/11/a-lesson-in-inf.html.

My take on how we can help/the mileage we can get from this type of scenario is the same as Lee's. Lots of us have been asked to help out with necessary but boring communication about governance processes, conduct codes, health and safety, etc. etc. Quite often the project team just wants a tick in the box exercise so they can say everyone has read the conduct code to comply with the Sox requirements.

Here's some solid business evidence to show organisations it's worth investing more time and effort. And it's also good evidence for us that we need to think more creatively about how to make this stuff interesting and relevant for people. (And preferably persuade the HR team to write these processes in normal language, in less than 50 pages).

Have to say the incident hasn't turned me into a quivering wreck wondering if somebody has got hold of my bank details. But at a time when HMRC are busy charging me interest on the interest for paying my corporation tax about 2 days late, it has made me feel particularly antogonistic towards them. (After the second letter I was tempted to phone them to tell them if they put half the effort into looking after their data as they do into chasing tiny amounts of interest ... You get the gist.)

Sue

[Liam]

I quite agree - after the event it's a great opportunity for IC. Not much we can do to prevent it though.

I imagine right now the team at HMRC have got their senior leaders out and talking to employees - they are always going to get a rough time of it. Either politicians want to work the story up or the press are delighting in showing how we're all going to hell in a handcart.

And if the tax man's reading this...I've always been very impressed with the service (afterall my mother worked for them for decades, so no bad words will be said in MY house).

Liam