A woman’s place is in the boardroom, says Peninah Thomson, and we couldn’t agree more. As today’s observations are brought to you by the letter G (for girls) and the Cabinet Office, we’d like to point out that we’re stocked to the Ministerial brim: Tessa Jowell, Angela Smith and Shriti Vadera make up our team, thank you very much, and we have a number of women in Director roles.
This is not the case, however, across the board, and Peninah – who started her career in the FCO 27 years ago – outlined the grim reality of women at the top (or lack thereof). She’s dead-set on changing that, however, and is now at her third book on the subject, the latest being “A women’s place is in the boardroom: The Roadmap”. The core of the advice? Set a career plan. It may sound simple, but Peninah stressed that it is easy to get lost along the way, suddenly looking around and wondering, ‘how did I get here?’ Or to find yourself in a comfortable, though unchallenging role, and let complacency keep you there. Not that these problems are necessarily gender-specific, but a woman’s path is often more challenging. Peninah advises that when a woman consciously commits to climbing the career ladder, she should make sure she knows where she wants to go, and regularly re-assess along the way.
Good advice for all the boys and girls out there. And while the challenges still exist, it’s a whole lot better than it used to be; we have women like Peninah as proof (we’ve come a long way, baby).
After a session that put our modern advantages in perspective, a trip to the Civil Service Museum was in order. Turns out, the question of how far we could have advanced in the good old days was moot: as none of us spoke Latin, could name the UK’s Northern ports or list British overseas possessions, civil servitude would have been but a dream for us in ye olde days.
Which is too bad, because we’d just found out about the new Civil Service Stabilisations Cadre due to become operational in October 2009, which was outlined in the International Challenges for the UK session. The cadre will comprise approximately 200 civil servants, fully trained and willing to deploy to fragile countries emerging from conflict. It’s not a posting in Paris by a long shot, but it is unquestionably an opportunity to make more difference in a short period than most people get to make in their lifetimes. If you think you’re up to the challenge, application forms are available at www.stabilisationunit.gov.uk. Bob Watson’s address on the state of the environment was informative, thought-provoking, inspirational… and guilt-inducing. At least, it was for anyone who’s had the occasional moan about the ongoing modernisation work in 70 Whitehall. Or for those people who sometimes forget to distinguish between the rubbish and recycling bins (ahem. We do not judge here, but you know who you are…)
Most of us like to think of ourselves as fairly well-informed on the subject of climate change – we recycle (most of us), turn the telly off at the source (we got the message: standby is evil) and conserve resources (for instance, one delightful gentleman on the tube journey over was clearly saving water by showering only rarely); some of us even knew the statistic Bob cited: that, left unchecked, the current trend could push temperatures up 4 degrees Celsius by 2080. But what most of us didn’t know was the impact that can have. Four degrees doesn’t necessarily sound alarming (most Britons, if we’re honest, wouldn’t mind getting just a tad more warmth during our dreary summers), but Bob pointed out that the hot summer of 2003, which led to the deaths of some 2000 people, was a mere 1.5 to 2 degrees warmer than the average grey and wet British summer. Four degrees doesn’t seem so benign in that light.
So, as a favour to Bob, the Defra team trying to change our habits, and humanity in general, we remind everyone (though we know you don’t need t) of the small steps we should all be taking on a daily basis to do our part:
Switch off the lights. Turn the TV off properly.
Don't leave the tap running while brushing your teeth.
And buy sustainable products – let’s be honest, in a recession, the consumer is king. Time to let companies know what we’re willing to spend our dosh on.
Which brings us to the grand finale: yes, of course, it’s the Civil Service Challenge. Four teams of four strangers, given 24 hours to complete a challenge: get as many businesses as possible to sign up for the National Apprentice Scheme. The judges’ panel was made up of Gus O’Donnell (Captain Civil Service), Peter Gershon (Mr Efficiency), Peter Ayliffe (CEO of Visa UK), Natalie Ceeney (Chief Executive, National Archives) and – because it’s Ladies’ Day – Tim Campbell (we love him for his entrepreneurial smarts, honest).
The Liverpool team won the challenge. The other teams - London, Nottingham and Plymouth – all put up a good fight, but ultimately, iverpool’s score (760, ahead of their closest competitor at 550), audience vote (50%!!!) and the fact that they were working one man down (Liverpool’s team leader had an unfortunate bout of food poisoning, which the audience was only barely spared the details of) seemed to influence the ultimate judges’ decision. Congrats, ladies and gentlemen; a job well done.
As was Civil Service Live. Proof to the non-believers that you can get a couple thousand civil servants in a room together and not die of boredom. In fact, it just might be entertaining.
