Life has become more difficult for employees in Blue Light services. If you’re not being blamed as a senior leader for shortcomings, then you’re faced with an enormous challenge to put things right – things which were not of your making.

Frontline staff are greeted with criticism and cynicism by the public, tarred by the actions of a small minority. And if the National Press hasn’t accused your service recently, then it can only feel like a matter of time before it’s your turn to be in the headlines. 

All organisations struggle with getting culture right – finding the balance between rights, and responsibilities; between collective efforts, and individual needs; between what we say we do, and how we actually behave. But for Blue Light services, this struggle is taking place very much in the public arena, and the evidence of getting things right, is, so far, being outweighed by the evidence of things going wrong. 

Yet Blue Light services were always going to be vulnerable to problems with culture. A history of ‘command and control’, of promotion for technical rather than leadership abilities; overwhelmingly a white and male hierarchy. Working at the sticky end of human experience where feelings need to be tightly managed, signs of weakness can have no place.  

Couple this with the HR-led shift from a transactional dishing out of rewards and punishments towards a desired state of transformational leadership, with society becoming ever more demanding and resources dwindling, and it’s no wonder that many Blue Light employees are at a loss to know what is now expected of them. 

The Impact of ‘Horizontal Cohesion’

Small units, facing difficult and dangerous situations, rely on their team members far more than do their office-based colleagues.

The nature of the work means ‘horizontal cohesion’ is strong. The result is that individuals within it identify with the team more than they do the wider employing organisation. Team cultures emerge which do not align with what’s expected by the employer.

As a result, the extremely high levels of task cohesion – where individuals in the team have specific roles which they fulfil automatically and to a high standard, thus offering protection and safety to the entire unit – means that collective efficacy is viewed by the team as being highly vulnerable to incomers who don’t share the beliefs and behaviours of the team. In other words, “outsiders” are considered risky.  

An On-Going Problem

It is almost inevitable that Blue Light services will have a problem with culture – but this has been known for decades. Between the Macpherson Review of 1999 – into the Met’s handling of the Stephen Lawrence murder by white youths – to Louise Casey’s 2023 report into the Met’s culture of today, via the reviews into fire services, ambulance services and even midwifery – hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on review after review, on culture change programmes and leadership development. Little has actually improved. 

Clearly, changing the culture of a blue-light workplace is proving very difficult. But it is not impossible, because Lee Freeman, the then Chief Constable at Humberside Police, took his service in five years from “failing” to “outstanding”. So culture change, even within a failing service, is possible – and within a mere handful of years. 

The experiences at Humberside evidence that today’s leaders can no longer rely on authoritative and hierarchical power to manage, because leadership means influencing through means beyond your position on the organisational chart. 

Action to prevent bullying and harassment are key, but as so are ensuring mechanisms for resolving conflicts – and, critically, introducing both restorative and “retributive” processes when things go wrong.  We believe that services should therefore look to strengthen themselves in the following areas – which will positively impact on employee and leadership behaviours – and it is behaviours, rather than aspirational statements, that actually change cultures.  

Prevention activities

• Arrive at a consensus of terms, because without an agreed understanding, one person’s banter will remain another person’s bullying.  
• Move from promoting values to promoting behaviours through clear “more and less” guidance: “do more of…“ behaviours to continue and build, and “do less of … “ behaviours to decrease and to challenge. is far clearer than a list of abstract nouns. 
• Support people to de-stress the body. The link between stress hormones and well being is long-established, so enable employees to have good management of sleep, diet, alcohol and exercise. Good hygiene in these areas means people with a longer emotional fuse and wider tolerance. 
• Make trained, private sources of support accessible –not just for wellbeing, but also harassment advisors and EAPs to provide support with finances, housing and other life-worries. 
• Mandate training and development for interpersonal skills alongside technical ones: employees who understand the impact of their own values, beliefs, assumptions and behaviours will have the skills to respond rather than react. They can have difficult conversations without having to get angry first. 
• Leadership needs to learn how to manage power and personal authority to gain the mindset shift, achieved by Humberside Police so successfully, that their role is to serve their teams rather than be served by them. 

Resolution activities

• Make less of mediation by training seniors to do ‘mediation-lite’. Enable them to spot and step in with low-key and facilitative three-way mediation-type conversations at early signs of tension between colleagues. 
• Separate this from professional mediation – and ensure this is accessible and genuinely impartial. 
• Support teams in greater trouble with Appreciative Enquiry sessions, to involve them in identifying and then introducing the remedies specific to their situation.  
• For teams who have stopped talking or are in particular need, independent Neutral Assessment brings their issues to the surface and provides a route-map for achievable change.  
• Establish frequent and open “Q&A” sessions where staff are able to engage with senior leaders and question them about issues of concern. This is an easy way for leaders to show they ‘walk the talk’ of constructive and open communication. 

Restorative activities

• Enable people to speak up without being viewed as a ‘grass’ by setting up an Employees’ Support Service, in tandem with any Speak Up App or email, such as that done by CMP for NHS Highlands ‘Healing Project’. 
• Put the past to rights with a comprehensive review of past investigations. Not all grievance and disciplinary investigations have will been done fairly or to best practice standards, given the historic culture, and it is essential that old wounds are allowed to heal, with a reinvestigation where required, such as that implemented through CMP by the London Fire Brigade. 
• Ask your people networks, such as BAME, LGBTQ+, Neuro Diversity, and women’s networks, to welcome those who do share their characteristics so that responsibility for diversity does not remain only the preserve of those affected negatively by its consequences. 

Retributive activities

• Wrong doing does take place, and employees must know that they can turn to their employer’s procedures for a fair and reasonable investigation when they need to. Externalising investigations, ensuring a trauma-informed approach, will restore trust in the integrity of the organisation’s vision and values statements. 
• Ensure a clear and well understood separation between discipline from performance matters, by a comprehensive and brave review of policies and procedures, so that behaviours that should be addressed are not hidden within a ‘performance’ plan. 

Learning activities

• Culture does not change all at once. Review the insights, both qualitative and quantitative, from your data capture to understand where blocks lie – and look at the silences: who and what is not appearing in the data, because this may mean significant issues remain with trust and adherence to the new culture. 

CMP is not a culture change organisation, but we do changes cultures. Because our person-centred approach builds trust and confidence, whether we are providing Employee Services, investigations, training, or consultancy. Our recent work with Blue Light services, helping them overcome challenges arising from the historic culture, means we are a knowledgeable and expert company who may be able to help you change your culture. 

Contact us for an exploratory conversation on 01763 852225 in confidence.

Katherine Graham, CMP

Photos by Vision plug and Watford London Media.