Home
About Tilia
Solutions
What are we doing?
Suggested reading and
listening
Comments
Contact Tilia
Solutions
I spent much of January in Leeds, supporting a CCG (clinical commissioning group) as it developed its governance structures. Once we had worked out what its key priorities were (everyone we asked produced a different list) we carried out an enjoyable and productive target identification workshop, identifying what the priorites really meant. I was relieved to find that trying to reduce health inequalities didn't mean making the middle classes less healthy ...
In between I had a successful two days delivering my first course for the iRM, learning a lot about pirate operations as I did so from one of the delegates. And I spent another week with the NHS trust in Essex where we are seeing slow but steady improvements.
I split my time between carrying out an internal audit review for a home counties county council, trips to Brussels to provide training, a day back in Leeds and an interesting and challenging afternoon helping with the set-up meeting for a PCC audit committee. The internal audit review brought home to me the difference between doing something and demonstrating that you are doing something - almost all of our recommendations concerned being more explicit about activities.
The first week of March was spent back in Essex for what, it later turned out, was our last visit to the Trust. Although they are making progress, it is slow and our work was simply confirming this rather than encouraging improvements. I hope to be able to work with them again.
Much of the rest of the month was spent researching and writing a course on risk appetite for delivery in Cornwall at the end of the month. It would help if the industry could agree common definitions for terms - risk appetite seems to be relatively standard, but risk tolerance is used in so many different ways. I've been asked to write a paper on risk appetite so if anyone has any suggestions, do let me know.
I also paid a flying visit to Paris - how frustrating to be there in glorious weather and not have time to do anything other than wave at the Seine. My taxi took me past the major sights including a terrifying trip round the Arc de Triomphe in the rush hour. The risk workshop I was there to run went well and was well received by the client.
April was spent shuttling back and forth to Brussels, with two days in Italy to add variety. I have now been accredited to deliver internal audit training for the EC so I shall have to work up a stock of stories for those courses.
This was another month of travelling across Europe, carrying out training in Brussels, preparing for a risk and business continuity assessment in Italy and spending two days in Luxembourg, always a relaxing place to train. I also carried out a review of a further education college, looking at the way in which its committee structure worked. I realised that having an expert chair is a mixed blessing: it's great to have a chair who knows what he is doing, but the rest of the committee can feel a bit surplus to requirements. How do we resolve that one?
In June, in finally managed to do some training in England, although my passport continued to be well-exercised and my suitcase remained out and part packed throughout the month.
My first trip was two days in southern Germany on the hottest days of the year so far. I worked with two local facilitators and a fellow trainer to deliver a team building exercised structured around training on internal control - it worked surprisingly well, possibly due to the chocolates we threw around as rewards for answers, speedy returns and any other reasons we could think of and the bottles of fizz we shared at the end. The team building continued round a barbeque (lots of veggie food in Germany!) but I had to abandon the party early for the airport. This was followed by a very wet day in Dublin evangelising (convincingly, I was told) on the subject of risk - they invited me back, so I must have got something right. I had two days delivering a new fraud awareness course - the delegates commented that it was more about how to commit fraud well than detecting it, but if you don't know how to commit it, how can you detect it?
In between my days on committing fraud, I spent a day in London training on risk and a day in York covering about two days' worth of material in one day - my first ever speed training event. Do you think it will catch on?
I ended the month with a week in Italy, carrying out risk and business continuity assessment in the ICT department. The local risk experts and I were all astonished to be told that ICT had no business critical services. More discussion revealed that they hadn't discussed this with their clients, but they might do so now we had raised the matter. I shall have to ask for an update when I go back.
The summer quiet has finally arrived and my suitcase has been put away at last. I spent much of July writing a paper on risk appetite, following on from the course I developed earlier this year. Except, I've read quite a bit in the meantime and I have lots of new ideas and facts to throw into the mix. There are many influences on one's risk appetite including age, gender, education and height - as a female of advancing years and short stature, my risk appetite is going to be much lower than my younger, taller brother. The height link isn't quite as strange as it might seem at first, since height is determined by childhood nutrition and better educated parents will produce both taller children and better educated children. My parents were obviously only practising with me ...
I particularly liked the distinction between risk appetite, risk perception and consequential risk attitude highlighted by David Hilson and Ruth Murray-Webster in their book Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude. They argue that risk appetite, like most appetites (think food) is pretty much fixed but how one chooses to deal with that appetite is driven by perception and attitude and one can alter these.
I wasn't entirely stuck in front of my screen, though as I had a return trip to Dublin (gloriously sunny this time), to continue our risk discussions. They like the theory, but as is so often the case, they are less keen on doing something about it. And I also had a short nostalgic visit to Essex to edit a risk strategy. It was nice to be back in the Trust again.
A busy summer so far doing non-work things, decorating and singing. But in between I have drafted a high-level internal control framework for a Commissioning Support Unit and written a programme for a course on programme risks - any suggestions? I also took a run at the risk appetite think piece and finally finished the first draft.
After my relatively quiet summer, workwise anyhow, it was back to work with a bang in September. Almost half the month was spent in Brussels and up in the mountains in Italy delivering training. All the Brussels courses were new for me as I have started taking on internal audit training. Going back to where my career started and thinking about all the changes that have happened since then has been an interesting experience.
I also delivered the first version of a new course amalgamating the two one-day introductions courses to internal control and risk management into a single half day. It was a challenge but we did it in the time, just.
We have a gratifyingly large take up for the programme risk course that I wrote the flyer for in August so I spent a day or so planning and writing the presentation for that. Fortunately the ebullient Matt Humphrey is going to be my co-trainer so that should keep things lively.
The programme risk course started the month in lively fashion with delegates entering into the discussions and giving the presenters further food for thought. Following some interesting feedback, we are considering ways to develop the course further, in particular looking at the role of the risk manager in the current challenging times. Watch out for flyers and a revised course delivered further north in the Spring. The month slowly got busier and I found myself going back and forth across various bits of water, with trips to Dublin, Brussels and Northern Italy. I'm taking on more of the internal audit training for the EC and have been learning my way round those courses, while the visits to Dublin and Italy rounded off risk consultancy exercises.
November started with a visit to the Heritage Motor Museum where I carried out some risk training and was thrilled to have a spare 20 minutes to go and drool over the cars, including various Bond vehicles and the amazing pink Thunderbirds car. I spent a deliciously warm week in Amman reviewing an audit team and basking in the sunshine. We were there over the weekend so I even managed to do some sight seeing. Those Greeks and Romans get everywhere. Returning to be snowed on in Brussels was a shock. I ended the month in Bilbao where I was training on counter-fraud activities, although the course really consisted on thinking about how we could commit the perfect heist. Any ideas? I had time for some sight seeing here too and had an interesting morning in the Guggeheim reminding myself that some modern art is fantatastic and the rest incomprehensible. On the final Saturday of the month, I found myself training the two remaining members of an Academy audit committee and an old colleague of mine who is now their finance manager. We had a great day and at the end I was asked if I would redo the course now that they knew the context. I declined.
I spent much of December in Geneva reconsidering the perfect fraud. I was a little concerned at the enthusiasm with which the finance team in particular tackled the subject. We came out with some interesting results and lots more interesting questions. I look forward to seeing how this develops. I paid another flying visit to Brussels for internal control training (a hugely improved rewrite of the course) and ended the month in the land of my fathers (well, teenage years anyhow) visiting Bridgend (last seen when I passed my driving test there) to train members of various Police and Crime Commissioners' audit committees. It was a lively and enjoyable end to the year.
2012 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024