What am I missing?

[Pouffele]

I’ve spent most of my working life in small business or self-employment then, following Covid, took a job in local government. I’ve enjoyed the change although the culture chock of working for public sector is not something I’m still 100% used to!
I’ve recently been promoted to a management role with some strategic responsibility. My previously role was delivery focused.
It’s been six months in my new role and whilst I have enjoyed the change, we deal with a large, ever moving system that is simultaneously clunky and fast moving and I’m beginning to feel caught out on occasion.
Ive been lucky that I’ve had no staff to manage at the beginning which has allowed me to bed in somewhat but we have now recruited and I’m starting to feel that I need some extra skills managing the system(s) but I’m unsure what exactly I need.
Is it project management skills?

There is in-house manager training that starts next month which will hopefully up-skill me but the focus of this training is mainly people management.

Any advice from those dealing with similar big, unwieldy systems would be very welcome.

Difficult to comment without knowing what
”systems” you are referring to. Are you referring to physical/computer systems and their related processes or do you mean systems of work/processes and procedures?

If you mean public sector governance, yes it can be very clunky. I deal with similar at work. Top tips

put ALL governance deadlines for papers / submissions in your diary - these are typically set up to 12 months in advance and there is very little leeway

make sure you know what needs to be submitted for each and work your way backwards with a realistic timescale for production of the work - I use MS Project but a simple spreadsheet would work as well

make sure you prioritise learning about the governance structure and ask around to see if you can find a mentor - lots of LA / PubSec authorities have mentoring schemes - someone to just give you a bit of support with that kind of thing

yes you need project management skills - see if they have PRINCE2 training on offer or something similar. The other thing to look at is business change management if you are in a fast moving part of the business as this in combination with slow governance can be tricky

change management was something I really struggled with - end users / internal clients going "oh, could I just add X or Y please?" You are going to have to get very tough on this as it can introduce significant complexity - I make end users fill in a document with the change they want, the business case for the change and who has authorised it - the business case should cover what outcomes / benefits they need that are NOT covered originally and how they address the strategic needs of the business. You also need to make them aware that if there are cost implications, the requestor is responsible for finding the budget to pay for it.

set up regular one to ones with your direct reports and STICK TO THEM. Make it clear these are not optional meetings that can be bumped for other stuff. Ours are monthly for an hour. You may also need specific project reviews once a month with the people working on that project to assess where the project is and redirect resource if necessary.

that's just a few bits!

Thank you @RedFatballthat is very helpful. I don’t want to go into much detail about what I do as it’s niche but it’s a combination of governance and finance. Our customers are both internal and external, government and residents which can be uncomfortable as we’re stuck in the middle.
I will have a look at PRINCE2.

@Notmyrealityapologies for not being clear. I mean systems of work/processes and procedures

No worries - I have been finding my way round public sector governance for nearly 20 years now in various forms. Was a lot easier before 2008 when we still had some money. It's getting increasingly difficult to get projects through financial approval. Happy for you to PM me if you need anything else.

Thank you. In our corner of the LA, funding isn’t an issue per se, it’s the historic system of governance that is illogical and unwieldy for both us and the public, coupled with being at the sticky end of each change of government policy. I like the fact that we don’t get bogged down in “we’ve always done it this way” like other parts of the LA but you can imagine from a process point of view, it makes life incredibly difficult to deal with constant policy changes.

Have a Google of trello