Strategy Meets Reality In Government | Alison Guthrie-Wrenn

Yeah.

I mean, you're right.

It is a highly constrained environment for lots of really good reasons.

It's also a very highly complex environment.

And I think some of that is visible from the outside, but actually a lot of it isn't.

A lot of it's visible once you're within the system.

So I think that kind of adds a different facet to the work that you do.

And I think there's also something about kind of... where you sit on the boundary of the problem, right? So as a consultant, you've got that kind of nice position of being outside the problem, trying to fix it from outside or help people to fix it from outside.

And that feels very different to being inside the problem, trying to fix it from within, partly because of the constraints that you will be probably more aware of because you're within the system itself, but also partly because the relationship's

there.

The politics, internal politics, and all of that sort of stuff is a very real thing for you when you're internal.

And I guess the way that you're perceived is really different.

People perceive an external consultant very differently than someone who has a normal day job, but suddenly wants to dip into things that's outside of their area.

And it's like, oh, hang on a minute.

It Do you have the expertise to do this? And it feels very different being inside to being outside.

And I've done a bit of both and they both have their benefits.

I think the more difficult one is being inside, though, for me personally.

Yeah, I think so.

Especially when you're, well, you know me, you know, I'm not shy of saying what I think.

Is that really right? Yeah.

And I'm quite used to that privilege that I can get away with saying stuff, you know, that probably people inside can't get away with, especially to whom as well.

I think that power... especially in this sort of open-up debate, looking at different perspectives, it's not as easy when you're trying to manage that sort of political, cultural and also the power element.

Yeah, I think that's right.

I think it is the kind of power dynamic is a bit different and you have a sustained relationship within the organisation that has to endure beyond the piece of work that you're doing.

So there are limits to kind of...