Cocoon – The Return – To Windsor

Cocoon – The Return to Windsor

Episode 70

Context

Wikipedia Extract

“About 10,000 years ago, peaceful aliens from the planet Antarea set up an outpost on Earth on Atlantis. When Atlantis sank, twenty aliens were left behind, kept alive in large rock-like cocoons at the bottom of the ocean. Now, a group of Antareans have returned to collect them.

Disguising themselves as humans, they rent a house with a swimming pool and charge the water with “life force” to give the cocooned Antareans energy to survive the trip home. They charter a boat from a local captain named Jack, who helps them retrieve the cocoons. After the aliens reveal themselves to him and explain what’s going on, he decides to help them.

Next door to the house the Antareans are renting is a retirement home. Three of its residents, Ben, Arthur, and Joe, often trespass to swim in the pool next door. They absorb some of the recently charge life force, making them feel younger and stronger. Eventually caught in the act, they are given permission to use the pool by the Antarean leader, Walter, on the condition that they do not touch the cocoons or tell anybody else about it. Rejuvenated with youthful energy, the three men begin to let the advantages of the pool take hold as they are relieved of their ailments.

The other retirement home residents become suspicious after witnessing Ben’s wife Mary climb a tree. Their friend Bernie reveals the secret of the pool to the other residents, who rush to the pool to swim in its waters

The Antareans offer to take residents of the retirement home with them to Antarea, where they will never grow older and never die. Most of them accept the offer”

So unless the Royal family have found a ‘fountain of youth’ to use, or have discovered any pools with ‘life force’ energy placed there by aliens, then we have had trouble brewing for about 40 years. Despite the obvious to people with common sense, one of the favourite pastimes of the British Royal Family to gather charities to add to the roster of charitable organisations that the Royal family supports on paper year on year. No rhyme or reason to most of them, and zero thought about the practicalities of a small group of people being able to adequately support every one of them listed between the working Royals. There is still this common belief that if an organisation is known to be associated with Royalty, particularly those with the word Royal in their title, then money will flow into their bank accounts naturally due to the prestige of being associated with the British Royal family. Research has proven and receipts exist, that disproves that belief well and truly trounces that out of the water of fantasy tales. It is physically impossible to visit and interact with these 4 figure sums of organisations – no matter what age the Working Royals are, but as of the latest permutation of the 7 Working Senior Royals, there is no chance at all of every one of those organisations, receiving contact from a Senior Royal, let alone an actual visit. A actual visit, does not constitute getting to know about the organisation, and working with them in some shape or form to raise their profile and to develop self sustaining projects with the management team who work in these organisations. Visiting, smiling and cutting a ribbon or two, does nothing but take up staff resources which could be better spent on meaningful activity. Yes it may generate a news headline or two, by the tabloids as part of their invisible contract with the Royal family, but it as far away from providing tangible assistance, as it is a work engagement. I will provide one of the links from a research organisation who gather data on customer or potential customer/donations from members of the public, on information about the difference having a member of the Royal Family be a Patron of an organisation, and looked at the difference in outcomes before and since the Patron has been listed. Makes for interesting reading. From memory less than a quarter receive a visit, and the visits generally take up 2% of each Senior Royals time per annum. It does beg the question what other activity is being done by the BRF for the remaining 98% of their time each year. The 2% of their time, is not even quantified in measurable, value added terminology. It is all smoke and mirrors, and the most polite thing I can say about it all, is it very much in the style of creative accounting. The British public deserve better.

Royal Supporters Profile

Support for the British monarchy 2022, by age group

Published by D. Clark, Sep 8, 2022

Although the British monarchy is supported by a plurality of people across most age groups in Great Britain, it is among over 65 year-old’s where the level is support is highest at 77 percent. Younger age groups are progressively more likely to oppose the monarchy, with 31 percent of 18-24 year old’s opting instead for an elected head of state.

Houston we have a problem. If 77% of the Royal support base is aged 65 or over, then in the space of 4 decades, that total will have shrunk considerably, and with less Royal supporters, decreasing with the younger age groups, there are insufficient people interested enough to match the numbers who will no longer be here to be part of the statistics they like to quote.

Any successful business (and the Royal need to decide whether or not they are a family which funds itself, or it is a business entity, largely supported by UK taxpayers. The grant loved by tabloids is to quote the Sovereign Grant as being the only one where the public fund the Royals, but as none of the Royals work, and anything they spend is public money, not their own stored away for other purposes, probably outside of the UK, then I would respectfully suggest that most of the money in the many various funds, has come from the public in some shape or form.

Workforce Planning

From a previous podcast:-

I refer to Workforce in it most simplest and basic of forms, because I am almost certain that the British Royal Family do not know what a Workforce Plan is, and if they do, they would not use one. At best they would have documentation somewhere with the appropriate headings, but pay no attention to it. So, for the purpose of this podcast, and to find a way to give comments about the age profile (among many other things) of the ‘promoted’ Magnificent 7 by UK Media, in various permutations, as being the group to fill the role of Prince Harry who stepped back from Senior Royal duties and removed his family and himself to a safer environment and one which would be better for their mental health. Apparently stepping back from tax payer funded duties has put the Monarchy at risk. Really? One person leaving an establishment, means the business is going to fold? What were the rest of the Senior Royals doing all these years, and at taxpayer expense? In their eagerness to appear as if ‘nothing to see hear folks’ and all is well, UK media have been going on ever since how they as a group, and at times the two least impactful duo within that group, are declared as saviours of the Monarchy, or in some reports, the “secret weapons”. Lets have a simple meander through Workforce Planning, and Succession Planning as part of the process.

Prince Charles was born on 14^th November 1948 – Aged 74

Princess Anne born on 15^th August 1950 – Aged 72

Prince Andrew born on 19^th February 1960 – Aged 62

Prince Edward born on 10^th March 1964 – Aged 58

Prince William – aged 40

Princess Catherine – aged 40

The Royal Family are a family but they are also referred to as The Firm. This Name dates back to the time of King George 6^th, Queen Elizabeth’s father. The Firm is an informal title for the British Royal Family and its associated institutions, including the courtiers, staff and working Royals ‘that keep the business of the Monarchy functioning.’ It is said that King George made a statement that he and the rest of the Royals were “not a family, we’re a firm”.

The offices contain many departments, including those who manage finances and human resources. (I will come on to the function of Human Resources imminently). This span of departments is officially called the Royal Household and is comprised of hundreds of workers.
In the Oprah interview in March 2020, the distinction was made by The Sussexes between the family and The Firm. It was clear that most of the issues originated from The Firm, and I am guessing therefore that the couple made efforts to distinguish between family and the Firm when they interacted with certain people. It was clear that the interaction between the Sussexes and the Queen and Prince Phillip was that of a grandson and his wife, and his grandparents. Even now when Harry refers to interactions across the pond, he refers to his grandmother not the Queen.

With that in mind, I have approached this podcast on the responsibility of The Firm to advise its management of the plans that need to be in place moving forward – just like any good business would do. Ie have a Strategic Plan in place, with policies that deliver that Plan, and identify the stakeholders that need to be consulted/liaised with in terms of what they would like to see if possible, and then for The Firm to work with professionals and specialists to have a rolling development plan towards the goals identified. Regular Reviews in place, so that the Strategic Plan and its objectives can be updated where needed in terms of delivery which should lead to the desired results.

I am 100% certain that there is no Workforce Plan in The Firm, and I am equally certain that within the hundreds of employees, I can guess which levels the people of colour are generally employed in, and I can guess where women are employed, and within that group, I can guess the scales of salary paid, and there is no way that women of colour occupy substantial numbers of senior posts of all females employed, and equally there will be very few women at the top of the organisational structure. The Human Resources personnel should be the lead on any Workforce Planning process and an accompanying Workforce Development Plan. Knowing now that it was the HR department in regular contact with the same Royal Reporters, one in particular on film on two occasions, confirming discussions about Meghan, The Duchess of Sussexes state of mental health, and the suicidal ideations, which is a serious breach of confidentiality, and is a Data Protection Breach legally. So, I am not holding my breath to expect understanding of Workforce Planning, because if such a Plan exists, we would not be in the situation we are in now, regarding the age group of the so called Working Royals.

That being said, let me go through the motions of what should have been done, and what should have been predicted and planned for, and in so doing avoid the current state of affairs. The Less Sprightly and the Unables left to fly the flag of The Firm, which currently mirrors the state of the UK at the moment, a once bright and admirable member of the fleet, now fallen in grace and reduced to a unsteady vessel, with increasing holes appearing in its lowest deck and an engine that is slowly grinding to a halt. All it has are a few oars and a few lifeboats – all of which have seen better days, and is unlikely to be able to travel to safer seas without assistance. It would require outside assistance to carry it forward. Why would the public pay even more to keep a group of unelected people in place, when we have an elected forum for taking the country forward. It is called The Government. They need to do their job, or be voted out. There is no luxury of time to pay people who lack competence or foresight to be a family using public funds to masquerade as a business; a business which also contains people who are not up to date with the requirements of a business, and certainly should be under scrutiny for the public funds it receives to underperform anyway. Time for a change. Let me show you the basics, and I mean the basics of a standard workforce plan and the Strategy Plans that come from that process. In order to ensure understanding and competence, all those employed would need a Development Plan and a range of development targets needed in each post to ensure compliance with the Law. Failing that, vote for the Elected Members who you believe can do the job, and if they are unable, vote them out. Simple.

Workforce Planning Toolkits & Models

Workforce Planning and Development is basically understanding the ‘workforce’ you have, and the service delivery pressures the organisation or in this The Firm has. Over the last 20 plus years, much more is known about what needs to be done, and how to go about it. There are a multitude of documents available now, and many toolkits and templates to help organisations set about finding out what is likely to come their way in the future, and to ensure that their organisation is not caught off guard and is able to prepare for such changes. 95% of the models and toolkits out there will not apply in their entirety for the British Royal Family and in my opinion The Firm will not understand 94% of it anyway, and would have next to no interest. I also suspect that because the BRF appear not to like change, and also to choose topics that they have personal interest in, to be included in the Causes that they ‘support’ and suspect that they would not like to be told by any of their staff of a few possible ways to go about things in the future, and how they can be measured, and how to ensure that the new way of doing some things, would be based on changing needs of the country, not just carry on doing what they have always done.

I will list some of the many resources out there, together with Case Studies, so that you can get a better understanding of what it entails, and the detail you can choose to go into, in order to benefit large or small organisations. There are hundreds of graphics used to explain the process, and I will include some in the podcast presentation, along with additional ones in the accompanying article.

The best place to start is to look at who delivers the service to the clients/customers, and then to explore the needs of both and their current capacity to carry out those duties now and in the future.

Knowledge of the Existing Workforce

One of the first areas to examine is to look at workforce supply, including the age profile and the likely dates in the future where they will be less visible, or unable to carry out the volume of tasks required in quite the same way.

In the case of The Firm, it would and should include the household staff – all of them. No one should feel that they have a job for life. One of the things that I object to hearing from Royal pundits is that the Queen declared right from the start that she was going to be Queen for life, and the Royalists were such happy souls and described it as dedication to the role. I would argue that it is selfishness, to put oneself first in such a position, rather than what is best for the country. It is lovely soundbite phrase to put in all the media at the time, and to continue to keep repeating it every decade. The new King is now in post, and both King Charles and the next in Line Prince William, are far from popular, and one could argue that Prince William has not been prepared in any way, in terms of skills and experience, other than being told and treated like he is made of glass, that he is special and that he will be King one day. The 1^st in Line was told the same things, and spent, it seems, vast amount of time, with people other than his parents as he was growing up, including a six month stint when his parents were required to be on a Royal Tour. It seems a variety of staff were responsible for much of his upbringing, together with certain relatives, one of whom King Charles was very close to was Lord Mountbatten. There are a whole host of activities that would suggest that may not have been the best person for a young man, let alone a future King to be fraternising with. In reality, Charles and William and George (if there is still a Monarchy) were and will be prepared for Kingship from Day One. They are raised to feel entitled and privileged from the beginning, and told that they are better than their siblings, and are being prepared to be King. The Spares are there to provide support to their older sibling and there is no concept of a Spare ever leaving the fold. The Spares are targeted for distraction stories because the heirs and their spouses must never be seen in a bad light, and also where there is discord within the great British public, it appears that these cosseted individuals are not informed of such things, and if anything is seen in the media that is not favourable, evidence is removed within hours. One has to question what kind of state is the UK these days? Our Leaders like to criticise other nations for doing similar, albeit in much more prevalent way, nevertheless, the UK does it too, but it is just not talked about.

To his credit, Prince Charles knew he would have a long wait before becoming King, so he involved himself in charities and causes, some of which like The Princes Trust remain very successful to this day. The 2^nd in Line appears to just enjoy life, because the job would be his one day anyway, and there are people on hand to do bits and pieces now, and no doubt there will be staff to do things when he becomes King. That is my assumption – I have no evidence of that, it is just my observations. The evidence is there that there is not yet one completed project set up by any of the Cambridges. Not one. It was all fun and giggles when the Duke of Sussex was part of that trio, and they came under the banner of the Royal Foundation. Since the split the completed projects have moved with the Sussexes and all have measurable outcomes matching their objectives. Even Meghan, with her limited time behind the gilded gates of the Royal properties, delivered on every single one of her projects, two of them within her first year, and they are all continuing to deliver today.

“Learn about your customer.

Who constitutes the BRF target audience for its day to day activities and external engagements?
What do those people want to see?

Write a positioning statement.

Make it clear what the BRF is and is not.

Pitch your positioning to stakeholders.

Inform the public what the BRF will be doing, and identify those members who will be at the forefront of this activity. Ie the 7 senior Royals, including the 1^st in the line of Succession after King Charles passes.

Plan your go-to-market strategy.

Discuss and document how the BRF is going to market itself to the public. Cannot rely on everyone knows of the BRF – they may well do, but not all are interested, and even those that are interested will not continue to blindly follow and accept what the Firm is describing as Service. It has to be based on needs of the recipients of that service, individual and national, alongside the reality of those who are deemed to be in that total responsible for the delivery of it. Ie the & senior Royals.

Set a goal for the launch.

Set a launch date when the working Royals will be identified and it will be known who is responsible for what topics from the Strategic Plan, and where there are cross overs, explain how the data will be gathered and recorded and explained and measured accordingly.

Create promotional content.

Have a team working on the promotional content each year for the Royal family, as to what they hope to cover in the coming year, and where it links to the Strategy and to the accounts.

Prepare your team.

The identified senior Royals who will be the face of the Monarchy moving forward, need to meet/liaise as a group, and be informed what is expected, in order for them to feedback about their roles within that Strategy, and what will work and what will not etc., before publicly launching something that cannot be delivered, despite it stating so on the Royal website.

Launch the product.

Have a launch date, when all the above has been done and is documented, and everyone knows of their role within it. Don’t launch something, and then spend a year or two or even longer, deciding on how it is going to fit in with the normal life that has been enjoyed up to this point, where now the demands on each person’s time has changed, and will continue to change over the coming years.

See how well you did achieving your goals.”

Having decided early on in these stages, decide on what and how things will be measured in order that everyone can see, including the public, the resources that were allocated to each activity and visit etc. Was the final outcome achieved? If not, has an evaluation and review been carried out, in order to feed into the next year processes and systems etc?

From One of the Listed Reference Sources –

The same headings, and standard information under each heading for any organisation.

“1. Learn about your customer.

Whether you call it “market research,” or “customer development” it’s key to learn about what drives your customer. Identifying their goals, motivations, and pain points could lead you to developing and marketing a valuable solution. You don’t need to perform years of intense research to learn about your customer. In fact, we suggest just talking to 12 to 15 current or prospective customers. When speaking to them, pay extra attention when they start sentences with “I wish a product did this function…” or “Why can’t products do this?” When they give these statements, respond with questions that go deeper, like “Can you get more specific about that?” If they don’t bring up any pain points, ask them a few specific questions that will encourage them to give deeper answers. These conversations will give you a solid idea of what their biggest pain points are and how you can market a solution to them. Once you learn these key details about your customers, you can develop a buyer persona that your team can focus on serving.

Write a positioning statement.

* Write out a statement that can clearly and concisely answer these three questions:Who is the product for? What does the product do? Why is it different from other products out there? If you’d like to go even deeper, create a statement that answers the following questions:What is your target audience? What segment of the target audience is most likely to buy the product? What brand name will you give your product or service? What product or service category does your product lie in? How is it different from competitors in the same category? What evidence or proof do you have to prove that your product is different? Still need more guidance on how to write a positioning statement? Check out this template.

Pitch your positioning to stakeholders.Once you’ve established your position statement, present it to stakeholders in your company so they are all on the same page.If your employees have a hard time buying into the product, your customers might as well. If your team loves it, that might be a great sign that the product launch will go well.
Plan your go-to-market strategy. This is the strategy that you will use to launch and promote your product. While some businesses prefer to build a funnel strategy, others prefer the flywheel approach. Regardless of which method you choose, this process contains many moving parts. To create an organized strategy for launching your product, it can be helpful to use a template, like this one.As you create the strategy, also start considering which type of content you’ll use to attract a prospective customer’s attention during the awareness, consideration, and purchase decision stage. You’ll need to produce this content in the next step.
Set a goal for the launch. Before you get started on the implementing your strategy, make sure you write down your goals for the launch.Alex Girard, a Product Marketing Manager at HubSpot, says, “Create specific goals for the launch’s success. Keeping these goals in mind will help you focus your efforts on launch tactics that will help you achieve those goals.”For example, the goals of your product launch could be to effectively establish a new product name, build awareness, or create sales opportunities.One of the best ways to set goals for your launch team is to write them out like SMART goals. A SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Create promotional content.After planning out your go-to-market strategy and writing your SMART goals, start producing content that will support and align with those promotional efforts. This can include blog posts related to your product or industry, demos and tutorials, and landing pages. Our go-to-market template will also help you determine which content you should create for each phase of your prospective customer’s buyer’s journey.
Prepare your team.Be sure that your company and key stakeholders are ready for you to launch and begin marketing the product. Communicate with the company through internal presentations, Slack, or email to keep your company in-the-know of your launch plan.
Launch the product Once you’ve completed all the above steps, you can launch the product.
See how well you did achieving your goals. After you launch your product, track how the go-to-market strategy is performing. Be prepared to pivot or adjust aspects of your plan if they aren’t going smoothly.Additionally, don’t forget about the goals you set before the launch. See how well you did achieving those goals. If the launch didn’t meet expectations, you can rethink your go-to-market strategy and adjust from there.”

Learn what it takes to build a highly effective senior leadership team, including how to get insights that will make your senior team better.

DDI.COM – Senior Management Team Formation

Is there an “I” in team? For senior leadership teams, you bet there is!

First, how many team-related adages can you think of? Plenty, I would imagine. But I could only come up with two: There is no “I” in team and Teamwork makes the dream work. Frankly, I like the second one better, and I’m wary of the first. Allow me to explain.

Over the years there have been countless studies, books, articles, various forms of media, and inspirational quotes all having to do with teamwork. And if you dig into this plethora of content, there emerges a subtle, but reoccurring theme: that individuals, when working as a collective, need to somehow subjugate and suppress the “I.”

Well, I for one am not a fan of subjugation or suppression in any form, and the most effective teams that I have supported happen to be full of “I’’s” (especially senior leadership teams). And when those “I’’s” are working in concert, well, they can accomplish just about anything. So, indeed, there are many “I’’s” in teamwork. I will share more on that a bit later.

Why Do Senior Leadership Teams Fail?

For the last several years I have been helping senior leadership teams improve their effectiveness, both as a team (collective) and as team members (individual senior leaders). And as it relates to teamwork, these two aspects are central and inseparable.

So while measures around the effectiveness of both are important, a good starting point for understanding the qualities of a high-functioning team of senior executives can also involve an honest analysis of what bad looks like. Having seen my fair share of bad, and notwithstanding those team dysfunctions that are well-researched and well-written about, here are the top three standout reasons why I believe senior leadership teams fail:

The team has an un-shared vision/purpose.

I’ve often heard senior leadership team members readily acknowledge the importance of a shared vision and purpose. But I’m frequently left wondering whether they really believe it. And perhaps more importantly, do their respective behaviors outside the doors of the executive conference room (or Zoom meeting) reflect support and agreement on the shared vision and purpose? For many dysfunctional senior teams, the answer to both those questions is a resounding no.

The whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.

One could argue that the whole point for having a team is to bring exponential (not linear) value to a lofty objective. But when team members fail to join up and collaborate, individual contributions take precedence. Additionally, competition overtakes cooperation, and important interdependencies are either minimized or disregarded entirely.

However, when senior executives work in tandem, the collective effort generates more force and impact than would have been achieved independently. And soon, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

There is distrust among the team.

It’s bad enough that senior executives must continually worry about revenue, profit, shifting markets, competition, and disruptive business forces. But layer on worry about whether your colleagues have your back, and then, well, the wheels start to get really wobbly.

Trust is the glue that holds senior teams together. It is the foundation upon which a great senior leadership team works. But when politics, scheming, and passive-aggressive behavior take hold, distrust takes over and teamwork is doomed.

Recognizing dysfunctions, individual or team, is an important first step. But the real challenge comes with what follows: how to cultivate, develop, and grow a high-functioning senior leadership team. One key to unlocking this challenge is to have deeper insight into individual and team characteristics, traits, and tendencies.

What Does It Take To Be a Successful Member of a Senior Leadership Team?

Measuring capabilities/attributes as it relates to an individual’s orientation toward teamwork is not a difficult task. There is good research on the competencies and personal attributes that support effectiveness in the areas of cooperation, trust, and teamwork. And all these attributes can be measured through various forms of easy-to-implement behavioral assessments or personality instruments.

From a leadership competency perspective, be sure to get a read on areas like collaboration, building relationships, positive approach, authenticity, influence, and building trust. From a personality perspective, leverage instruments that can give insight into an executive team member’s enabling or derailing qualities.

Enabling qualities include attributes like initiating relationships, building rapport, and having a consistent demeanor. Derailing qualities include arrogance, rigidity, and being non-committal or self-promoting. Having perspective on individual executive tendencies is an important step toward creating a high-functioning senior leadership team.

Characteristics of an Effective Senior Leadership Team

For the most complete picture, you should also gather perspective on how the senior team sees its own effectiveness. And a nice way to organize that analysis is from these two angles:

How are we performing as it relates to our team’s practical needs?
How are we doing meeting the personal needs of our team members?

For a senior team’s practical needs to be met there must be:

A Unified Purpose—a common and unified sense of what the team is there to achieve.
Courageous Decision Making—the ability to make effective and courageous decisions that minimize individual and group biases.
Enabling Processes—the processes that allow the team to get things done and move things forward, including communication, issues resolution, and meetings.
Complementary Capabilities—the right mix of skills, knowledge, experiences, and attributes to get things done and deliver on the team’s goals.

Team member personal needs include:

Diverse Contribution—an environment where diversity of view and opinion is encouraged and leveraged.
Emotional Security—a shared belief that individuals can safely express themselves without fear of personal judgment.
Productive Collaboration—the skills to facilitate interactions that maximize group and individual practical and personal needs.
Growth Mindset—a willingness across the team to grow and learn as a group, including learning from mistakes and failures.

How to Build a Senior Leadership Team That Performs and Transforms

Imagine what you can do armed with individual and team data that provides powerful insight into the predilections, tendencies, strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and possibilities of your senior leadership team. Imagine arraying real-time group data that speaks to the team’s dynamics, both at the individual leader and team level.

Now imagine an open, candid, and constructive session focused squarely on what will make the biggest difference for the team going forward. You’ll get insights from this session to answer:

How can we mitigate dysfunctional tendencies?
How can we reconstitute the team’s DNA and fashion a team mosaic that is aligned with individual leader, team, and business needs?
How can we drive needed change?
How will we model accountability?
How do we establish an effective operating rhythm?

And with these questions answered, and a plan for how your executive leadership team should operate for maximum effectiveness, your high-functioning team will be set up to steer your organization toward success.

Commitments Senior Leadership Team Members Should Work and Live By

Remember the “many I’s in team” referenced earlier? Well, here they are in the form of commitments that every team member should work and live by. They’re not particularly hard to remember, do, or demonstrate. But they will, I assure you, lead to a better functioning senior leadership team. Here are some of my favorites:

I will support the decisions of this team, even when I disagree.
I will ensure that all team members contribute ideas and have input when making decisions.
I will understand and accept the role that I play in supporting team goals.
I will deal with conflict in a constructive manner.
I will seek out opinions that are likely to be challenging.
I will continually look for ways to improve the effectiveness of the team.

Teamwork as Business Imperative

For my money, I put the commitments above, as well as the other referenced activities related to building the best complementary senior leadership team, right on par with any decision about corporate strategy or product development. Although rarely have I seen it given equal weight…and it should be.

Because above all, with a highly effective senior team, your organization will be in the best position to grow—both your business and your leadership culture—for the better. And by the way, did I mention, teamwork makes the dream work?

What is Workforce Planning?

Simply put, workforce planning is about forecasting your current and future staffing needs.

First, you work out your strategic business objectives, then address the supply of labour. For example, are there candidates with the skills you require available? The final step is to get the right balance between labour demand and supply so that you have the right number of employees with the right skills at the right time.

Labour Demand Forecasting

Labour demand forecasting is crucial, as businesses don’t want a surplus of employees who are not fully and effectively deployed, nor do they want gaps in their employee pool, resulting in reduced productivity, performance, and profitability.

When business owners are considering labour demand forecasting, their first questions are likely to be:

Where are we going as a business – what is our intended growth in the next 3-5 years (or longer)?
Will we be developing or expanding our services or product range?
What technological advancements may affect what we do, and will this affect our need for differing staffing levels?
What are our absenteeism and turnover rates like?
Do we have sufficient management support to progress our objectives, and will they be behind the plans?

Any changes to the human resources needs within the business should be led by the strategic business plan and the goals for the business – not the other way around.

When undertaking labour demand forecasting, there tend to be two approaches – quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative

The quantitative approach uses various statistical and mathematical methods to determine the needs, including indexation (forecasts determined to one or more fixed organisational indices) or trend analysis (predictions based on the study of past human resource growth). These are often complex and expensive – but a real need, especially for larger organisations.

Qualitative

Small and medium-sized businesses often prefer to rely on qualitative approaches to determine labour demand forecasting. These approaches tend to use experts to select future needs, i.e., employees, managers, and business owners themselves.

Popular qualitative approaches include:

Delphi Technique (uses problem-solving and expert consultation methods in a structured manner); managerial judgement (business owners and managers assess their own labour requirements taking into account factors such as retirements, promotions, new technologies etc.)
Nominal Group Technique (using group processes to compare predictions on the staffing needs for the future)

One of the significant advantages of using qualitative methods, especially with SMEs, is that the techniques used involve the people likely to be affected by any business changes about human resources practices. Therefore, there is expected to be more significant commitment and acceptance of those involved’ policies and procedures. However, one of the downsides is the time and cost of applying employees, managers, and business owners.

Having an HR Consultant on hand, leading the process, and adopting the most appropriate methods to guide businesses through these processes can help forecast future employee needs effectively.

Labour Supply Analysis

Once a business has forecast what its future requirements are likely to be, it is then necessary to determine what number of employees will be needed, what skills and when. Labour supply may come from within the organisation or outside. The first step, therefore, is to do an analysis of the skills currently within the business.

If skills are not available internally, then they may need to be sought externally. Once looking at external factors such as the availability of skills within the job market will be considered significant.

Balancing the Supply and Demand

If a business is short of employees to achieve the business objectives, effective recruitment strategies will need to be devised. Considerations will then relate to job design, career development, flexible work options, remuneration and reward programmes.

If a business has too many employees, effective strategies will need to be created to manage retirements, redundancies, and, if appropriate, dismissals.

In conclusion

Workforce planning is imperative to businesses wanting to plan their growth and limit situations where they are faced with too many or too few employees or the wrong skillsets. In addition, workforce planning can help business owners see how their employees (by forecasting staff with specific skills) can help them achieve their strategic business objectives.

Conclusions Re the 7 Senior Royals.

I heard recently that the figure might be 11 Working Royals. My thoughts in bullet point form are as follows:-

Pulling people together initially by order of succession to the throne, then random people who are much further down in the line of Succession have been added because there are insufficient numbers within the British Royal family who are senior Royals.
No other Senior Royal including the Monarch ever believed that Prince Harry would leave with his family. The hope was (and it has been stated publicly by more than one Royal Reporter) that it was dhope that Meghan would reach breaking point and she would leave. Clearly the Spare is meant to take the abuse himself, like all the spares of the history of the BRF , and be the Whipping Boy and the Work Horse for the all the rest, and not to be credited for his efforts. Cruelty and arrogance combined led to the January 2020 statement where Prince Harry stated he and Meghan were stepping back from Senior Royal duties; this after months of conversations with the Firm, and nothing ever being agreed, and still no doubt believing they would be able to hang on to Harry. March 2020 the Sussexes left the UK.
March 2021 the 12 month review that only the Royal family had any belief that Harry would return, ended. It was their supposed olive branch for the Sussexes to return, in reality they only wanted Harry to return, and there was no way he would bring his family back into that abusive environment, and subject his children to be the Whipping Boy/Girl role for any of the other senior Royals children.
April 2021 to date – a whole industry of targeted and incitement of hate against the Sussexes, particularly Meghan has grown on the foundation of hate filled articles and interviews on UK media and in printed form from 2016. Now it is clear that there are substantial resources behind it all, and that there are people paid to post negative things on social media platforms – literally every few minutes. The social media platforms themselves also benefit hugely from the hate filled engagements, therefore the incentive is not high to stop this practice, as shareholders benefit too.
Sept 2022 The Queen passes.
October 2022 King Charles declares that he is slimming down the Monarchy. A whole two years after The Sussexes left the UK. People lined up and all is meant to be right with the world. It is no better than picking 7 randoms off the street. The whole spectacle was lack lustre and did the complete opposite of depicting a dynamic and eager and competent group moving forward. The only people that matter to the Firm are the now King and the next in Line of Succession. All the rest are window dressing, masquerading as ‘working’ Royals. The actual level of expenditure will not fall, because rhe cost from the public purse encompasses all the Royals we the taxpayer pays for, whether they are working or not. Moving pieces around a Crown Monopoly list of properties, does not reduce the Bill unless they are moving to smaller accommodation, which rarely happens. By bringing some of the family who stayed in the background most of the time, out of the cobwebs and send them here and there now and then, will add more expenses to the public purse. The two that do next to nothing anyway, will continue on the same path. After 20 years of operating that way, very little will change, and if anything, even less will be said about it, because one of the two is next in the Line of Succession. It is a known fact that lies will be told to protect the next in Line, and the same goes without saying for the Monarch. What little output was produced before, will certainly be reduced in the future, following on from the outputs results since March 2020 following the exit of The Sussexes.
Over 70 % of the 7 are of pensionable age or very near. That is not workforce planning. That is not succession planning. Those 7 will not be able to, or want to, cover all those charities listed as being Royal Patronages.
1000+ years of practice and history, and all the senior Royals and the freeloaders on the taxpayers payroll have not got a clue. They plan to do nothing differently, just that 7 of them will have more photo opportunities than previously. Slimmed down Monarchy does not mean it is cheaper.

The BRF seems as if it is going to continue as it has always done. Ie doing what they want to do and when they want to do it. Just a few soundbite phrases will be used to indicate that they are being thrifty somehow.

The official photo of the King and his Consort, and the next in Line and his Consort, gave anything but hope for the future. The current King has not started off well, and the absolute power has gone to his head. He will not be UK Monarch for long – he is far from healthy. The next in Line and his partner are just waiting for another title and the power that comes with it. There will be no extra work from them, and they already had low figures for engagements for years, and one visit to one place, can and was often recorded as more than one work engagement, to make those figures look slightly better.

The BRF had 40 years to start wondering how they would manage in the future. Instead, William was allowed a half in half out arrangement when he and Catherine got married. 2^nd in Line to the throne, and he was allowed to do that for almost 20 years. Both come across as the most insincere people when they speak, and they always looked bored or manic on their visits. I have zero faith in either the current or the future Monarch. I am not alone.

Note how Harry, who was further down the Line of Succession, was refused a half in half out arrangement – out of pure vindictiveness – but the Royal family played themselves and lost, because it was the best thing for the Sussexes. No ties with that institution. Freedom.

Not even the Royal Reporters write about the BRF every day, because they earn less from them, such is the lack of interest from the public in the UK (even from the 77% of over 65s) and even less outside of the UK. They are more interested in negativity towards The Sussexes, particularly Meghan. No doubt following the BRF itself, and its media who write on average 5 articles an hour on the Sussexes every day. One reporter who every article of his since 2016 has been vile towards Meghan, admitted in writing in his rag, that The Sussxes “have been golden for them”, because of the money they earn from writing hateful things about them. What the BRF should be concerned about, that despite having its own propaganda team, the propaganda team earn more by writing about a couple who are not working Royals, and no longer live in the UK, and the UK tabloids have no access to them for any story. Tells you all you need to know about the content, and writing lies or truth about the actual Royal family does not interest the public. Where there is news to be reported on some very shady activities, the tabloid via their invisible contract, wont touch those stories. They much prefer to harass people and destroy them in any way possible, including death, because it all pays the bills. That is the type of media the UK has now, and works hand in glove with the UK Monarchy. A government in complete disarray and also has form for shady activities over the years. Yes, the Britain is far from Great, and the way it is going, it wont even be the UK for very long. Let the people of the UK freeze and use candles to get by, and watch raw sewage flow freely into a waterways, increasing numbers of people homeless and sleeping on benches in seaside towns in particular, including pensioners. The UK has the highest number of Food Banks of any developed country, but all the high profile media networks, printed and televised, wake up each morning and only have a problem with a bi racial woman who valued herself, and walked away from what many in the UK covet, ie a life in the Royal family. Well, like so many walks of life in the UK, certain spaces are not welcoming to people of colour, unless you remain silent, and accept all that is thrown at you, and smile sweetly, and be so grateful to be allowed to occupy that space. If you are really good, you receive an honour, which has invisible puppet strings to guide you in certain directions in the future when needed, but the next day, they wont shake your hand or stand too close to you. Yea the UK is on life support. Thank goodness that the Sussexes and their children are free from that toxic life. All the haters have similar characteristics and lifestyles, and eventually their health will be affected by all the hate inside of themselves. No ones health improves when you spend every waking moment hating someone, and dreaming up targetted hate income generating activity to keep going. When that fails one day, the fall will be quick, and the health will nosedive.

Sussex Squad don’t have those kind of issues. We are fine. Love and positivity never puts you in a hospital bed, but hatred will do just that one day.

Peace and love.

Ivy Barrow

231022

Reference Sources

https://www.statista.com/statistics/863893/support-for-the-monarchy-in-britain-by-age/#:~:text=Although%20the%20British%20monarchy%20is%20supported%20by%20a,opting%20instead%20for%20an%20elected%20head%20of%20state.

https://www.republic.org.uk/

https://www.marketingstudyguide.com/new-products-fail/

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/product-launch-checklist

https://altitudemarketing.com/blog/product-launch-steps/

https://www.paddle.com/resources/product-launch-strategy

https://presentationpanda.com/blog/how-to-present-to-senior-management/

https://ilcuk.org.uk/the-longevity-of-the-royal-family/