Creating Value In Schools
Benedicte Yue is Chief Financial Officer at River Learning Trust, as well as an ISBL fellow and trustee, and winner of the inaugural MAT Excellence Award for CFO of the Year. This is an extract from our longer conversation, 'Keep sight of your North Star: navigating the school business landscape'. I was new to finance in a CFO role at River Learning Trust when I started in 2019. The sector was in a challenging financial position after a decade of real term cuts. Some trusts, like ours, had growing pains, having taken on a lot of sponsored schools quite quickly. So the first job was to set up recovery plans and bring forward the budgeting process, introduce integrated curriculum financial planning, improve the reporting, train the governors as well. And since the pandemic, high inflation, with costs increasing faster than funding, declining pupil numbers, and a broken SEND system have made the context even more challenging, which requires really robust financial management. It's important to have a clear strategy and operating model So during my time, I have seen the role evolving as the sector is maturing. We are seeing functions like finance and HR moving away from transactional administrative roles to more strategic roles as organisations grow. But this is also thanks to the evolution of technology. So in my area, for example, automation allowed us to streamline a lot of the transactional activity, go paperless, electronic approval, Google forms, invoice matching and so on. We can get data in real time now, which is giving us the ability to refocus very quickly. We can integrate information from different sources: education data, HR data, quantitative as well as qualitative data from services, which really helps to build a holistic picture of what's happening and inform decisions. So technology has also helped to anticipate and predict a lot more; predictive analytics is really helpful. So all this helps with workload and releasing time for strategic thinking, but also for human relationships. Where we were able to turn things around is when we had strong leadership and alignment at all levels If I had to pick some of the lessons learned through that process, well, there are lots of lessons learned. But firstly I would say you need to be very clear about what you want to achieve. It's important to have a clear strategy and operating model, so you have the organisational wiring to support your ambitions. There are different models with more or less autonomy, but in all cases, you need to know what you want to achieve, and especially when you don't have enough resources, you need to be able to strategically allocate your resources. Good planning is key, so you can anticipate. The more you anticipate, the more you avoid difficult decisions. You also need to look at different strategic horizons. Having a strategy also helps central alignment and coherence; you can avoid chaos if everybody's aligned around the same vision. It unites people. It really helps to build your culture. We don't prescribe, we propose. The other important thing is people. Probably one of the most important things, particularly leadership. So you can have the best system, the best processes, but it's all about people and about leadership. In our schools, where we were able to turn things around is when we had strong leadership and alignment at all levels. So, the very important message here is really to develop your people. The other concept I've learned and really value in this sector particularly, is the importance of agency. It's a human need. So don't micromanage people. Tell them what you want to achieve, but let them decide how. Replace instructions with information that will give them some ownership and motivation. When leaders can stimulate healthy debate, it fosters creativity and innovation In our schools, for example, when we go through a deficit recovery plan, we empower our school, we give them options. We use our expertise to give those options, and we tell them the impact, but we let them decide and adapt to their context. We don't prescribe, we propose. The other important thing I think is working together, teamwork and mutual respect. There is, I think in our world, there is so much complexity these days that people at the top cannot do everything. So the idea that one person has all the answers is no longer adequate to the challenges we are facing today. So problems are more complex. They come at us a lot faster, and if decisions are left to one person, it can be a bottleneck for speed and scale. So getting people from multidisciplinary teams also helps to build a holistic picture of a problem and create solutions. And working together allows us to build on a wider pool of expertise. I really believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so when leaders can stimulate healthy debate, it fosters creativity and innovation. It creates a marketplace of ideas, from which a portfolio of alternatives emerges. And the role of a leader is really to facilitate that debate. I heard Sarah Furness (former helicopter pilot in the RAF) saying that great minds don't necessarily think alike, but it needs to be done in a safe environment. People need to be a little stretched to be able to grow The other advice is really to look outside the box. I like Leora Cruddas' excellent analogy: if you're having an operation, you wouldn't want your surgeon to work autonomously. You want him to be part of a community of best practice and use the latest technology available. So it's really a message to encourage collaboration. Then, you need psychological safety to help your people grow as well – though I feel the concept of psychological safety is sometimes misused. I think you need, as a leader, to promote divergent thinking and to foster healthy challenge. People need to be a little stretched to be able to grow, and the way to do that is to try and delegate slightly beyond their comfort zone. And I think once you realize you cannot achieve your goals alone, you have a very different relationship with people. Another thing I’ve learned (I’ve learned a lot of things!) is to be really informed by data and evidence, and stop being anecdotal, but use the tools we have these days to inform our decisions. But also: be very careful in picking your measures of success to drive the right behaviours, not to be obsessed by input measures, for example looking at the cost of things. Instead, really look at what you value, and measure what you value – and not what you can measure. And focus on impact rather than processes. Processes are definitely important, but you should never lose track of the impact that what you're doing is having. Leadership style is also important. When I started in 2019, I was given Imperfect Leadership, the book by Steve Munby, and there is a whole chapter about power and love. I think leadership, it's about always trying to find that right balance between power and love. You need to lead and drive with determination, but you also need to have empathy and take people with you on that journey. If you are driven by values, you never get it wrong Context matters. That's another important thing that I have learned. It's all about communities, and bottom up as well, rather than top down. I don’t think we should always expect things to come from the top, especially from the government when they have no money. So, it's not a reason not to do anything. And a political agenda is often pulled by short-term impacts. So I think what matters and a lot of the problems are in our communities, and I think we have a lot of agency to start initiatives from the bottom. It's not a race for growth. I think growth is a means, not an end. So we have to be very careful to grow sustainably and with authenticity and moral purpose, and never lose sight of your moral compass. I think if you are driven by values, you never get it wrong. And what I always say to my children: be kind as well. Be kind in that world, and give and share, with the system. So that would be my main advice from my journey at the River Learning Trust. Listen to the full conversation with Benedicte Yue on the Creating Value in Schools podcast.
For more reading recommendations, check out the Creating Value in Schools bookshop. Note that if you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.Top takeaways
Pressures in an evolving system
Time and technology
What do you want to achieve?
People, agency and teamwork
Foster healthy debate
Measure what you value
Empathy, context and communities
