Chris Batt Consultancy
Chris Batt
CHRIS BATT OBE
Until September 2007 Chris Batt was Chief Executive of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), the Government’s development agency for the sector where a wide range of programmes were delivered. After its creation in 2000 the MLA had a pivotal role in many aspects of cultural heritage ICT strategy.
Chris originally joined national government to lead the implementation of the highly successful £170m People’s Network project and while in the role of MLA CEO he continued to lead involvement in digital futures strategy.
Since 2007, as a director of Chris Batt Consulting Ltd Chris has undertaken research projects for the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) on the scoping of audience engagement in online service design, the creation of a wiki-based guide to all aspects of public content digitisation and a study assessing the value of university engagement with the public in the creation and curation of digital resources.
Other projects and speaking engagements have been undertaken in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Flanders, the Netherlands, Iceland, the European Commission and, of course in the UK. Clients have included from national governments (input to the New Zealand National Digital Strategy) to regional and municipal agencies (State of Queensland, Kommune of Trondheim) and in the UK agencies such as the Oxford Internet Institute and the National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education.
In 1998 he was awarded the OBE for his groundbreaking work in developing public ICT services and in 2003 he was voted Sunday Times Internet Guru of the Year. Chris is a Life Fellow of CILIP and a Fellow of the RSA. He is currently studying for a PhD at University College London on the modelling of public knowledge systems in the information society.
INTERNATIONALLY-RECOGNISED DIGITAL FUTURES STRATEGIST
Advising organisations and governments on future development options. Alongside guidance to Government departments, contributions have been made to the New Zealand National Digital Strategy, the work of the Canadian Heritage Information Network and to global policy options through the Digital Cultural Content Forum that brings experts together each year from across the globe to explore strategic challenges. Advice is now being provided to the JISC Strategic Content Alliance to develop methodologies for assessing audience impact of new digital services.
MOTIVATIONAL PUBLIC SPEAKER
Speaking engagements have ranged across North America, almost every European country, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan. In addition to presenting inspirational messages are the skills of facilitation: as conference rapporteur, to absorb the views and opinions and play them back within a coherent frame of reference – a skill honed as rapporteur at European Commission and British Council conferences where the ‘diplomacy of inclusion’ is crucial. Chris Batt is also an influential writer on digital futures in the delivery of public services.
PUBLIC POLICY DEVELOPMENT
Over 20 years experience in cultural heritage and learning policy development, within local authorities, nationally at MLA and internationally as an adviser to the European Commission. Significant involvement at national policy and political levels.
ORGANISATION TRANSFORMATION
Organisational transformation requires first and foremost a clear sense of destination that is shared by all involved, whether senior manager, parent organisation or front-line worker. Without leadership to achieve agreement at the outset and without the right balance of direction and participation during the processes of change the destination will not be reached.
Chris Batt is a highly experienced and successful transformational change manager bringing together the skills of organisation behaviour and management learned through academic study with the rich pragmatic experiences from working in and running complex organisations.
During the nine-year period leading a department in the London Borough of Croydon it evolved from a small Libraries Department to a large integrated directorate embracing eight different cultural and heritage services.
At MLA, first as an interim CEO and then as a permanent appointment the task was the complete re-invention of the ten organisations that formed MLA into the MLA Partnership. Re-organising completely governance arrangements, executive roles and responsibilities and the core mission of those ten organisations. It is hard to imagine a more fundamental process of organisational transformation calling for rapid action to achieve sustained change and development over a three-year period. The outcome has produced a fit-for-purpose and successful Partnership that will continue to evolve.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Successful project management at local and national levels. In Croydon the development of the Croydon Clocktower called for joint leadership of the Council’s development team, working with all aspects of the project to produce an award-winning build and portfolio of cultural resources that remain, fifteen years later, highly successful.
Nationally, responsibility for the management of the Lottery-funded People’s Network project, the largest single investment made by government ever made in the public library service involved the creation of a project team, the building of new means of assessing service need and implementing major change in 210 library services. A £170m project delivered on time and under budget.
PROBLEM SOLVING
Success in long-term transformational change and large-scale project management is not achieved without highly effective problem solving skills. Based on extensive experience it is clear that good problem solving calls for clarity of destination/outcome, the ability to ‘deconstruct’ the problem as presented into manageable elements and then to engage those directly involved in working out what is the most practical way forward. It also calls for the ability to know when ‘quick thinking’ is needed.